Do you excel in math and computer science? Would you be interested in spending your days harnessing those talents to solve the world’s most urgent and compelling problems? If so, you could put your skills to work in a lucrative data science career. Consider the following 5 reasons you might want to consider a career in data science:
1. Data Science Jobs Are Considered Highly Prestigious
If you want to command respect in the corporate world, data science is a career path that can help you to earn that respect. Harvard Business Review christened data science as “the sexiest job of the 21st century”. This appeal stems from numerous factors including the intellectual nature of the work and the generous salaries.
2. Data Scientists Enjoy High Levels of Job Satisfaction
If you’re looking for a career that will engage you with interesting and meaningful work, definitely consider choosing data science. Data scientists are working on behalf of governments, non-profit organisations, publicly traded companies and private organisations to increase efficiency, solve problems and streamline operations.
Fraud detection is one important application of data science, and there are many others. In the UK, our policymakers are using data science to create taxonomies for our network of government websites and also to classify website visitors’ comments.
Engaging in meaningful work is one of the most important aspects of job satisfaction. According to US News, data scientists enjoy better than average levels of upward mobility and flexibility, both of which also contribute to excellent levels of job satisfaction among data scientists.
3. Data Scientists Are in Urgent Demand Worldwide
In the UK, there is strong demand for individuals with data scientists’ skills. As of early 2018, there were 8,672 unfilled UK-based data science job openings being advertised. In the United States, demand is even stronger, with a forecast of 2.7 million data science job vacancies in the USA by the year 2020.
4. Data Science Pays Better Than Average
According to ComputerworldUK.com, data scientists’ salaries average £50,000 per year in the UK. This figure is dramatically greater than the average UK worker’s salary of £27,271.
5. Outstanding Data Science Training Is Becoming Easier to Obtain
Top academic institutions such as the University of Manchester and James Cook University Online have begun to note the significant demand for qualified and well-trained data science professionals. They’ve created innovative degree programmes that help students acquire the most important current skills necessary to succeed in data science.
In addition to undergraduate and graduate level academic degree programs, there are also numerous other avenues available for learning data science. The Kaggle community is a great way to get hands-on data science experience. Massive online courses (MOOCs) are available from platforms such as Coursera and EDx. Numerous data science certifications are also available.
If you’re ready to embark on your first career, or you’re ready to change careers, data science could be a great choice of niches to consider working in. It makes a fantastic career path for all the reasons we shared in this list of 5 of the most compelling reasons you might want to embark on a data science career.