Tips and tricks to become a data scientist
Who is a data scientist? The one who practices data science (a field that uses specific methods, processes, and algorithms to extract knowledge from data and apply it across various applications) and finds trends to manage data with their skills is a data scientist. A good data scientist knows how to make the right questions to the problems to get apt solutions. He must have good problem-solving abilities, outstanding technical skills, and brilliant strategic planning skills. In simple words, he must know how to execute a plan to break a complex problem into small sets and determine the best method to organize the available information helpfully.
What skills are needed to become a good data scientist?
- If you have a solid educational background, like if you are from engineering, maths, or IT (not mandatory), then it would be excellent to sharpen your skills in exploring data analysis.
- It would be helpful if you were technically sound with programming languages R or Python.
- If you are familiar with cloud tools such as Amazon S3, it can also be beneficial. Also, if you know how to use the Hadoop platform, it can be helpful for data exploration, data sampling, data filtration, etc.
- SQL is a programming language that can help you carry out analytical functions and transform database structures. It can also help you carry out operations like adding, deleting, and extracting data from a database. Learning SQL (structured query language) will help you efficiently solve complex data problems.
- To save your time while handling complex unstructured data, learning Apache Spark can be helpful.
- It would be best if you have sound knowledge of working with machine learning and AI techniques.
- You must know how to visualize data with the help of data visualization tools such as Tableau, etc. The tools will help you convert complex results from your projects to a format that will be easy to follow.
- You need to constantly stay updated by reading research papers to know about advancements in the data science field.
- Great intellectual curiosity, good communication skills, and effective teamwork can help you a lot. You need to know how to wrangle the data appropriately.
You need to be curious about learning new things and solving problems to develop the best possible ways to organize the existing data. Presenting and communicating technical solutions to a maybe non-technical audience is also a skill that you need to acquire while becoming a good data scientist. Understanding user requirements well and then accordingly solving a business problem is a must. You need to know what kinds of algorithms are best in what kind of scenario. You need to know how much time and effort is required to process the data. The data comes from multiple sources in different forms (like text, images, or videos), so you should know how to convert it into a simpler format. You can look at things from the customer’s point of view and then process the data accordingly. Overall, it would be a lot of fun if you take the job of a data scientist as your passion and not just as a challenging task.
