Data scientists are among the most reputed professions in the tech world. There are millions of students and young professionals aspiring to become a data scientist. And the good thing is that the data science industry has huge opportunities for everyone. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has predicted around 17,700 new data science jobs available every year. So, the only thing question is – are you ready with the right data science skills and expertise to ace your career in data science?
Well, here let us talk about the top in-demand skills for data scientists and explore how you can gain those skills.
Data Scientists – The Data Magicians
We can definitely consider data scientists as data magicians as they use their skills, knowledge, and expertise to convert raw data into actionable insights and help their organizations make data-driven decisions. They use a variety of tools throughout the data science project lifecycle to ensure efficiency at every stage of the data science process, from data collection to analysis to data visualization.
Here are some important roles and responsibilities of these multidisciplinary data science professionals:
- Identify the right source of data for data collection
- Facilitating data collection process through proper algorithms
- Cleaning and processing data for analysis
- Exploratory data analysis, finding trends and patterns
- Creating attractive and visually appealing reports using data visualization tools to communicate the findings to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Assist stakeholders and decision-makers with data-driven decision-making.
So, what skills do you need to accomplish these tasks effectively?
Most in-demand data scientist skills
Core technical-skills
- Cloud computing
We have ranked cloud computing skills at the top because now more and more organizations are shifting towards the cloud infrastructure because of several benefits it offers including scalability and ease of management.
So, if you want to become a modern-day data scientist, then you must be good at managing assets in the cloud. You should be able to store and retrieve data as and when required. You need to know how to manage servers, storage, and databases on the cloud.
- Statistics and probability
Now come to the most important and mandatory data science skill – statistics and probability. Once you start your career in data science, you will be working with data, algorithms, and a variety of machine learning tools. The knowledge of statistics and probability is needed to build machine learning algorithms and predictive data science models.
These skills will also help you predict trends and make forecasts. In fields like cybersecurity, you can also assist in detecting anomalies.
- Programming
You need to be proficient in different programming languages such as Python, R, SQL, etc. These are necessary to perform a variety of data science tasks including data cleaning, analysis, and visualization. Start by familiarizing yourself with the most popular programming language Python, and learn its various libraries used for data science including TensorFlow, Matplotlib, Pandas, etc.
As your proficiency increases, try other programming languages like R (great for statistical analysis) and SQL (used for managing databases).
- Machine learning
Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence and is widely used across all kinds of data science models. It has the ability to learn by itself from its database without explicitly programming them. By using machine learning, data scientists can collect and analyze data more efficiently and can make excellent data science models or predictive models.
You will be using advanced algorithms and models like decision trees, random forest, linear regression, etc. to accomplish your work.
- Data Visualization
After all the hard work and all the data cleaning, processing, and analysis, data scientists get valuable insights that can assist the stakeholders and decision-makers make data-driven decisions. However, it is important that the insights are properly conveyed to them. This is where data visualization comes into play. The key decision-makers may be technical and non-technical. So, with the help of data visualization and effective story-telling methods, you can convey your findings, trends, and actionable insights properly to them.
Soft Skills
Apart from these core technical skills, you master also gain some non-technical interpersonal skills including:
- Communication skills
- Collaboration skills
- Analytical thinking
- Problem-solving
- Leadership, etc.
Working on these few skills will help you present a complete package to employers enabling them a hire you quickly.
How to gain these skills
You can gain core technical data science skills through:
- University programs in data science
- Data science certifications and courses
- Boot camps
- Online video tutorials, blogs, forums, etc.
So, start your data science learning now.
Conclusion
Data science is a vast domain and is continuously evolving. So, the data science skills you are learning now may not be relevant after some time. However, the core skills that we discussed above will always make data science what it is. So, if you are determined to make a career in data science, start your data science learning now. Gain top skills, validate them with the best data science certifications, and kick-start your data science career now.
