There is a lot of uproar in the market about data science, and I’m sure you too must have heard about it. Experts believe that data science is the most fruitful career opportunity one can have in this modern era. In this article, we will cover the basics of data science and the work one has to do as a data scientist.
What is Data Science?
It is basically developing methods of storing and analyzing data to extract valuable insights. The ultimate goal of data science is to obtain information from any type of data and those insights will further help the organization to make better decisions. In turn, improving the growth and market share of a company.
Most people have a misconception that data science is a programming language. It is a technology that requires three key ingredients: the first ingredient being domain knowledge, the second ingredient being statistics, and probability, and the third ingredient being programming skills.
Let us understand the concept of data science with an example.
Suppose, you own a liquor store, and the sale is remarkably higher on Saturdays and Sundays. So with the help of data science, we can find out the reason behind it. We will collect the data regarding customers and analyze it to find out why they prefer to booze on Saturdays and Sundays.
This was just a simple example but in reality, data science is applied in almost all the big organizations before they make any critical decision.
Who is a Data Scientist?
To put it in simple words, the Data scientist is an expert who practices Data Science. They crack the complex data using their technical and non-technical skills, various methodologies, and algorithms to drive out valid conclusions. So, the management can make decisions backed with data.
What does a data scientist do?
Data scientists have to work closely with management and stakeholders to get a knack of their goals and determine how data can be used to achieve those goals.
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And on the basis of those goals, they create algorithms, predictive models, and design data modeling processes, to extract, collect, store and analyze the data and share insights with peers.
The typical process for gathering and analyzing data goes like this:
1. Ask the right questions to begin the discovery process and obtain data.
2. Process and clean the collected data
3. Integrate and store data
4. Initial data investigation and exploratory data analysis
5. Choosing potential models and algorithms
6. Applying data science techniques to measure and improve results
7. Present final result to management and stakeholders
8. Make adjustments based on feedback
9. Repeat the process to solve a new problem
Common Data Scientist Job Titles
The most common roles in data science are as follows:
- Data scientists: They design processes to create predictive models and algorithms and perform custom analysis to gain insights from data.
- Data analysts: Data analysts analyze and manipulate large datasets and use them to get meaningful conclusions and identify trends to make strategic business decisions.
- Data engineers: Main work of data engineers is to learn, aggregate, and organize data from different sources and transfer it to data warehouses.
The business world is in severe need of smart and creative people who can dive deep inside the ocean of data and help businesses and economies to grow.
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