How to Become a Data Scientist? only In 3-Simple Steps

Data is required everywhere around us. 📊 We can’t do anything without having a set of numbers and information that will help us understand more about the phenomena in our day-to-day lives.

Are there people who study these numbers and data and use them to explain certain problems? Yes, there are. These people are called data scientists, and they can earn up to $124,297 per year. 💰

If you are someone who has always wanted to become a data scientist, you will be pleased to read this article, in which we have compiled everything that is to know about becoming one. 📑

Question and Answer

If you have any doubts about becoming a data scientist, it’s all right. Choosing the right career for yourself can be hard.

To solve some of your doubts, answer the questions I have given below as honestly as you can.

Do I know how to code?
How many data tools and technology do I know about?
Can I work well with other people in a group?
Do I have good analytical skills?
Am I good with statistics and math?
Can I handle working under pressure?

Step 1: Knowledge

Who is a Data Scientist

Data scientists are people who love experimenting and learning more using numbers. This might seem like a generalization, but data scientists do have to do a lot of work using just numbers and some other forms of information. 🗣️ Simply speaking, they answer questions using data.

Their job might seem similar to a data analyst’s, but it’s very different in certain aspects. While data analysts are people who help support businesses and such to find answers to certain questions, data scientists are people who form the questions ❓ all on their own, and then try to answer them.

Some of these things that they have to do on a regular basis include creating algorithms as well as data models and then using machine learning techniques to improve these. They also have to learn to use various types of data tools ⚒️, patterns, and trends.

Types of Data Scientists

Different Data Scientists work quite differently.

Machine Learning Engineer

Who they are: Machine learning engineers are data scientists who create and implement machine learning models and algorithms.

What do they do: We have to work on creating methods and other tasks to suggest predictive modeling, natural language processing, and recommendation systems.

Statistician

Who they are: Statisticians are data scientists who use advanced statistical techniques to analyze data and then formulate results according to their findings.

What do they do: You will find statisticians working in a variety of different fields such as economics, social sciences, business, and healthcare because they are very useful in finding statistical results.

Big Data Scientist

Who they are: Big data scientists specialized in working with large amounts of data.

What do they do: These people most often work with technologies like Hadoop or Spark to create and implement solutions that will help them process and manage big data sets.

Roles and Responsibility

You need to fulfill your role as a good data scientist and take care of all your responsibilities.

Machine learning and modeling

What they do: They have to build and then train machine learning models.
Why: They do so for purposes like classification, clustering, and predictive analysis.

Data cleaning

What they do: Data cleaning means that they have to gather data from a bunch of different sources and then clean it.
Why: This cleaning is done to make sure that the data they are using is accurate, complete, and ready for analysis.

Data analysis

What they do: Data analysis refers to applying different techniques to analyze data.
Why: Data analysis is done to identify trends and patterns in the data they are using and then develop hypotheses to answer specific research questions.

Hypothesis testing

What they do: Hypothesis testing refers to conducting tests and all of the hypothetical theories they might have made for specific solutions.
Why: Testing helps to come from the impact of the hypothesis.

Expert Skill Sets to be a Data Scientist

There is a certain skill set that Data Scientists have to work on if they want to be good at their jobs.

Programming Skills – They need to have expertise in coding in at least the most popular and used languages in the market right now.
Data Manipulation – This skill is important if they want to learn how to clean, collect, and visualize data.
Big Data Tools – Big Data Tools will help a lot when they have to deal with massive volumes of data.
Experimentation – This skill will help with understanding the gaps and faults of their data, if there are any.

How much can a Data Scientist expert earn?

Data scientists earn a lot. This has everything to do with the skill set they might have, their experience, and the demand for such people in the market. Adding more knowledge, such as being able to use more data tools, is only going to add up your paycheck 💲.

An average data scientist in the United States earns about $124,297 per year as of August 2023. This is a hefty amount, and we have made sure it’s up to date with the recent salary trends.

If you want to know more about the hourly wages ⌛ of a data scientist, it is $53.24 on average in the US.

If you want to work as a data scientist in the United States, then you should try to work in Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Bellevue. These places pay a lot. Palo Alto pays as high as $165,991 per year if you decide to work there.

Scope of Data Scientist

Data science is still one of the most sought-after jobs in the job market right now.

According to studies and an article published by 365 data science, the employment rate for data scientists in the US is predicted to grow by 36% from the year 2021 to 2031.

If we compare this to the average growth rate of every other profession, which is a mere 3-5%, we will find that the demand for data science is growing very rapidly.

The most in-demand technical skills for a data scientist in the US right now are Python and SQL, and you can easily get the average salary if you are able to master these two technical skills.

Right now, the top industries that employ data scientists are IT and tech, followed by financial services. More stats tell us that the top three states in the US that offer the most job opportunities for data scientists are California, Texas, and Virginia.

Step 2: Skill

Top Global Programs

Data science is a very important course and degree option right now. You will find a lot of schools that are willing to offer a very good data science program to aspirants.

Below is a list of the few that are on the top right now, and their courses are the very best. 🔽

Harvard University

What it provides: Harvard University’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences provides a program named Masters of Science in Data Science (MSDS).

What you will learn: It emphasizes real-world problem-solving in the field of data science using statistical methods, data visualization, and ethics in data science.

University of Texas

What it provides: Situated in Austin, the University of Texas 🌵 offers many courses for aspiring data scientists, the first being the Master of Science in Data Science and Analytics (MSDSA), which is offered by the McCombs School of Business.

Another course offered by the university is Data Science Minor, which is an undergraduate course.

What you will learn: It provides a foundational concept of analysis in data with insights on how to solve problems of data-driven real-life challenges.

Columbia University

What it provides: Columbia University offers a program named Data Science for Executives.

What you will learn: These courses focus on building advanced skills related to data analytics, Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and quick decision-making, which covers topics of data ethics, natural language processing, data visualization, and statistical analysis.

New York University

What it provides: NYU provides a Data Science Minor course at an undergraduate level of study and a Master of Science in Data Science (MSDS), which emphasizes a comprehensive understanding of data science concepts and techniques.

What you will learn: There are many seminars, events, and workshops arranged by NYU where experts in the field of data science explain their methods and approaches to solving problems.

University of California, San Diego

What it provides: Its Bachelor’s in Data Science is fine-tuned for those who have very little experience in any field of data science. 📊

What you will learn: It covers various topics of data science, such as big data analytics, computer vision, ethical considerations in data science, and much more.

Free Resources

AWS courses

What it offers: AWS offers a bunch of short, free courses that can help you get the hang of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

What you will learn: There are a bunch of courses on this site that include topics such as generative AI, cloud machine learning, Amazon code whisperer, and much more. You can use all of these to understand and learn more about applying machine learning, artificial intelligence, and deep learning in your career as a data scientist.

The Data Science Course: Complete Data Science Bootcamp 2023

What it offers: Udemy offers this course, which is the perfect option for complete beginners who don’t know where to start learning.

What you will learn: By getting access to this course, you will be able to learn more about the mathematics behind machine learning, Python, statistical analysis skills, programming in some more languages, deep neural networks, real-life business cases, factor analysis, and much more.

Foundations of Data Science

What it offers: This course is focused more on programming with Python and using it for methods like clustering.

What you will learn: The course covers topics like K-means clustering, means and deviations in mathematics and Python, moving from one-dimensional to two-dimensional data, pandas, and more methods of analyzing data.

Data Science Math Skills

What it offers: This course focuses on the mathematical aspect of data science.

What you will learn: The topics in this course include data science, maths skills, building blocks, functions, graphs, rates of change, and probability theory.

Step 3: Job

Job hunting can be a very difficult process, considering the amount of competition nowadays.😟

Amazon Jobs

Overview – Amazon jobs is the job hunting platform Amazon offers for people who want to build up a career with stability.
Highlight – The interface is very much like all of those big platforms on the net in which you get to choose using filters.
Website – Amazon Jobs

Wellfound

Overview – About 130 K+ + text jobs are posted on the site quite regularly, and 6 million matches 🤝 are made every time.
Highlight – Another good thing about this site is that it encourages startups. There are about 8 million plus candidates ready on the site who want to start their very own startup and hire people on board.
Website – Wellfound

Upwork

Overview – Upwork is a freelancing website which is very popular right now
Highlight – Freelancing is the norm nowadays. This has to do with the fact that you get a lot of freedom and benefits when you opt to freelance.
Website – Upwork

In conclusion

We have finished discussing how to become a data scientist. It is going to be a lengthy and difficult process 😟 but we have learned that it has a very good return rate.

If you input the hard work and time required to become successful in this field from the very get-go, you will surely be compensated well enough. If you have more questions, ask away in the comments section.

If reading this article has helped you become determined to do this job, I couldn’t be more happy. Wishing you the very best to become successful in this venture of yours. 😀