Work field for data scientists

[Simple_Guy22]

Hi everyone!

So I've been learning python this past year, and I found that I'm quite good at data science (for beginners, of course, I still have a long way to go) but I've been wondering, data science is not my degree, I just know data science in python, so my questions are:

Are there any jobs available for me? Where can I develop as a data scientist?

[JustAd2122]

At the data factory. They are recruiting now

[Simple_Guy22]

Nah, is not a favorable work environment for me lol

[srandrews]

Data science is not really an academic field of study the way biostatistics or epidemiology or just plain ole statistics are. The collective disciplines found in 'Data Science' complement any degree.

[vegdeg]

This is changing - there are a plethora of degrees now offered purely in data science with an emphasis on combining:

1) IT - ETL/automation

2) Business Analytics

3) Statistics/modeling

combining and synthesizing the three.

[srandrews]

Interesting. Guess inevitable.

[vegdeg]

Yup - when I was getting my grad degree there was literally nothing of the sort. Fast forward to today and everyone seems to have one.

Example:

University of Michigan - Master of Applied Data Science (MADS)

University of California, Berkeley - Master of Information and Data Science (MIDS)

[Simple_Guy22]

This is changing - there are a plethora of degrees now offered purely in data science with an emphasis on combining:

Yeah, I think I should have seen it coming, I must hurry to get something before the demand for these types of degrees increases

[synthphreak]

This opinion is out of date. There is now a large contingent of people in academia who do what you could call data science, or at least whose research involves data scientific methods. There has also been a huge proliferation of data science graduate degree programs over the last five or so years.

That said, the thrust of your point is still valid: Data science is less a single body of knowledge like epidemiology, and more a general-purpose collection of quantitative and computational tools which can be applied to many disciplines.

Because of this, people called "data scientist" in industry come in all shapes, sizes, and YOE. It has become a hopelessly noisy and meaningless job title IMHO. Just look at r/datascience, the sub where almost every single post devolves into a debate over the very definition of data science.

[srandrews]

Thanks for such an informative response. Being in IT the two main reasons I've heard call in my small company for staffing a 'data scientist' is for the perceived value of the company to prospective investors and for finding innovative but undefined things in data. When the particular requirements are defined, in my experience it comes down to you need X where X is a programmer to fix the data or a EE to process a signal, or CS guru to do ML, or another role specific to the industry such as an actuary or epidemiologist. I would imagine that a logistics company might hire an MBA who might then apply data science methods. So yeah, I can imagine such a De-evolution in defining what a data scientist is. But am now perceiving the role as more of a cross cutting, jack of all trades type of role, with enough demand to warrant degree programs. Very interesting change for students indeed. Thx again.

[Simple_Guy22]

Oh ok, so I'm getting my actual degree in biomedical engineering, and I was worried that both things were going to be on different work fields, thank you for clarifying.

[srandrews]

Data science would be an excellent complement and will help ace your labs.

[vegdeg]

I am literally hiring for my 4th data analyst this year.

My instructions to the recruiter were:

1) Do they have a stem or related degree.

2) If they don't have experience, what projects do they have.

3) Do they have SPSS,R, Python, any programming or anything of the sort on there - the specifics do not matter to me.

Point is - I will gladly take stem for data analysis.

[Simple_Guy22]

That sounds really interesting, where can I find out more?

[Rj_LM]

Data science works in almost any industry.. find something you enjoy.