Job Trends For Data Scientists In The Next 5 Years
If online data science job listings are anything to go by, the demand for this role has maintained a steady upward spiral over the last few years. This confirms the projections of internet soothsayers who talk about significant growth in data science in the coming years. In fact, one study estimates that the industry has grown to $3.03 billion in size and is expected to double by 2025.
Leading the fray is Head of Data Science at Quora Eric Mayefsky who additionally feels that this growth will be accelerated by certain changes, that will especially impact the career fundamentals of data science.
Anchored around several trends, these changes will give you a better understanding of what to expect in the future, and what you can do to take advantage of the coming opportunities:-
This could be the biggest change that you may see within data science in the coming years. Even as more companies rely on data-driven teams and thereby, look to fill more data science positions, the truth is that most of them have little idea about how divergent the role could be. Expounded here, this leads to inefficient hiring processes, leaving employers disappointed or employees disillusioned, and sometimes both.
However, this hasn’t been the case for engineering roles. Most companies can clearly distinguish between a mechanical engineer and a product engineer, and this rings true even at the initial stages of the entire hiring process.
Although widespread adoption of ‘data scientists’ has helped bring this field into prominence, there needs to be more awareness around how this broad field can be diversified. Merely highlighting the value in hiring people to think about your product or service from a data perspective is not enough anymore.
However, with this role expanding wider and deeper across industries, it is likely to branch out into well-defined arms. This would also mean that the definition of data science will broaden and consequently, some specialisations will emerge.
