Who is a Statistician?

In this article, we will discuss who is statistician, its roles and responsibilities, skills required to become a statistician, and many more.

Statisticians are professional who applies statistical or mathematical methods to real-world problems. They are concerned with collecting, analysing, interpreting, and presenting data to help make business decisions.

They are in demand across various industries because businesses realizes how valuable data-driven decision-making is. Statisticians collect the data through surveys, experiments or opinion polls. However, statistician uses sample data for analysis rather than whole (population) data.

Sometimes statisticians are clubbed with data scientists, but their roles differ. As a statistician, you have to design experiments, conduct and develop surveys, and create estimates. In contrast, as a data scientist, you have to find the problem statement, create a process for the problem and present the result to the stakeholders.

In this article, we will discuss the roles and responsibilities of statistician, what skills should statistician have, how to become a statistician in India, top institutes that offers statistics in India.

So, without further delay, let’s explore the article.

What are the Responsibilities of a Statistician?

The roles and responsibilities of statisticians vary from industry to industry.

Example: If you are working with an organization that is working with political parties for their election campaign, then you have to understand the voter’s behaviour, support of the candidates who need tickets, local issues etc.

While if you are working with the country’s finance department, you have to focus on the total revenue collected, expected expenditure throughout the year, budget allocation, etc.

Regardless of whether a statistician is working for a Private or Public institute,

Some of their primary jobs include:

• Refer to previous instances and findings to determine the ideal method for gathering data.
• Research problems and determine the data required to answer specific questions and problems.
• Create surveys, questionnaires and polls to collect the necessary information.
• Train assistants and other members of the team on how to properly organize findings and read data collected.
• Prepare detailed reports for management and other departments by analyzing and interpreting data.
• Define and utilize statistical methods to solve industry-specific problems in fields such as economics and engineering.
• Compare and analyze provided statistical information to identify patterns, relationships and problems.
• Apply sampling techniques to determine and define ideal categories to be questioned effectively.

What skills should a Statistician have?

To be a successful statistician, you must have advanced technical, communication and leadership skills.

Technical Skills

A statistician must have excellent command over the programming languages like R/ SAS/Python/Tableau/Hadoop/SQL. They must clearly understand statistical tools and algorithms for detecting patterns and anomalies in data.

• R Programming
  • It is an open-source programming language.
  • The software environment for statistical computing and graphics.
  • Provides effective data handling and storage facility.
• Python
  • Free and open-source programming language.
  • Interpreted high-level, general-purpose programming language.
  • Easy portable, a vast library and community support
• MATLAB
  • It stands for Matrix Laboratory.
  • Programming and numeric computing platform
  • A vast range of applications in deep learning, machine learning, image and video processing, control system etc.
• SAS
  • Software for information management, advanced analytics and reporting
  • Largest independent vendor in Business Analytics
  • Most commonly used software in the Indian industry despite its price monopoly.
• Tableau
  • Visual analytics platform
  • It helps to create interactive charts and dashboards by simple drag and drop.
  • It doesn’t require any coding skills.

Analytical Problem-Solving Skills

A statistician is expected to identify complex, challenging problems and apply suitable approaches to maximise time and human resources.

Communication Skills

Communication skills are always important when you are working in any organization. As statisticians possess strong mathematical or statistical skills, they must also have strong communication skills to present or explain their findings. This includes both verbal and written and the ability to present the data in easy to understanding way.  Your data findings can only be useful when translated into proper business opportunities.

How to become a Statistician in India?

In India, to be a statistician, there is a simple track to follow:

• Class-12 (Science or Commerce)
• Graduation (BSc/ BSc (Hons.), BA (math or stats))
• Post Graduation (MSc/ MSc (Hons.), MA (math or stats))
• PhD

Note:

1. Post-graduation and doctorate are optional.
2. Indian Statistical Institute offers part-time certificate courses in Statistical Quality control.

Top Institutes offering statistics courses in India

• Indian Statistical Institute (ISI)
  
  • India’s best and premium institute for statistics
  • 5 centres across India – Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, and Tezpur
  • ISI offers various undergraduate, postgraduate, diploma and certificate courses

• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
  
  • As a premium institute in all fields, IITs offer quality mathematics and statistical courses.
  • Almost all the IITs offer excellent teaching and research in mathematical science and train computational scientists working on challenging problems.
  • The placement of students in the MSc programme is almost 100%
    
• St. Stephen’s College (Delhi University)
  
  • One of the oldest colleges of Delhi University
  • The college offers various mathematical and statistical courses like multivariate calculus, probability, and statistics.
  • USP of the college is their expert faculties who have done research from the prestigious university of the world like Oxford, Princeton Texas, IITs, IISc

• St. Xavier’s College Kolkata
  
  • Founded in 1860, the Department of Statistics started in the late fifties.
  • The college offers various courses in insurance, finance, risk management etc.
  • Strong alumni support, working across the globe