3 answers
Nicole’s Answer
As indicated in some of the other answers to this question, a data scientist has a very important role to play in solving problems. Many times, the problem they are trying to help solve is a business problem. The advantage that a data scientist brings is their ability to gather, utilize and display data that demonstrates where the problem is, how long the problem has been there (so things like highlighting events that guides on when a problem started or stopped), and most most most importantly, what can be done to fix the problem.
Data scientists use data and data visualization to show what happens when a "fix" has been put in place so that the partners they work with can see the impact of their efforts. It can be a very rewarding experience to see the impact of a team's hard work play out in an independent space, like data and data analysis.
In my opinion, good data scientists recognize the importance of using good, independent data. They tend to be very open to sharing their approach, findings and recommendations. In this regard, data scientists operate like many other scientists in that they open their studies for "peer reviews" to ensure there is as little bias (lots of research available on what bias is) as possible in the problem being studied.
Finally, I think working in data science, as I have for at least half of my career, is a field that remains interesting because there are so many problems that can be/have been solved using key elements like coding, visualization tools and effective communication with knowledge partners.
I do hope you find this helpful and best of luck!
Dale’s Answer
Essential Data Science Skills that need to be mastered:
Programming.
Statistics.
Machine Learning.
Linear Algebra and Calculus.
Data Visualization.
Communication.
Data Wrangling.
Software Engineering.
Despite a recent influx of early-career professionals, the median starting salary for a data scientist remains high at $95,000. Mid-level data scientist salary. The median salary for a mid-level data scientist is $128,750. If this data scientist is also in a managerial role, the median salary rises to $185,000.
Jennifer’s Answer
A data scientist can do many things. Often it will depend on the actual job description that a particular company have given. Some similarities between the job include things such as gathering data with queries to a database, sorting/manipulating/cleaning data via database queries and tools, analyzing data using different tools such as Excel, SQL, Matlab, SAS, etc.
Jennifer recommends the following next steps: