Hot career, courses and jobs in data science and analytics

Data analytics is an area that continues to expand. The demand for data analyst is growing exponentially as the amount of digital data is growing exponentially. Everything is moving from an analog or physical medium to a digital medium, including our social interactions, communication or personal information.

So, before we discuss the hot careers for individuals with background in data analytics, it is important to talk about what it takes to build a successful career and a job in data analytics. The required skillset for a career in data science is primarily comfort around numbers, algorithms and an interest to slice/dice and analyze data. Careers and jobs in data analytics entail analysis of aggregated data to discover trends, information and make decisions.

Many successful data scientists have varied background with some of them coming from engineering side, some of them from math/physics major and a number of them who have done a M.B.A. or M.S. in Information services. Graduate degree is not required for a career in data analytics, but is helpful in job search and in career growth.

If you are someone who has interest in a career in data sciences, here is a list of online courses that may help you build more knowledgeable, expertise in this area and learn some of the heavily used tools such as SAS etc. Many of the Data analytics tool were used for Business Intelligence and Reporting. Now they are enhanced and updated to be used as Big Data tools for data analytics, data mining and business analytics.

HOT COURSES IN BIG DATA, ANALYTICS AND DATA SCIENCE

1) Learn Data Science from John Hopkins University

2) Give your data science career a free speed

3) Earn your business analytics certificate from Wharton

4) Learn data mining and analytics to analyze and visualize

5) Become a Big Data Expert

Job Roles and Salary Range for Data Analytics

With knowledge, experience and interest in data analytics, you can pursue your career in various fields. If you are a recent graduate and fresher, you may start as a data analyst and slowly with experience move up in your career to a senior analyst, manager, director of analytics and subsequently as a V.P of data sciences or information sciences.

The salary range for data analytics roles vary based on industry and location, but careers in data analytics and sciences are in demand and tend to pay better than many other professions. For example, if you are working in the U.S. the salary can range from $70-80K to $200K for senior level positions. In other countries also you may get paid a decent compensation for data analytics jobs.

Source: Payscale

What are some of the industries that hire Data analytics professionals?

One of the industry that tends to hire a lot of data scientists or data anlalytics professionals is Financial Services. There professionals are employed in the credit, risk and information management area to look at various data pieces for underwriting, risk management and for marketing purpose. These financial services companies can be either banks, insurance companies, credit card companies or lending organizations.

Another industry or profession that is seeing a rapid growth of data analytics and business analytics professionals is marketing. This is a lot more in consumer marketing compared to business marketing. Data is an important part of targeting, segmenting, campaign analysis, ROI and many successful marketers come from data analytics background or have a strong base in data analytics.

Data analytics and data mining is a critical element of business operations too. Many companies have data analyst or business analyst who are focused on looking at operations data, sales data or people HR data to help analyze trends and make decisions.

Skills Required

  • Analytical mind
  • Comfort with large amount of data
  • Technically sound
  • Ability to create reports and recommendations

Careers and jobs in data sciences and business analytics will continue to grow with the growth in digital data!

About Author Ajay Singh

I graduated from I.I.T India and came to U.S. for higher studies in Engineering 20 years back. After working for a few years in Austin, Texas as a design engineer, I went back for a M.B.A at Harvard Business School. I have worked for number of global companies in senior leadership and management positions. Over the years I have advised number of students on college admission.

Translate »
%d