Data Science Career Opportunities and Future Scope

Data is the new Science. Big Data holds answers.
-Pat Gelsinger

The above statement clearly indicates the importance of data in today’s world. But, the traditional Business Intelligence tools are now unable to handle the increasing amount of data. A large amount of data has brought a revolution worldwide. This data is generated from different sources such as social media, call logs, online portals, financial transactions, etc. A large portion of this collected data is unstructured. The data is increasing continuously with time and there is a requirement of advanced tools and techniques to handle, store, process, and analyze this data. This is why Data Science career has a never-ending scope in the upcoming future.

Such a large amount of data available today can add huge value to each and every industry. Following which more and more industries are welcoming Big Data, AI, and ML for improving their business. As a result, the demand for Data Scientists and other data professionals are increasing. According to the IBM predictions, there will be a 28% increase in the demand for Data Scientists in the year 2020.

data science career opportunities

What is Data Science?

Data Science is a collection of several activities such as data collection, storage, analysis, model building, etc which help industries in making some valuable data-driven decisions to improve their business. Most of the leading companies like Amazon, Facebook, Spotify, etc are using data science technologies. The implementation of Data Science can be seen in recommendation engines, Instagram feed, fingerprint and face recognition used in mobile phones, etc.

Learn in detail What is Data Science?

What does a Data Scientist do?

A Data Scientist is an individual having knowledge of maths, statistics, programming, machine learning, SQL, etc. He needs to handle several activities such as data collection, data storage, data preparation, data manipulation, data analysis, data visualization, etc. Apart from all the technical skills, Data Scientists should have good communication skills for telling a story with the data while communicating his findings and other results to the stakeholders. They prepare models relevant to the data for making accurate predictions which will help the organizations in planning better strategies.

Data Science Career Opportunities

data science future

Data Scientist is a highly paid career and the demand for Data Scientists is increasing continuously. All of us know at least something about the term Data Scientist as it is a buzzword nowadays. But there are several other career options related to data. All industries whether it be technical or non-technical including the government are welcoming skilled data professionals for utilizing the increasing amount of data available in the market. Let us take a sneak peek into the various job titles related to Data Science which can be a career option for you.

  • Business Intelligence Developer
  • Data Architect / Data Engineer
  • Database Administrator
  • Data and Analytics Manager
  • Data Analyst
  • Big Data Engineer
  • Data Scientist
  • Machine Learning Engineer
  • Statistician
  • Business Analyst

Each of these job roles requires a specific skill set and training. All these professionals play a very important role in extracting meaningful insights from the data for various organizations.

Why Become Data Scientist?

why become data scientist

Let’s have a look at some of the factors which ensure a bright and promising future of Data Science.

1. Companies facing problems in handling the data

All the companies keep a check on the various activities of their customers and regularly collect the data. But when it comes to analyzing, processing, and storing this collected data, it becomes a challenging task for the companies. For overcoming this problem, the companies are looking for skilled Data Science professionals who can help them to cope up with this. The proper management and analysis of this data can help the industries to improve their productivity and revenue generation.

2. Data Science is an ever-growing field

The field of Data Science is evolving continuously. This constant evolution ensures an increased number of career opportunities in the future. There are a number of job titles related to data such as Data Engineer, Data Analyst, Database Manager, Business Analyst, etc. In the future, there are high possibilities that there will be more specific job roles for Data Science professionals.

3. Never-ending growth of data

A large number of activities from the daily lives of all of us are generating a large amount of data. This data is only increasing with time. The data produced by the companies is increasing with a lightning speed which proves that the demand for data scientists will continue to rise. Data Scientists become life saviors for industries by helping them to handle such large amounts of data.

4. Need for Data Scientists has increased after new data privacy regulations

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has come into existence in the countries of the European Union. By 2020, California will also witness the same. This will increase the companies’ reliance on the Data Scientists for storing and analyzing data more responsibly. Today, people have become much more aware and cautious about sharing any kind of data with businesses because of the increased cases of data breaches and their resulting consequences. Companies now know that they need to be very careful and responsible for the data of their customers. Data Scientists can help the companies to use the data effectively without violating the privacy policies.

5. Machine learning is becoming popular

Machine learning is constantly evolving. It is believed that Machine Learning which is a very important part of Data Science will make a great impact on the future. Therefore, the focus of the various data science professionals will be on developing new machine learning models for making the machines learn more efficiently with their creativity. Data Scientists can improve the productivity of the business by implementing effective machine learning practices.

6. Sources of data will keep on emerging

Today, companies are collecting data from the customers’ purchase history, social media, etc. But in the future, they will also need to collect the data from other sources such as manufacturing streams, retail environments, employees, vehicles, etc. With the increasing sources of data, the data to be handled by companies will become extremely huge. This indicates that the job of Data Scientists will have a secure future.

7. Other areas where Data Scientists will be required

The actionable insights from data extracted by Data Scientists are not just limited to finance or retail industries. Apart from predicting the consumers’ behavior, they can do much more with the data. For example, now the healthcare industries are also using data science for solving many problems. Some other areas where Data Science can be used such as the food suppliers can utilize for reducing the wastage of food by estimating the needs, etc.

Now, when we have seen why you should become data scientist, let us see how to become data scientist?

Now, let’s see some interesting Data Science trends that might become a dominant part of the near Data Science Career in future.

  • The introduction of IoT (Internet of things) is already changing the world by connecting smart devices. But the future is much more advanced. In the future, there might be Intelligent Digital Mesh which will connect apps, devices, and people for allowing them to work together in sync.
  • The companies are already moving towards artificial intelligence. In the future, chatbots, virtual reality, and augmented reality will improve marketing and customer care services. Live demos, visualization of products might be used for providing a personalized experience to the customers.
  • The automation of machine learning and augmented analytics will help to take predictive modeling at another level. Predictive analysis will help in changing the face of various industries.
  • The blockchain technology will also become a part of industries such as Healthcare, Banking, Insurance along with the Finance Industry.

Summary

After going through this tutorial, we can say that the data will only grow and grow with the passing years. The revolution that can be brought by the power of data in any field in the future cannot be ignored. So, the demand for Data Science will be even high with the evolution of technology in the upcoming decades.

Finally, when you have seen the Data Science Career Opportunities and decided to have career in it, check some of the Best Certifications for becoming Data Scientist.