Whenever you apply for a position in any of your preferred fields of work, the remuneration package is one of the deciding factors amongst many others. Data Science has been a field of work that has garnered a massive inflow of aspirants and keen players looking at building a lasting career.
About Data Science
Understanding data science is not a cakewalk. Although, as the name suggests, Data Science is the field of study of data in order to facilitate meaningful business insights. This multi-faceted approach is an amalgamation of principles and practices ranging across the realms of mathematics, statistics, artificial intelligence, and computer engineering. This leads to yielding targeted insights from a large pool of data.
Understanding Data Scientists
Data Scientists use data to understand and explain the phenomena around them and help organizations make better decisions. Working as a certified data scientist in the industry; calls for experience ranging over years and performing well in challenging situations.
What is the hype about?
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the employment rate for data scientists to go up by 36% by 2031, beginning in the year 2021. Data science is deemed to be one of the most flourishing career options in the world. As the job role involves data extraction, preparation, visualization, and maintenance to assist businesses in making better-informed decisions and driving amplified business growth. Also, another report by the Economic Times states that by 2026, 11.5 million new data science job roles would come into the worldwide market. With the rising data generation in giant corporate across the globe, data science is going to gain strength in the future as well. Isn’t that a massive number to earn big in the years to follow?
Is it a promising career?
Data science is a highly sought-after career choice for aspirants across the globe. With eth above statistics flourishing to the surface, it makes it an even more trusted work field for the years to come.
Are you the one?
To become one among the gazillion trained professionals in the world of data science, it is essential to understand the basics of the role.
- Earn a bachelor’s degree in STEM or equivalent
- Master the relevant in-demand programming languages
- Soft skills include being a great communicator, collaborator, decision-maker, etc
- Get equipped with credible data science certifications
- Earn Internships overtime
- Begin with entry-level positions
- Build as you grow with diverse job roles
What salary to expect?
Building a stronger base in the educational and skillsets bucket, you are set to gain big in the global job market for a certified data scientist. Believing Glassdoor, an average data scientist’s salary looks like USD 121,242 annually in the USA. Looking at Thebalancemoney.com records showcasing the salaries for different industry professionals in the USA:
- Management and related occupations- USD 75,868 annually
- Service occupations- USD 36,764 annually
- Sales and office occupations- USD 45,084 annually
- Natural resources construction, and maintenance occupations- USD 50,128 annually
- Production, transportation, and material moving occupations- USD 41,964 annually
It clearly shows that a skilled data scientist sits comfortably on a higher pedestal. Bringing forth the data on location-based salary insights as per Indeed April 2023 records in the USA;
- Boston recorded an average of USD 143,181 annually
- Los Angeles- USD 133,879
- Houston- USD 133,279
- Chicago- USD 119,849
- Washington- USD 136,583 annually
This comes across as an interesting confirmation as the data industry is destined to grow stronger with every passing day. The hefty amount of data generated, consumed, copied, and stored is projected to reach over 180 zettabytes by the year 2025 (excerpts from Firstsiteguide).
Factors affecting your data scientist salary:
Although, several factors can be listed when thinking of the best data scientist salary. The following are the top-rated deciding factors for the same:
- Education
- Experience
- Job titles
- Location
- Industry segment
Coupled with the above-listed factors, an aspirant’s persona, attitude, pro-activeness, communication skills, grasping sense, prompt learning ability, and flexibility are other critical factors determining your salary structure in this highly competitive industry of data specialists.
How to enjoy a surge in your data scientist salary?
The higher the education and experience level, the higher the salary package. Never forget to:
- Upskilling yourself over time with newer data scientists’ skills inclusive of Machine learning, deep learning, artificial intelligence, risk analysis, cloud tools, data analysis platforms, programming languages, statistics, data mining and cleaning, big data, data warehousing, and structures, among others.
- Building an impressive data scientist portfolio by leveraging the highest and most impressive projects and certifications
- Utilizing your power of persuasion when applying to startups
- Grabbing every opportunity of accepting base salaries and higher performance-based incentives
- Do not negotiate salaries beyond a point as large companies follow a structured approach when it comes to offering a salary.
Conclusion
With lucrative data scientist salary packages being offered by Pinterest, Uber, Crayon Data, Accenture, Oracle, Microsoft, Snapchat, Lyft, and other industry giants- the role of a data scientist has become one of the most sought-after work profiles around the world. Records show that being skillful is going to pay you handsomely in the long run. Build a lasting data scientist career by adding on impressive skillsets. Let the gains begin!
