Who is a Data Scientist? What Skills do they Require to Possess?

Do you wonder who is a data scientist? Data scientists are a new class of analytical data specialist who has the technical skills to resolve complex problems moreover the interest to search what obstacles want to be solved.They may be a mathematician, computer scientist and also one who observes the trends. As they balance both the market and IT realms, they are high on demand and well-paid.

Data scientists were not in news or were not a familiar term a decade ago, but their swift popularity shows how businesses now consider big data. That unmanageable mass of unstructured data can no longer be neglected and disregarded.It’s a virtual treasure that aids to increase revenue. But only when there is someone who finds business insights that no one searched before.

Most of the data scientists that exist today launched their professions as statisticians or data analysts. But as big data including big data storage and processing technologies, for example, Hadoop started to expand and emerge, those positions also rose.

Data is no longer just a review for Information Technology to handle. It’s key information that demands analysis, creative concern and a talent for interpreting high-tech concepts into new ways to utilise to make a profit.

The data scientist position also has academic foundations. Just a few years back, universities understood that employers required people who were computer programmers and team players. Professors twitched their classes to welcome this. Many universities now have programmes to strain out data scientists.

Education

Data scientists are usually highly qualified – Majority of them have at least a Master’s degree or PhDs though there are some exemptions, a very robust educational background is normally needed to improve the depth of knowledge needed to be a data scientist.

To grow as a data scientist, you could obtain a Bachelor’s degree in Computer science, Social sciences, Physical sciences, and Statistics.The most typical domains of study are Mathematics and Statistics, supported by Computer Science and Engineering.

A degree in any of these areas will give you the skills you need to prepare and interpret big data. This may not be enough, they usually undertake online training to acquire a special skill like Hadoop or Big Data querying.

R Programming

The expertise of at least one of these analytic tools, for data science R is usually favoured. R is specially created for data science requirements. You can use R to resolve any obstacle you face in data science. Most of the data scientists are using R to solve statistical problems.

However, R has an abrupt learning curve.It is tough to learn particularly if you already learned a programming language. But, there are great resources to get you ignited in R.

Technical Skills Required to Become a Data Scientist

Python Coding

Python is of the common coding language needed in data science roles, along with Java, Perl, or C/C++. Researches show that most of the data scientists use Python as their major programming language.

As it is versatile, you can use Python for nearly all the steps required in data science processes. It can take different formats of data and you can quickly import SQL tables into your code. It enables you to build datasets and you can actually obtain any type of dataset you require on Google.

Hadoop Platform

This is not like a mandatory requirement instead, it is preferred in many instances. Having exposure to Hive or Pig is also a great selling point. Experience with cloud tools such as Amazon S3 can also be useful. Apache Hadoop is the second most valuable skill for a data scientist.

As a data scientist, you may find a circumstance where the volume of data you have surpasses the memory of your system or you want to send data to various servers, this is when Hadoop gets its importance. You can utilise Hadoop to convey data quickly to different points on a system. Also, you can use Hadoop for data sampling, data investigation, data filtration, and summarization.

SQL Database/Coding

Though NoSQL and Hadoop have grown as a large part of data science, it is still required that a candidate should be able to write and perform complex queries in SQL. SQL knowledge is required to carry out operations like add, delete and extract data from a database. It can also support you to carry out analytical functions and modify database structures.

You need to be an expert in SQL as a data scientist. This is because SQL is specifically designed to help introduction, communicate and work on data. It gives insights when you use it to query a database.

It has compact commands that can help you to save time and reduce the amount of programming you have to perform queries. Mastering SQL will help you to better know relational databases and raise your profile as a data scientist.

Apache Spark

Apache Spark is maturing as the most current big data technology worldwide. It is a big data computation framework similar to Hadoop. The only distinction is that Spark is quicker than Hadoop. This is why Hadoop reads and writes to disk, which makes it delayed, but Spark stores its computations in memory.

Apache Spark is particularly meant for data science to assist run its complex algorithm faster. It helps in distributing data processing when you are administering huge data thus saving time. It also helps data scientist to manage complex unstructured data collections. You can utilise it on one machine or cluster of machines.

Apache spark makes it feasible for data scientists to limit the loss of data in data science. The power of Apache Spark prevails in its momentum and platform which makes it simple to carry out data science projects. With Apache spark, you can perform analytics from data intake to disseminating computing.

AI and Machine Learning

A huge number of data scientists are not skilled in machine learning areas and methods. This involves reinforcement learning, neural networks, adversarial learning, etc. If you desire to stand out from other data scientists, you should necessitate knowing Machine learning techniques, for instance, logistic regression, supervised machine learning, decision trees, etc.

These skills will help you to resolve different data science problems that are based on the prognostications of important organizational results. Data science needs the application of skills in several areas of machine learning.

A small percentage of data scientists who are competent with skills like Natural language processing, Supervised machine learning, Unsupervised machine learning, Recommendation engines, Time series, Outlier detection, Computer vision, Survival analysis, Adversarial learning, and Reinforcement learning. Data science includes working with large amounts of data sets.

Data Visualization

The world of business generates a vast amount of data every now and then. This data needs to be turned into a format that is effortless to grasp. People naturally follow pictures in forms of charts and graphs better than raw data.

Data scientists must be clever to conceive data with the help of data visualization tools such as d3.js, ggplot, Matplottlib and Tableau. These tools will help you to transform complex outcomes from your projects to a format that will be simple to comprehend.

But a lot of people do not know serial correlation or p values. So, you require to show them visually what those terms describe in your results.Data visualization gives companies the chance to work with data directly. They can instantly grasp insights that will serve them to act on new market openings and stay ahead of opponents.

Unstructured data

It is important that a data scientist be prepared to work with unstructured data. Unstructured data are limitless content that does not fit into database tables. For instance social media posts, videos, blog posts, customer reviews, video feeds, audio etc. They are all heavy data aggregated together.

Classing this type of data is hard because they are not streamlined. Some experts related unstructured data as ‘dark analytics” due to its complexity. Working with unorganised data encourages you to untangle insights that can be beneficial for the conclusion.

Non-Technical Skills Required to Become a Data Scientist

Curiosity to learn more and more

Curiosity can be described as the urge to obtain more information. As a data scientist, you want to be ready to ask questions about data because data scientists contribute most of their time exploring and developing data. This is why data science field is a profession that is emerging very fast and you have to study more to keep up with the speed.

You need to constantly refresh your knowledge by reading trends in data science. Curiosity is one of the skills you need to achieve as a data scientist. For instance, in the beginning, you may not see much insight into the data you have accumulated. Curiosity will equip you to sift through the data to find clues and deeper insights.

Business intelligence

a deep understanding of the industry is a must, and also business problems your company is striving to resolve. In terms of data science, being able to recognise which obstacles are necessary to solve for the business is crucial, an extension to knowing new ways the business should be leveraging its data.

Communication

Corporations searching for a strong data scientist are scanning for someone who can precisely and fluently explain their technical findings to a non-technical team, for instance, the Marketing or Sales departments. A data scientist must empower the business to make choices by providing them with clear insights, in addition to learning the requirements of their non-technical colleagues in order to inform the data appropriately.

Along with talent to speak the same language the company knows, you also need to converse by applying data storytelling. Using storytelling will help you to accurately describe your conclusions to your employers.

Teamwork

A data scientist needs a good team. If you are one, you will have to work with company officials to develop policies, work product managers and designers to create better products, operate with marketers to propel better-converting campaigns, work with client and server software developers to build data pipelines and enhance workflow. You actually will have to operate with everyone in the company, and also with your clients and customers.

Basically, you will be co-operating with your team members to improve real experiences in order to understand the business goals and data that will be needed to solve problems. You will need to know the right way to address the use cases, the data that is required to solve the problem and how to interpret and manifest the result into what can simply be understood by everyone concerned.

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