DATA SCIENTISTS AND THE DATA-DRIVEN WORLD
The world is flooded with a tremendous amount of data which is spawned on a daily basis in businesses. The rise of the internet and the introduction of social media platforms have led to an additional spike in the amount of data generated. It is necessary to extract useful insights from the data to add business value but these datasets alone cannot generate value. It requires professionals who have the expertise to handle these huge datasets and extract insights from the data. The skilled professionals are data scientists, who are considered a combination of scientific method, technology and mathematical skills and tactics.
APPLICATION OF DATA SCIENCE
Data science has spread its influence in almost every industry, whether healthcare, education or entertainment. The widespread development and advancement in the field of data science has proven how crucial it has become for the success of an organization in surpassing its competitors in cut-throat business competition.
Netflix, for example, is the most popular entertainment fad and is emerging as a craze among today’s generation. But how, you may wonder, does this relate to data science?
Well, the type of movies and TV series you watch influences your collection on the home page. Netflix automatically starts suggesting the movies and TV shows you should watch based on what you have watched already. This is all done by data scientists collecting and analyzing the data related to your previous selections.
The same thing works with YouTube. It also recommends the videos to watch based on the videos you have already viewed. This task is complex because it involves the use of specific computer programs and statistical algorithms by data scientists.
The craze of data science has forced the big Fortune 500 companies to adopt the techniques and methodologies related to data science. This has created a need for professional data scientists.
WHAT ALL RESPONSIBILITIES ARE ATTACHED WITH THE LIFE OF A DATA SCIENTIST?
The prime responsibility of a data scientist is to collect the data sets and to organize it with the help of analytical tools like Hadoop, SAS, R, Python etc. However, all of the responsibilities of the data scientist are listed below in detail.
1) Collecting, organizing, analyzing and interpreting the data sets.
2) Understanding the business problem and using both the historical and the current data to predict future trends.
3) Developing more innovative and advanced analytical methods.
4) Finding and uncovering the hidden solutions in the mass of data for the business problems, thus adding business value.
5) Presenting the results of the data analysis in a clear and detailed manner.
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF A DATA SCIENTIST?
A data scientist’s role in a business is similar to that of chilly flakes in pizza. You may think you don’t want it but when you add it, the pizza just tastes better. A data scientist brings in skill sets and knowledge from diverse backgrounds such as math, statistics, modeling, analytics, communication and business acumen. With the skills, he looks for insights from huge chunks of data and presents them to the management with solutions to tackle the challenges visible to him and the inputs and strategies for the business to prepare for the future.
A data scientists extract data from various resources, uses analytics tools to analyze the data, uncovers insights, visualizes them for interpretation and presents it to the management to strategies. The value that a data scientist brings into an organization is unparalleled. While other departments work on developing and delivering products and services, sales, customer care and more, a data scientist acts as the bridge among all of them and sees if the product or service that is delivered reaches the customer and if the customers are looking for something else, their behavior, expectations, lag in any of the departments, any challenges or hurdles one can foresee and more.
A business, without a data scientist, would stay back in the race of the brands in the market only to wake up to realize that it’s too late. Investing in data science is not just beneficial for a business in the longer run but rewarding for immediate results, too.
THE DEMAND FOR DATA SCIENTISTS
Today, around 6 billion devices are connected globally and these connected devices generate millions of terabytes of data every day. For a data scientist, this is a treasure chest of insights and vital data that can rewrite the fate of the business or brand he or she is working for. Our online behavior on social media, e-commerce websites and more are touch points of data and these are used by data scientists to provide us with a better shopping experience, to understand us better and deliver quality service. The fascinating aspect is that the volume of data generated is exactly the reason why data scientists are in huge demand today.