Complete Guide to Become a Data

Science Professional in 2023!

Introduction

Big congratulations on choosing Data Science as your future career! It’s a great
decision, and soon you will change your life forever.

Data science is a thriving field with a remarkable number of job openings around the
globe. The demand is outstripping the supply! That means there are more vacancies
than qualified data science professionals.

In a way, you can already visualize why it’s the path to future success. There are various
problems you can solve, a whole host of tools you can master, and a broad range of
techniques you can learn and then play around with.
The canvas is in front of you – now it’s your turn to pick up the data science brush and
start painting your way to a successful data science transition.

Take the leap of faith

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Let’s first be clear about Data Science
Data Science consists of collecting, preparing, managing, analyzing, organizing, and
mathematical processing of data and is used to develop solutions to problems a
company or individual faces.
A Data Scientist utilizes analytics, statistics, and software to manage massive amounts
of data, working at different stages of digesting these large data sets in collaboration
with other professionals to solve a problem.

Is Data Science a safe career in 2023?

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, mathematician and statistician roles,
including data scientist jobs, will experience 36% growth between 2021 and 2031, which
is much faster than the average 8% for all occupations. This equates to an annual
increase of approximately 48,800 job opportunities.

Jobs in data science typically have an average base salary of $100,910. Statistics,
Mathematics, Programming, and Project development are all academic fields involved in
data science and are increasing in value due to the demand for big data for nearly every
industry.
What are the most in-demand data science
roles?
1. Data Scientist
Data scientists work closely with business stakeholders to understand their
goals and determine how data can be used to achieve those goals. They design
data modeling processes, create algorithms and predictive models to extract the
data the business needs, and help analyze the data and share insights with
peers.

2. Data Analyst
A data analyst collects, analyzes, evaluates, reviews, and organizes data. A data
analyst will look to organize the data and perform statistical calculations in such
a way that they can find trends in the data as a way to solve a problem for a client
or their employer and inform important business decisions.

3. Data Engineer
Data engineers build systems that can automatically collect, store, manage, and
analyze chunks of data so that other data scientists and mathematicians can
further look at trends and patterns for interpretation. They want to make the
analyzed data easy to understand and digest so the data collected can be
efficiently processed and used for information that can help a company or
customer.

Now, when you combine the knowledge of a Data Engineer, Data Analyst, and Data
Scientist, you get a Full Stack Data Scientist.
What are the key skills required to excel in
the roles mentioned above?

Data science, data analysis, and data engineering are multi-faceted roles. There is no
one-size-fits-all approach to learning these subjects. Having said that, there are a few
core skills you will need to pick up to make a successful career transition to data
science.

Here are the key skills you would need:

● Programming knowledge
● Software engineering (basic)
● Database Systems
● Big Data
● Machine Learning concepts
● Model Deployment

Apart from these core skills, there are other skills you should be aware of, such as:

● Statistics
● Structured Thinking
● Dashboarding
● Deep Learning concepts and many more…..
And now comes the main question: “Howcan you
excel in each of these required skills?”

Ah, the key question! Now that you know what you need to learn, the attention turns to
how you can learn those skills. Let’s look at a few options and suggestions for picking
up and honing the key skills we mentioned above.

Programming Knowledge
Machine Learning has seen a great jump only because of the boost in computing power.
Programming provides us with a way to communicate with machines. In the case of
data science, you must be comfortable with programming but in data engineering, you
need to be good at programming concepts.

First of all, choose the programming language of your choice. Python, R, or Julia are a
few, and each has its own set of Pros and Cons. Python is a general-purpose
programming language with multiple data science libraries and rapid prototyping,
whereas R is a language for statistical analysis and visualization. Julia offers the best of
both worlds and is faster. If you are confused about which language to choose, we have
compiled a resourceful article for you:

● 5 Popular Data Science Languages – Which One Should you Choose for your
Career?
Python is the market leader right now and continues to be widely used in the industry.
It’s a lot easier to perform machine learning tasks using Python due to the availability of
libraries and high support for deep learning. For data engineers, Java is the go-to
language, and most big data frameworks are written in Java. Another appealing
language is Scala!

Database Knowledge
As a hands-on data science professional, you’ll be working a LOT with databases. You
will need them to extract your data, extract subsets, and extract samples.

Hence, having hands-on knowledge of databases is essential. The most common

database language you should pick up is SQL.

SQL is a must-have skill for every data science professional. You should start from the
basics of databases and structured query language (SQL) and learn about everything
you need in any data science profession, including Writing and executing efficient
Queries, Joining multiple tables, and appending and manipulating tables.

Whereas, if you are inclined towards data engineering, you will be required to go deeper
into this field and understand NoSQL in-depth as well. Knowledge of AWS and other
cloud services is also essential.

Big Data
We are generating data at a rate of 2.5 Quintillions per day! Due to the rise of the
internet, social media networks, and IoT, there has been a sudden boom in the rate of
data we are generating. This data is high in volume, velocity, and veracity, forming the
3V’s of Big Data.

Organizations have been overwhelmed with such a large amount of data, and they are
trying to tackle this data by rapidly adopting Big Data Technology so that this data can
be stored properly and efficiently and used when needed.

Hadoop, Spark, Apache Storm, and Flink, Hive are some of the Frameworks/ Tools you
must master.
Statistics
Statistics is the grammar of data science.

When you start learning to write sentences, you must be familiar with grammar to build
the right sentences. Similarly, statistics is an essential concept before you can produce
high-quality models. Machine Learning starts with statistics and then advances. Even
the concept of linear regression is an age-old statistical analysis concept.

The knowledge of the concept of descriptive statistics like mean, median, mode,
variance, the standard deviation is a must. Then come the various probability
distributions, sample and population, CLT, skewness and kurtosis, inferential statistics
– hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, and so on.

Statistics is a MUST concept to become a data scientist. You can deep dive into some
of these concepts with these clear articles and their examples:

● Statistics for Data Science: What is Normal Distribution?

● Statistics for Analytics and Data Science: Hypothesis Testing and Z-Test vs.
T-Test
● Statistics for Data Science: What is Skewness and Why is it Important?

Machine Learning Concepts

For a data scientist, machine learning is the core skill to have. Machine learning is used
to build predictive models. For example, if you want to predict the number of customers
you will have in the next month by looking at the past month’s data, you will need to use
machine learning algorithms.

You can start with a simple linear and logistic regression model and then move ahead to
advanced ensemble models like Random Forest, XGBoost, CatBoost, and so on. It’s a
good thing to know the code for these algorithms (which just takes 2-3 lines) but what’s
most important is to know how they work. This will help you in hyperparameter tuning
and ultimately a model that gives a low error rate.

If you are looking for specialization, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Computer
Vision are two fields that are absolutely thriving right now. Each requires you to dive
deep into those specific fields so make sure you’re aware of what you’re getting into.
Structured Thinking
Structured thinking is the process of putting a framework to an unstructured problem.
Having a structure helps an analyst understand the problem at a macro level and helps
identify areas that require deeper understanding.

Without structure, an analyst is like a tourist without a map. He/She might understand
where he/she wants to go (or what he wants to solve), but he/she doesn’t know how to
get there. He/She would not be able to judge which tools and vehicles he would need to
reach the desired place.

How often have you encountered a situation when the entire work had to be redone
because a particular segment was not excluded from the data? Or a segment was not
included? Or, just when you were about to finish the analysis, did you come across a
factor you did not think of before? All these are results of poorly structured thinking.

Dashboarding
Data Science projects are more of a treasure-hunting job, the treasure being the insights
you fetch from the data. The question is what is the price of the treasure? Well, that is
decided by your stakeholders. The only way to get a good price is to be able to
communicate how insightful the results are and how this treasure can help them in
improving the profits and organization.

This is where dashboarding comes in. A lot of data science transitioners ignore the
dashboarding aspect because they focus on model building. But being able to
communicate your thoughts and your key results to the stakeholder – that’s what
separates a good data scientist from an amateur one.

Spending time understanding what dashboarding is and how it works will give you a
huge advantage.
Focus on Gaining Hands-On and Practical
Experience in Data Science

Whatever we have covered so far has a lot to do with understanding different data
science concepts. We’ve covered both the technical side (programming, machine
learning, statistics, etc.) and the soft skills aspect (structured thinking).

So, what’s the next step for you in your transition journey?

It’s time to apply your knowledge in a practical scenario! Yes, you need to marry your
theoretical knowledge with hands-on practical experience to truly stand out as a data
science transitioner. There are broadly three ways you can do this:

1. Participate in hackathons: This is perhaps the most popular option to gain

practical knowledge. Data science competitions and hackathons are awesome!
You’ll love the variety of business problems we get to solve and when we add in
the pressure of finding a solution under a tight deadline – it’s a great learning
experience. Data Science hackathons are a great way to
○ Test your data science knowledge
○ Compete against top data science experts from around the world and
gauge where you stand
○ Get hands-on practice with a data science problem working in a deadline
environment
○ Improve your existing data science skillset
○ Enhance your existing data science resume
2. Pick up open-source data science projects: One key thing that has helped
transitioners immensely is picking an open-source data science project and
running with it. This not only helps you understand the key areas you need to
improve on but also shows you the way forward. And these projects aren’t your
run-of-the-mill data science projects. These are specific projects that tackle a
certain data science sub-field, such as computer vision, web analytics, and so on.
The project could be a dataset, a state-of-the-art library that has brought the data
science field forward, or even an open-source analytics tool. So, pick a project
that intrigues you and start working on it today!

3. Apply for data science internships: This is the most popular path to breaking into
the data science industry. Even for experienced people – internships are a very
effective way to break into data science. We have now seen so many successful
transitions enabled by internships. Not only do you gain hands-on experience in
data science, but you also get to learn how the industry works and how a typical
data science project functions. It’s an invaluable experience!

4. Deploy a machine learning model: Once you have made the complete data
science project, it is time for the intended user/ stakeholder to reap the benefits
of the predictive power of your machine learning model. In simple words, this is
model deployment. This is one of the most important steps from a business
point of view and the least taught one. Remember that the end-users are the
stakeholders, and the model may need to be used by multiple people at the same
time who are NOT data scientists. Therefore they’ll not be running a Jupyter or
Colab notebook on GPUs. This is where you need a complete process of model
deployment.

5. Earn a certification: There’s no denying that any skill is incomplete without a

credible certification. There are many choices in terms of getting yourself
upgraded in the market today and choosing one that fits your needs can be
challenging. Analytics Vidhya provides one of the most credible data science
certifications in the market: Data Science Immersive Bootcamp program with a
100% job guarantee! 8 months, an average salary of ₹8,30,000 and a 250% salary
hike, this program is all you need to land your dream job in no time! What’s more?
100+ hiring partners actively looking to hire entry-level data scientists! Right time
to enroll? Now!
Stay up to date with current developments in
the domain

This is another essential aspect of working in data science. We’ve seen the majority of
transitioners skip this step and focus exclusively on picking up machine-learning
concepts – don’t do that!

Data science is still a very nascent field. We see major breakthroughs happening on a
regular basis (sometimes a weekly basis!) and it can become difficult to keep up with all
that’s happening. But if you can find time to catch up on the latest developments, you’ll
already have an edge over your competition.

Let us give you an example. The Natural Language Processing (NLP) field has come a
long way in the last 3 years (since 2017). We see a new language model seemingly
every week that builds on the last major breakthrough. If you can keep up with this pace,
if you can spend a bit of time understanding what’s going on, you’ll gain invaluable
knowledge that your peers won’t have.

So what are the different ways in which you can stay up to date in the vast space of data
science? Here are three suggestions based on our experience:

1. Follow Newsletters and blogs: This is the easiest way to stay abreast of
developments. There are plenty of good newsletters out there (just do a quick
Googe search) that will send you weekly updates. You can also subscribe to
blogs like Analytics Vidhya to check out the latest tools and techniques in data
science.
 2. Follow People: Another no-brainer! The data science community is a great place
to connect with fellow transitioners, experts, and industry veterans. You’ll be
surprised how approachable these experts are; they’re always willing to share
their knowledge and advice. Find these people on platforms like LinkedIn and
keep following them regularly.

3. Attend MeetUps: This one requires a bit of effort, but the eventual payout can be
HUGE. Meetups offer you an unparalleled opportunity to meet your fellow
transitioners and connect with them, learn from them, and build a rapport that
might benefit both parties. Over time, once you are comfortable with core
machine learning concepts, you can even try and speak at these meetups to build
your profile.

The big salary question – what can you expect from this transition?

Making a career switch to data science to get a salary bump is justified. However, it isn’t
as straightforward as you might think. There are certain things, such as work experience
and your current domain, that will play a MASSIVE role in deciding your salary
post-transition.

Taking figures from the popular and relatively accurate website called Glassdoor, this is
what the salary situation looks like for a data scientist, data engineer, and data analyst:

How much does a Data Scientist make in India?

How much does a Data Scientist make in the US?

How much does a Data Engineer make in India?

How much does a Data Engineer make in the US?

How much does a Data Analyst make in India?

How much does a Data Analyst make in the US?

How much does a Senior Data Scientist make in India?

How much does a Senior Data Scientist make in the US?

How much does a Senior Data Engineer make in India?

How much does a Senior Data Engineer make in the US?

How much does a Senior Data Analyst make in India?

How much does a Senior Data Analyst make in the US?

Final Thoughts
Now that you are aware of the various components you’ll need to put together to make
this career transition, are you prepared to buckle up and take this thrilling journey? The
payoff is immense, but as you might have gathered, you’ll face plenty of obstacles. Your
eventual success will come down to how well you can get past these hurdles.

If you want to start your Data Science journey and get all the resources you need in one
place along with a 100% job guarantee, you can join the Data Science Immersive
Bootcamp program.