The number deal

The role of a data scientist is not only to make proficient use of the latest technology to find solutions but also identify problems early on.

November 09, 2014 08:10 pm | Updated 08:10 pm IST

Chief Operating Officer of Automated Insights Scott Frederick types on his office computer which displays some of the automated statistics and news provided online by his company in Washington, DC, July 9, 2012.  The new reporter on the US media scene takes no coffee breaks, churns out articles at lightning speed, and has no pension plan. That's because the reporter is not a person, but a computer algorithm, honed to translate raw data such as corporate earnings reports and previews or sports statistics into readable prose.Algorithms are producing a growing number of articles for newspapers and websites, such as this one produced by Narrative Science: "Wall Street is high on Wells Fargo, expecting it to report earnings that are up 15.7 percent from a year ago when it reports its second quarter earnings on Friday, July 13, 2012," said the article on Forbes.com. While computers cannot parse the subtleties of each story, they can take vast amounts of raw data and turn it into what passes for news, analysts say.          AFP PHOTO/Jim Watson
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Chief Operating Officer of Automated Insights Scott Frederick types on his office computer which displays some of the automated statistics and news provided online by his company in Washington, DC, July 9, 2012. The new reporter on the US media scene takes no coffee breaks, churns out articles at lightning speed, and has no pension plan. That's because the reporter is not a person, but a computer algorithm, honed to translate raw data such as corporate earnings reports and previews or sports statistics into readable prose.Algorithms are producing a growing number of articles for newspapers and websites, such as this one produced by Narrative Science: "Wall Street is high on Wells Fargo, expecting it to report earnings that are up 15.7 percent from a year ago when it reports its second quarter earnings on Friday, July 13, 2012," said the article on Forbes.com. While computers cannot parse the subtleties of each story, they can take vast amounts of raw data and turn it into what passes for news, analysts say. AFP PHOTO/Jim Watson
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Data Science has become a coveted technology domain. Comprising specialised skill-sets like statistics, mathematics, programming and computer science, it involves dealing with multiple elements, techniques and theories in math, statistics, predictive analysis, data modelling, data engineering, data mining and visualisation.

The role of a data scientist is not only to make proficient use of the latest technology to find solutions but also to identify problems early. A recent report by Accenture states that 92 per cent of the companies that were surveyed were satisfied with the business outcome of data analytics while 94 per cent said its implementation met their needs.

The global big data analytics market is estimated to reach $25 billion by 2015 (NASSCOM and CRISIL Global Research and Analytics Report), projecting huge job opportunities for data scientists abroad. The rising usage of big data analytics in businesses across sectors have, in no time, increased the absorption of data scientists in new media, banking and financial services, retail, telecommunication, travel, manufacturing, education, agriculture and energy sectors.

While discrepancy in demand and supply is becoming a pressing employment issue, it is a boon for professionals who wish to specialise as data scientists and work with global corporate houses. The U.S., which has been the largest market for data analytics may, by 2018, face an overall shortage of 1,40,000 to 1,90,000 data scientists and a whopping 1.5 million data scientists at the managerial levels (Mckinsey Global Institute). Again, the next eight years will see a 24 per cent increase in demand for such skills.

Pre-requisites

Innovative; possessing hands-on experience in data mining techniques; an ability to develop operational models and analyse data from multiple sources; perform data conditioning, create visualisations to help understand key trends and communicate effectively with other business analysts, product managers and engineers.

SAS, SPSS analytics, Hadoop and R professionals and statisticians can pursue this field.

Job market

The rising demand for analytics, data mining, and data science professionals has led to a significant jump in salaries with a 12 per cent increase globally, 13 per cent increase in the US/Canada, and 29 per cent increase among the self-employed.

Salaries are highest in the U.S., Australia/NZ, and among self-employed and industry data scientists. A substantial job market is projected in S-E Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam), North Africa and East Europe too.

The author is the co-founder and CEO of Edureka.

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