In today’s world, Data Science is a field that has been widely evolving due to the increased demand over the past few years. Data Science refers to collecting data insight from raw data, data interpretation, data manipulation and visualisation. It has become one of the biggest tools of the modern generation that helps businesses grow and organizations develop from scratch with the help of additional metrics such as business analytics. Moreover, in order to properly pursue careers in these streams of data analytics and interpretation, numerous online courses on Data Science and Business Analytics.
If you are an aspiring data scientist, a few basic skills like intermediate level Mathematics, statistics, communication skill, machine learning skills etc., are critical to getting started. However, it can be exhausting to figure out legit sources that you can learn these skills. Before getting into that, please go through the mandatorily needed skills in this field to give you a better understanding of the entire scenario.
Skills you need to have to become a Data Scientist:
- You need to have at least a basic level of knowledge in any basic programming language like Python.
- Basic software engineering skills are essential in this field. To write complex code, you need to have a basic understanding of the software domain.
- Data wrangling and data mining are two important aspects of the entire procedure that you need to consider before pursuing data science as a career choice.
- A basic understanding of complex patterns like CatBoost, Random Forest, and XGBoost can come across as your advantage over others who do not have expertise in these domains.
- The power of analysing leads to visualisation. This stage is an end goal that data scientists with extensive interpretation power can reach. Visualisation is the final stage that explains what exactly is wrong in your system and how it can be fixed. You need to predict and visualise things beforehand to take action at the moment. Therefore, analytical and visualisation skills are fundamental as well.
- Apart from some of the other skills, these can be considered the essential skills you need to have if you are a beginner. Now, let’s look at the sources you can learn these skills from in today’s world.
Sources to learn Data Science from:
If you are considering a career in data science, you might as well start enhancing those skills mentioned above from now on, no matter what your age is. In today’s world, there are a plethora of resources that you can start learning the basic skills from.
- Make use of the internet. You will find everything you need to learn on a basic level on the internet for free. YouTube videos and genuine websites can actually help you in this journey more than you realise. All you have to do is do the proper Google searches whenever needed and get the proper resources.
- However, suppose you already have certain skills and you want to enhance them with a professional level of understanding. In that case, you can consider buying one or two online courses that will provide you with the entire skill sets, its basics, and applications. There are both free and paid courses available online that professionals offer. This is a great way to improve yourself if you already have the basic skills necessary for this field. Various sites like Coursera, EDX, Udacity, IBM, Data Quest, and KDM Nuggets offer courses on data science. They offer courses for both beginners and intermediate level candidates.
- You can check out several quizzes and competitions that keep taking place on the internet to improve your skills. It might seem like something only professionals would be experts in. however, it is not the case. As a student, you can gain a lot of information and knowledge from these online quizzes. You will also have an overview of the level of competition you might have to deal with in this field.
- In today’s world, where almost everything can be learned and researched from online sources, books still have a great amount of unparalleled value addition power. Several bestselling books are available in the market on data science, its basics, and the application process. You can always get your hands on some of those and learn from there as well. Books like ‘Introduction to Machine Learning with Python: A Guide for Data Scientists’ by Sarah Guido, ‘The Art of Data Science’ by Elizabeth Matsui, and ‘R for Data Science’ by Hadley Wickham are some of the examples of books that you can try reading. If you are not someone who likes it doing the old-school way, try getting a few ebooks instead. They are equally helpful as long as your growth in this field is concerned.
- Choosing a mentor from the same field can also be extremely beneficial when knowing all the practical first-hand experiences of working as a professional. Network with your seniors, friends, family members in the same field, and ask them about the industry, how it functions, skills required daily, etc. This can give you exposure and an overview of the entire work culture that will eventually help you in your professional journey in the future.
- The best way, however, would be to learn from your own experience. Learning comes with experience. The more exposure you get, the more skills you learn and continue doing it until you are a pro in this field. Self-learning, therefore, can be the best way for people out there who can manage themselves and have good learning skills. No matter what the business size is, every business uses data science in some form. Get into internships, part-time jobs, work under professionals to add more skillsets constantly.
Is a Data Science degree/ Certificate Mandatory?
If you aim to become a data scientist, it all boils down to the skills and experience you have in the field at the end of the day. Certified courses can be beneficial and teach you several important skills essential in the professional field.
However, certification in data science is not considered mandatory in this field. But if you have one, that can be a good advantage to use in your career. Start analysing what kind of a data science course you can do to hone your professional skills and apply them in real life. If it provides you with a certificate, that is great. However, certificates do not matter as much as your skills and experience do.
However, degrees can play a huge role in this scenario and get you a job. Nonetheless, you have to keep upgrading your skills to become a better professional with each passing day without relying solely on degrees and certificates.
Key Responsibility of Data Scientists:
Professional data scientists’ main work revolves around extracting insight from raw data, analysing them, understanding the data processing, foreseeing the results, and working on the loopholes to make their organisation’s position more secure and successful in the industry. Therefore, mathematical, analytical, and basic software skills are essential in the field of data science.
Conclusion:
If you are an aspiring data scientist who is clueless or a beginner with little to no experience, consider applying these points mentioned above to improve your skills and become a professional in the long run. Data science can be really tricky at times, especially for people with less experience. Therefore, it is important to consider your certification in Data Science very carefully. Still, no matter where you are learning these skills from, working on one’s skillset never goes wrong as long as improvement in this field is concerned.
