Data science is critical to any business that makes informed decisions using their data. Data science has been vital for businesses in order to retrieve statistical data to gain insights, hiring new talent, etc. It is also crucial for business leaders and associates to make more effective business decisions related to business operations.

For a successful career in this area, consider getting certifications or joining degree programs. For example, MSc data analytics is a postgraduate degree and is excellent to prepare individuals for a career in this. 

What skills do you need to have as a data scientist?

There are some important technical skills that one requires in order to be a data scientist. 

Programming languages: Programming languages helps data scientists to clean and organize a set of unstructured data. Therefore, it is crucial that you have excellent knowledge of programming languages— C, C++, Java, SQL, Python etc. Python is the most common coding language and is considered a basic eligibility criterion for those in data science roles. 

Advanced knowledge of SAS and other analytical tools: You need to have good knowledge of analytical tools in order to extract insights out of organized and cleaned data sets. Some of the most popular tools which are used by data scientists are Hive, Hadoop, SAS, Spark, etc. A certification in this domain can help to establish your expertise in the use of data analytics tools. 

Skillful at working with unstructured data: It is crucial for a data scientist to understand and manage unstructured data generated from various channels. 

Good business acumen: The technical skills will be only of half value if it is not utilized in a productive and effective way, if the data scientist lacks business acumen and the know-how of those elements which develop a successful business model. Without enough business understanding a data scientist will fail to recognize any problem or potential challenges that may need to be solved to help a business thrive. 

Excellent communication skills: A data scientist’s primary task is to understand data better than others and in order to be successful in this role and for the organization you are working, other people should be able to benefit from your services. And that will be possible only if you are a strong communicator with a level of understanding that is good enough for people from non-technical backgrounds who are also working with data. 

Data intuition: One of the greatest skills as a data scientist is the power to intuit. Great data intuition means being able to observe patterns where none are seemingly present on the surface and understanding the presence of value in an unexplored and unstructured pile of data. This makes a data scientist more efficient and successful at work and this can be achieved with hard work and experience.

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