What is Data Science - Course Details, Career, Jobs & Requirements

10-May-2022

Given the vast volumes of data created today, data science is a crucial aspect of many sectors, and it is one of the most fiercely disputed topics in IT circles. Its popularity is gaining traction over time and businesses have increasingly adopted data science approaches to amplify their operations and enhance customer satisfaction. We will discover what data science is and what does data science career entails in this article.

What is Data Science?

Data science is a field of study that works with large amounts of data and uses cutting-edge tools and techniques to uncover hidden patterns, generate useful data, and make business decisions. Data scientist applies complicated machine learning algorithms to develop prediction models. To bring about analysis, the source of data is plenty meaning it can originate from different sources and data can be aggregated in a variety of formats. 

Let's look at why data science is important in today's IT market to grasp the bigger picture of its relevance in the current era and the future to come.

The Lifecycle of Data Science

Let us now get into the intricacies of Data science by exploring the life cycle. The life cycle of data science can be categorized into five stages each performing its own tasks:

Capture: Data collection: This stage includes data entry, signal reception, and data extraction. This stage involves gathering data in raw format whether structured or unstructured. 

Maintain: Data Storage, Data Cleaning, Data Staging, Data Processing, and Data Architecture are all things to keep in mind. This stage entails taking raw data and converting it into a usable format.

Process: Data mining, segmentation, data modeling, and data summarization are examples of processes. Data scientists look for patterns, biases, and ranges in data to see if they can be used in predictive analysis.

Analyze: Probing, Predictive Analysis, Regression, Text Mining, and Qualitative Analysis are all methods for analyzing data. This is where the lifecycle becomes serious. This stage entails conducting various analyses of the data.

Communicating: Data reporting, data visualization, business intelligence, and decision-making are all topics that should be discussed. Analysts present the studies in clearly legible forms such as graphs, charts, and reports in the last step.

What are the data science requirements that professionals should fulfill for a data science career?

Data Science Requirements

Data science professionals are highly valued for their extensive knowledge and they are expected to be familiar with the following critical technical concepts and terminologies:

Artificial Intelligence

Data science relies heavily on machine learning. Data scientists are required to have a robust understanding of machine learning in addition to the core foundational knowledge of statistics.

Modeling

Mathematical models allow data scientists to perform quick calculations and predictions. Modeling is a subset of Machine Learning that comprises selecting the optimal method for tackling a specific problem and how to train these models.

Statistics

Statistics are the foundation of data science. A firm comprehension of statistics will help extract more insightful information and thus create more relevant results.

Programming 

A good data science project requires some level of programming. Python and R are amongst the most preferred languages in programming. Python is particularly popular since it is simple to learn and supports a variety of data science and machine learning libraries.

Databases 

Databases are one of the major data science requirements. A good data scientist knows how databases function, how to maintain them, and how to extract information from them.

What Does a Data Science Career Entail?

A data science career entails performing various roles and responsibilities throughout the stages of one's vocation. Every job position has varying sets of responsibilities. To put it precisely, a data scientist examines corporate data in order to derive useful information. Saying it in another way, a data scientist solves business problems by following a set of procedures.

The following are the procedures that data scientists generally revolve around in fulfilling their tasks:

• The data scientist determines the problem by raising accurate questions and acquiring understanding before beginning data collecting and analysis.

• A data scientist selects the appropriate variables and data sets.

• The data scientist collects organized and unstructured data from a variety of sources, including enterprise and public data.

• Upon acquisition and aggregating of data, the data scientist analyzes it and converts it into an analysis-ready format. Cleaning and verifying data are required to ensure uniformity, completeness, and accuracy.

• After the data has been translated into a usable format, it is fed into the analytic system (ML algorithm or statistical model). Here, data scientists identify trends and patterns to investigate.

• The data scientist evaluates the data once it has been rendered completely to uncover possibilities and solutions.

• The data scientists complete the task by producing and communicating the results and insights to the appropriate stakeholders.

What are the Data Science Jobs that Aspirants can Pursue?

As mentioned earlier, there are varieties of data science job positions each with different roles in the organization or industry. Data science gives the exposure to multiple opportunities and also allows to focus on and specialize in the respective area that individual wishes to master. 

Below are the most popular data science jobs where you can build your data science career:

Data Scientist

The roles of a data scientist majorly involve establishing the nature of the problem, working on what questions need to be answered, and where the data may be found. They also collect, clean, and present pertinent data.

Programming skills (SAS, R, Python), storytelling and data visualization, statistical and mathematical skills, Hadoop, SQL, and Machine Learning knowledge are all required for this one of the most popular data science jobs.

Data Analyst

By organizing and interpreting data to answer the organization's questions, analysts reduce the differences between business analysts and data scientists. They transform the analyses that are technically based into qualitative practical insights.

Programming skills (SAS, R, Python), Statistical and mathematical skills, and data wrangling and data visualization experience are all required.

Data Engineers

The company's data architecture and data pipelines are built, installed, managed, and optimized by data engineers. Engineers perform as an aide to data scientists by helping with the transportation and transformation of data. SQL databases, Programming languages, and frameworks are all required for this data science job.

There are several other job positions that data enthusiasts can pursue. In fact, its massive relevance across the majority of the industries makes a data science career even more appealing for bright minds. That's about it on the data science field and the requirements to pursue the profession.

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