What are the prerequisite skills required to become a data scientist in 2019?

2 min read

According to the “Future of Jobs 2018” report, it is said that with advancement in machines and artificial intelligence it is likely that these technologies will replace 75 million jobs by 2020. Data scientist remains to be one of the trending careers, and those interested in pursuing data science as a career must first have the right skill set to land a job in this field.  

As more companies become data-driven, professionals skilled in data science must keep updating their skills based on the current industry’s demand. A NASSCOM report estimates that the data analytics sector will be in an uprising stage to $16 billion by 2025. Thus, more organizations will, therefore, look for data professionals, increasing the demand significantly. Skilled candidates in a data field such as data scientists and data engineers will increase by 40% by 2020.  

Data science is not something one can achieve overnight, it is a field that requires constant learning. But nowadays anyone can acquire these skills if one is dedicated to it. If you want to learn data science, you will learn it. The only challenge is to find out what skills to learn and from where to learn.  

Consider following these prerequisites towards a data science career.   

Most of the data scientists are highly qualified. 

A degree in any field mentioned above will help kick start a career in data science. However, having the degrees will not suffice. An organization expects to hire expert professionals who have exquisite skills both theoretically and practically. Since data science is a field which requires extensive data related tasks, practical knowledge will be preferred rather than theoretical knowledge.  

The truth is, organizations are more interested in practical skills. Knowledge without practical skills is like an empty vessel.  

Being a data science professional their main objective is to clean, analyze, manage, and organize a huge amount of data. An individual having the passion to leverage data and obtain valuable insights for the organization can become a data scientist.

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Yves Mulkers

Yves Mulkers is the founder of 7wData and a widely followed voice in the data and AI community. He curates the 7wData and AI Beat newsletters, reaching hundreds of thousands of data and AI professionals, and writes on data strategy, analytics, AI, and the evolving data ecosystem.