Why Data Science Has Become Sooooo Popular!

Key Points:

• Data science analyzes and examines large quantities of accessible data and information.
• Insights garnered from the data help organizations make strategic choices.
• Multiple pathways exist to obtain a career in data science.
• The key requisite is a genuine curiosity about data and what understanding it provides.
• Data Analysts need to be inquisitive, form opinions, and be argumentative.
• Data science is THE next boom job in the 21st century, paying elevated salaries for data-skilled employees.

The demand for skilled data scientists has soared in today’s data-centric world. As a result, companies are in proactive competition to secure top talent in this field. However, a significant challenge arises as numerous data science positions still need to be filled due to a scarcity of qualified AND suitably experienced professionals.

Simply seeking out academic statisticians or Ph.D. scientists is no longer sufficient or sustainable. Instead, organizations are seeking versatile individuals with subject matter expertise, practical data software programming, and data analytics experience. Oh, and they also need such resources with exceptional personal and communication capabilities.

Why are there such large volumes of data now available? Our digital footprint has grown rapidly over the past twenty years. The size of the digital universe was roughly 150 billion gigabytes back in 1996. By 2022, this number has swelled to 97 zettabytes. Consequently, corporations are competing for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of new workers needed to navigate the digital world.

As a result, the prestigious Harvard Business Review called data science the sexiest job in the 21st century.

A report by the McKinsey Global Institute back in 2012 warned of huge talent shortages for data and analytics. Now they are reporting that by the year 2025, “smart workflows and seamless interactions among humans and machines will likely be as standard as the corporate balance sheet, and most employees will use data to optimize nearly every aspect of their work.”

The digital revolution has touched every aspect of our lives, and the opportunity to benefit from learning about our behaviors — and specifically our purchasing behaviors — is more apparent than ever. Digital marketers can sneak peeks into our purchasing habit formation, given the right information to make such assessments. In addition, formal studies into neurology and psychology reveal how our spending habits and preferences are formed, and retailers want to profit from them.

However, these habit-understanding retailers can only do so if they have data scientists working for them. “For this reason, it is like an arms race to hire statisticians nowadays,” said Andreas Weigend, the former chief scientist at Amazon.com.

There is still the need to convince C-suite executives of the benefits of data and analytics. They, of course, have their hands on the purse strings for their respective departments. Senior management might be a step or two behind middle management when it comes to being informed of the potential of analytics-driven business planning. Professor Peter Fader, who manages the Customer Analytics Initiative at Wharton, knows that executives reach the C-suite without having to interact with data. He believes real change will happen when executives are well-versed in data and analytics.

Bernard Marr writing for Forbes, raised concerns about the demand for more data analytics talent. “There aren’t enough people with the required skills to analyze and interpret this information-transforming it from raw numerical (or other) data into actionable insights — the ultimate aim of any Big Data-driven initiative,” he wrote.