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Data Scientist? There is no such thing!

  • Writer: Perry
    Perry
  • Oct 24, 2018
  • 2 min read

I already walked you through the start of my journey as a Self-Taught Data Scientist here. The takeaway from that post is: unlike many other fields, Data Science is vague, confusing and maybe intimidating at first. You realize how doubtful you can be if you do not have proper training and how much you can waste your time studying irrelevant material.


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Before you start learning Data Science, you should really understand what you are getting yourself into.


just like "science", "Data Science" is a broad term. The reason that you usually get confused getting started on Data Science, is because of the inconsistent definitions of Data Science and the huge overlap between roles with various titles.

A Data Engineer, a Business Intelligence (BI) analyst, an ML Engineer, a Statistician or an NLP Engineer may all be called a "Data Scientist" in the job title. There is a huge overlap between all these careers and there is an observed trend: nowadays, BI positions are being called Data Scientist more often, why? Companies can attract more qualified candidates like you if they advertise an analyst role as a scientist one!


In addition, the great overlap between careers means that you as a job seeker can greatly enhance your chance of landing a job by applying for several categories that overlap. As a Statistician you may be qualified to apply for Data Scientist or ML Engineer positions for example.


Let's look at the table below which describes a couple of frequent "types" of DS and their required skills based on their significance.


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As you see, not all "types" of Data Science requires you to have all the skills shown in the word-cloud. For example, you can be a "BI Analyst" type, without much knowledge of software development or Machine Learning.

The takeaway from this post is that instead of paying attention to the job title, pay attention to the job description and NEVER FORGET this: you know more than what you need!


Good Luck Data Scientists to be!

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