Important Skills You Must Acquire to Become a Data Scientist

In the highly competitive market of today, enterprises have to constantly experiment with unconventional and offbeat ideas in order to innovate offerings that meet the rapidly changing demands of the modern day consumer. One of the ways to remain current with the dynamic market trends and requirements is to be on top of consumer behaviour and buying patterns. This is where the role of a Data Scientist comes into play.

Need for a Data Scientist

A Data Scientist uses various types of statistical tools and complex predictive models to gather and analyse information and derive meaningful and actionable insights from Big Data. The resulting intelligence is used by the enterprises to customise their existing products and services and bring to the market novel offerings that are in line with customer expectations. This proactive approach is crucial for organizations if they wish to remain competitive in their chosen space with an enviable track record of repeat customers and with optimized operations and amplified business growth that significantly improve their bottom line and top line.

Essential Skills of a Data Scientist

Data Science being a niche and interdisciplinary field, it requires an amalgamation of diverse skill sets that are not limited to technical skills alone. Listed below are few of the desirable qualifications, skills and personality traits that an aspiring Data Scientist should possess in order to succeed in this highly demanding yet exciting domain.

1. Qualification: First and foremost, it is preferred that one has a Master’s degree in fields such as IT, Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Electronics or Economics or at least a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or Technology. This will set a strong foundation for a prosperous and a rewarding career ahead. MBA graduates as well as graduates with excellent academic credentials can also pursue the role of a Data Scientist by backing their existing qualifications with additional domain-specific skills. Lastly, prior knowledge of programming language and relevant experience can give the necessary impetus to embark on this thrilling journey.

2. Curious bent of mind - As a Data Scientist, your job role will require you to scour large and complex data sets in order to detect hidden relationships and patterns to solve explicit and implicit business-related challenges. This can seem like an unusually overwhelming task unless you are intellectually stimulated to explore new things and unknown facts. Your problem-solving skills and innate unwillingness to accept things ‘as-is’ will also come handy and so will your ability to maintain your grit till such time that you have discovered what you were tirelessly looking for!

3. Innate Creative Streak - It goes without saying that your creative streak will play a deciding role in the success of your career as a Data Scientist. After all, it is your creativity that will guide you to hitherto unfamiliar and less traversed paths to explore pioneering ways to collate structured and unstructured data and view it from varied angles and perspectives to uncover the underlying trends and draw revolutionary inferences.

4. Presentation, Communication, Influencing and Networking Skills - Your game-changing and futuristic insights can only be brought into action provided they have the approval and acceptance of your senior leadership and important stakeholders. In order to be able to articulate the relevance and the far-reaching impact of your analysis in an effective and compelling manner, you need to demonstrate effective communication and presentation skills. Likewise, sound networking skills are required to cut across barriers and hierarchy in an assured and confident manner. You should also be convincing enough to influence key decision-makers and business leaders with well-researched facts and figures so that they are able to envision your value-driven ideas and have adequate data points at hand to take informed and data-driven business decisions.

5. Knowledge of industry and technical skills - No matter whether you are the best talker in the town or an expert presenter, your career as a Data Scientist cannot flourish unless you combine your gift of the gab with non-negotiable business acumen and a thorough understanding of Data Science tools and skills such as an in-depth know-how of data mining and visualization, machine learning, clustering, segmentation, analysis and predictive tools, statistics theory, Hadoop/ Spark architecture, programming and statistical computing languages such as Spark and R & R Studio, Python, SAS Macro & SQL etc. By enrolling for a result-oriented Advanced PGP in Data Analytics from a prestigious technical institute like MIT Skills, you will be able to enrich yourself with an exhaustive understanding of Big Data and Business Analytics which will hold you in good stead when you start off your career as a Data Scientist.

Conclusion

Data Science is an emerging and evolving field where the demand for qualified and skilled Data Scientists exceeds the supply of desired talent pool. Hence, it is up to you to harness this unconventional space to the best of your ability and potential and make a fulfilling career out of it - one that earns the envy of others and also brings home a paycheck that enables you to afford the kind of lifestyle that you always have been desirous of!