What is data scientist? Is it future worthy? Career help.

[frost77]

Hi, It's about time I choose my future as my college studies are about to be completed.
I am well aware why I chose Computers as my subject.
Now my question is what shall I choose (Asking for some good advice please don't say choose what you think is best)
I am fond of programming tho I haven't learned any language yet . So my uncle suggested me to pursue a career as a Data scientist which is according to him is demanding and an interesting field.
My college teacher suggested me to go for software engineering. And lots of other people suggested different things.
Now I am completely baffled I don't know what's good for me I don't know where my true skills lie, I am weak in maths.
As this is an only one time chance to choose about my future, That's why I am trying obtain as much information as possible.
Kindly suggest me what shall I pursue and what should I do in the meantime and which language should I learn that will benefit me in the future.

Thanks
And
Sorry if you had a difficult time understanding my English

 

[lacifitra]

To become a successful data scientist you need to have an excellent knowledge of:
Statistics
Calculus
Probability
R/Python/Perl/C++/Dash
Software integration
Able to write your own modules
Analyze data
Make predictions

Your job would be 90% math, 10% programming.
A successful data scientist can make up to 180K/year. However, it's a boring as shit job unless you'll turn into one of those guys who are way too enthusiastic about math/development.

 

[Deleted member 877043]

Like @lacifitra mentions datascience involves a lot of maths and statistical analyses. If maths isn’t your strong suit or doesn’t really interest you, a study in this field will not render any satisfactory results.

As a disclaimer i’d like to add that the myth about maths being hard and is something you either get or don’t, is false. Like any skill it’s something you’ll need to practice and develop every day.

 

[terrier2018]

Data Science is still a niche. Instead, business intelligence is better, it's close to the money, it's far and wide, and it's easy.

 

[Gogol]

@lacifitra nailed it. As for being "future proof", afaik this position is for the future where companies have collected huge data from the users and they analyze the data for meaningful reports, predictions etc. This is the job of the future to be precise.

 

[Rafael Marques]

Data scientist is the statistics guy with a buzzword and high paying salary.

 

[Mohamed Habib]

Hi, It's about time I choose my future as my college studies are about to be completed.
I am well aware why I chose Computers as my subject.
Now my question is what shall I choose (Asking for some good advice please don't say choose what you think is best)
I am fond of programming tho I haven't learned any language yet . So my uncle suggested me to pursue a career as a Data scientist which is according to him is demanding and an interesting field.
My college teacher suggested me to go for software engineering. And lots of other people suggested different things.
Now I am completely baffled I don't know what's good for me I don't know where my true skills lie, I am weak in maths.
As this is an only one time chance to choose about my future, That's why I am trying obtain as much information as possible.
Kindly suggest me what shall I pursue and what should I do in the meantime and which language should I learn that will benefit me in the future.

Thanks
And
Sorry if you had a difficult time understanding my English

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-an...puter-and-information-research-scientists.htm

Keep in mind the USA is usually 5 years ahead of every country.

 

[Xalamon]

Data Science is part of Information Technology in my college. This video explains how Information Systems is in the middle between Business and Computer Science:

TL;DR: if you don't know what you want to do Data Science is a great field, as you can apply this to any of your personal interests.

 

[IKXS Acquiring]

Yes, data scientist is a fancy way of saying "reports writer" ---

"Johnson, make me a report that tells me what percentage of people who bought the Instant Pot have dogs?"

OR

"Boss.. after processing the sales reports for this month, I discovered that 71% of Instant Pot purchasers are Pet parents."

Basically, the same idea. This is the job. If you love connecting data sources with your skills to gain new insights, then this is the job for you.

The skills will fall into place.

 

[CrytpicShipper]

If you write leet code than you will get paid more than a data scientist easily.

Get a BS and MS in CS and come to the Silicon Valley. If you can code really well and interview for a top tier company in one of their top departments, you can get paid 200-600k

 

[Aulig]

To become a successful data scientist you need to have an excellent knowledge of:
Statistics
Calculus
Probability
R/Python/Perl/C++/Dash
Software integration
Able to write your own modules
Analyze data
Make predictions

Your job would be 90% math, 10% programming.
A successful data scientist can make up to 180K/year. However, it's a boring as shit job unless you'll turn into one of those guys who are way too enthusiastic about math/development.

90% maths is if you want to create new machine learning models. Some data scientists also just implement techniques other people put in libraries, theyre mostly busy with data collection and tuning models etc. You still need to understand them, but that is undoubtedly easier than creating them yourself
But youre right, you need a good understanding of mathematics either way!

 

[rafark]

Go with software engineering. The DS career has a lot of potential in the future but it's pretty much all about math.

A successful data scientist can make up to 180K/year. However, it's a boring as shit job unless you'll turn into one of those guys who are way too enthusiastic about math/development.

I'm no DS but I find data manipulation extremely fun.

 

[darkblackdark]

I agree, you will need good math skills science its all about statistics, machine learning ( supervised and unsupervised).
machine learning algorithms like aritifial neural networks, or clustering algos like k-means are all math topics. So you would need also to deal about theory stuff

 

[Regalia]

do computer science/software engineering as it is currently much more employable (in short and long term). there are few companies out there that understand data science, and many are not even using it.
you also generally need much higher education than a B.S (PhD or masters) to be taken seriously by a lot of these companies as a data scientist.
that being said, take as many math classes as you can as a computer scientist. a combination of strong CS background and strong math background makes more than just doing one or the other.