Interested in data analytics? Make a career as a Data Scientist

Looking for a career in Data Analytics? Get complete details on the course and skills required to become Data Scientist.

Do you love puzzles and mysteries?  Are you perceptive, intuitive, curious, inquisitive and irritatingly persistent? Do you have an affinity for numbers? Well if you answered 'yes' to all this, you’re in luck because these interests could just propel you into the hottest career this century – that of a data scientist. Indeed, data analytics and big data have become more than just buzzwords in the business world. Today information is the heart and soul of a company and what they choose to do with this information can either make or break them.

This data age is sure to last a long long while. The International Data Corporation (IDC) has forecasted revenues for the global big data technology market reaching $23.8 billion by 2016. This will be the result of an annual growth rate of 31.7 % which is a staggering sevenfold of the rate of the entire ICT market. In India, the industry is predicted to grow 60 times in the next 10 years. Though the demand for data scientists is at an all-time high, the sad truth is that there is just not enough skilled data professionals out there to fulfil this demand. In India for every hundred data scientists needed we have only twenty.

But what exactly do data scientists do? How are they different from more traditional business analysts? Well simply put a data scientist not only looks at data from a single source but instead sifts through all incoming data from multiple sources and discovers hidden insights. She then communicates these insights to the various stakeholders in creative and visually appealing ways, so that decisions can be made that influence and impact the business favourably.

Broadly speaking, to begin a career as a data scientist, you need an advanced degree in a scientific discipline like Statistics, Mathematics or one of the Sciences and a strong technical background. You also need to develop deep expertise in diverse analytical tools like SAS, Hadoop and R. It’s also beneficial to have had previous exposure to working with large amounts of data, preferably even some data mining algorithms.

Even if you feel you are not cut out to be a hardcore data scientist, it would be wise to become data savvy. Such is the power of data today that it mandates all managers no matter if they are in HR or Marketing, Finance or Operations, to understand, interpret and act on data. In fact, today’s generation of successful business leaders is those that inculcate a data-driven culture within their organizations. They use their combined data science and management skills to make better decisions that give their businesses that crucial competitive advantage.

Today even global and Indian employers hiring MBAs have an added selection criterion. They expect their new recruits to demonstrate and prove their data analysis skills during the recruitment process itself. The candidate that can show that they have the experience or skills to analyse, manage and make use of the data at hand is increasingly the one that is selected.

The monetary predictions for a Data Scientist are as exciting as the growth of the industry. In India, Data scientists get at least a 30% to 40% premium in compensation benefits when compared with colleagues in IT, with entry level data analysts earning as much as 12 laks per annum. Jigsaw Academy’s Salary and Placement Report 2013 which highlights salaries earned by analytics professionals across India shows that analytical professionals in Mumbai are paid up to 11.49 lakh, followed by Bangalore with an average salary of 11.34 lakh, Gurgaon at 10.42 lakh and Pune at 9.88 lakh. 

So if you are wondering just how to go about picking up some analytics skills, the best way to get started would be to go online and access the numerous free resources available online. Join data analytics groups on LinkedIn, communities like Data Science Central and AnalyticBridge, connect with those in the industry and keep abreast of the latest tools and technologies in data analytics. When researching certifications and programs in data analytics look for those that have strong partnerships with companies in the data analytics industry and those that give you the opportunity to practice on real data sets. You will also find quite a few distance education, online programs and training courses that offer excellent data analytics training. Analytics India Magazine has an informative list of Top Analytics Training Institutes in India that is a good start off point. Go on then, become data savvy. You don’t want to get left behind!

About the author:

Sarita Digumarti

Sarita Digumarti has a masters degree in Quantitative Economics, from Tufts University, Boston and is one of Jigsaw Academy’s experts in business analytics training. Sarita has over 10 years of extensive analytics training and consulting experience across diverse domains including FMCG, retail and healthcare. She has worked in both India and the US, helping clients tackle complex business problems by applying analytical techniques