From the data collected by satellites that revolve around our planet to our social media posts, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced every single day. This explains the buzz around Data Science as a discipline and a career path.
The development of data-driven industries is on the rise, prompting academic institutions and employers alike to recognize Data Science as a legitimate discipline with plenty of growth potential.
If you are looking to break into the most happening domain in the tech sector, it is important to identify the key areas you can specialize in. While it is next to impossible to master everything about Data Science, here are some important domains you can consider:
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Data Analytics
Data Analytics is all about gathering data and detecting trends and patterns to answer important questions. This area of specialization is ideal for problem solvers who are not very tech-savvy. It seeks to improve the efficiency of everyday business operations in real time. The ultimate objectives of this focus area include expediting the decision-making process, increasing customer satisfaction, and increasing overall productivity.
Roles: Data Analyst, Planning Analyst, Communications Analyst, Decisions Analyst
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Data Engineering
Data engineering is all about converting data into a meaningful format so that by the time it gets to end-users or Data Scientists, it is in a usable state. It involves sourcing data from heterogeneous sources and representing it uniformly so as to support decision-making.
Roles: Data Engineer, Quantitative Data Engineer, Database Developer
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Data Mining
Data mining is the process of applying statistics to uncover patterns and valuable insights from data sets. The data mining techniques can be divided into two categories: the ones that seek to predict outcomes and the ones that describe the target data sets. Data mining is used for spam detection, operational optimization, sales, and marketing.
Roles: Data Mining Specialist, Statistician, Data Mining Analyst
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Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence involves the conversion of data into actionable business insights. The tools leveraged in this field access and analyze data sets to present analytical insights as summaries, reports, dashboards, charts, graphs, and maps. These insights provide the end-users with detailed business intelligence to move forward.
Roles: BI Engineer, BI Analyst, BI Developer
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Data Visualization and Presentation
Being able to tell stories using data is a greatly valued skill in the domain of Data Science. A professional adept in this focus area can translate critical business insights into graphical visualizations so that everyone in the organization can leverage the same to make informed business decisions.
Roles: Data Viz Engineer, Data Viz Developer, Data Visualisation Analyst
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Market-Related Data Analytics
Although similar to operational analytics, this area focuses on external data, that is, data pertaining to customers, marketing, and sales. They track the overall performance of the organization and hunt for growth opportunities using external data sources.
Roles: Web Analyst, Sales Analyst, Market Analyst, Product Analyst
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Machine Learning
Machine learning uses computational algorithms to convert data into usable models. It is a far more sophisticated version of data mining, where algorithms are trained to make predictions or classifications, thus extracting crucial business information. Machine learning is crucial to identifying important business questions and answering the same user data.
Roles: ML Engineer, Researcher, Cognitive Developer, AI Specialist
For the foreseeable future, data is not going obsolete; neither is Data Science. Making indelible impacts on the global economy and revolutionizing several fields across most industries, Data Science is truly the most desirable job of the century. Identify your interests, sign up for quality Data Science education, and gain the momentum you need to break into the field.
Join OdinSchool’s Data Science Course to launch your career in Data Science.
