How to Advance Your IT Career With a Specialization in Data Science

Featured article by Andrej, Digital Marketing Specialist

Today’s businesses generate massive volumes of data that nobody knows what to do with — yet this data could hold the keys to reducing costs, improving customer retention, increasing profitability, saving time, and a host of other positive outcomes for businesses. So savvy employers are on the lookout for data scientists who can help them make sense of their data and use it to solve their company’s problems.

If you’re already working as an IT professional, it’s likely you have the troubleshooting skills and problem-solving abilities necessary to be the one who steps up and takes action on interpreting the mounds of data available. With the right training and skills, you could easily be the one who applies statistical methods to maximize the knowledge gleaned from all this data for your company’s benefit.

It’s quite likely that you could advance your career — and also increase your salary — if you were to direct your efforts towards acquiring the necessary knowledge, skills and credentials for becoming a data scientist.

Skills Necessary for Specializing in Data Science

Every data science task is different, and might have a different set of requirements; however, the following skills will be beneficial to any IT professional who wants to specialize in data science:

– The ability to identify challenging, real-world problems that could be solved with data

– Solid experience working with applied statistics

– Hands-on coding expertise with languages including Python, SQL, Java, C/C++, Perl and R

– A basic understanding of machine learning

– Data mining, cleaning, munging and visualization skills

If you’re lacking any of these skills, developing them is the first step to succeeding with data science. There are a couple of approaches you could take; you could work at learning these on the job, or you could decide to further your education by returning to school to take classes.

Data Science Certifications

There’s a proliferation of data science certifications you could earn. Some are available from respected academic institutions like Harvard University; others are sponsored by tech companies like Microsoft.

Earning a Master of Data Science Degree

If you really want to fast-track your career in data science, earning a Master of Data Science Degree is an excellent option to consider. Many Master of Science Degree programs can be completed online in about 2 years; this is ideal if you already have a job and you aren’t prepared to quit it and lose your income.

A graduate degree in data science is ideal if you already have an idea of a research project you’d like to explore or a data-driven problem you’d like to solve — but even if you don’t, you’ll gain the skills necessary to work on those data-driven problems when they arise in the future. Your studies will help you learn how to visualize data accurately and avoid arriving at costly false conclusions thanks to incorrect interpretations of the data. You’ll spend time extracting meaningful information from large datasets and presenting the information in a usable, understandable format.

These skills are of immense value to employers in today’s marketplace. Your current employer might help to pay for either of these educational options. If you’re considering certification or a Master’s Degree, it could be worthwhile to discuss these possibilities with your boss or human resources department.

IT and data science are relevant to every industry. It’s logical for you to begin this transition by working on data-driven projects in the industry in which you’re already working, although you could easily transition to another industry if there’s one that appeals to you more. Data science is a field that builds on an IT professional’s current skills. It’s a smart career move for those who are willing to develop the skills and mindset necessary for success in working with big data.

Andrej Kovačević

Andrej is an accomplished digital marketing specialist and an avid internet technologist. Throughout his career, Andrej has combined his passion for cutting-edge technology with a keen eye for emerging industry trends to deliver customized marketing solutions to businesses and clients around the globe. He believes that the key to modern marketing excellence is a constant willingness to learn and adapt to the ever-changing digital world.