Reasons Why Data Science Will Continue To Be the Most Desirable Job Of the Decade Organizations are looking to create a skilled talent pool that can provide technical expertise and move faster in the competitive environment
By Hari Krishnan Nair •
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In recent years, data science has emerged as one of the most prominent career choices for fresh graduates as well as working professionals across hierarchical levels. The demand for skilled professionals in the field of data science has grown remarkably owing to the urgent need for strategic decision-making tailored for specific regions. Organizations are looking to create a skilled talent pool that can provide technical expertise and move faster in the competitive environment. According to Han Digital, the demand for data science experts has grown across sectors, IT services companies employ the majority (40 per cent) of the data science talent pool from India, followed by global in-house centres or captives in India with a 30 per cent market share. Here are key reasons for this growing demand.
Data has become the backbone of business decision making: Organizations generate a huge amount of data regularly. According to estimates, the total amount of data created, copied, captured and consumed in the world is likely to reach 149 zettabytes by 2024, as compared to two zettabytes generated in the year 2010. Data science has proven to be a powerful tool to extract meaningful insights from this large chunk of data. These insights help organizations in determining any prominent changes that are to be made basis the changing consumer behavior, shortcomings of previous solutions, forthcoming challenges and competition analysis. Most of the organizations today rely on strategic decisions backed by technology. This has become a major factor that has fueled the demand for skilled talent in the field of data science.
Dearth of skilled talent pool: While the demand for professionals adept in data science skills is at an all-time high, there is a major demand-supply gap due to the non-availability of skilled talent. In order to meet this acute shortage, many organizations are investing in training their employees through tie ups with edtech companies as well as launching internal training programs.
Highly lucrative career opportunity: Owing to the massive dearth of skilled professionals in the domain, organizations are willing to pay a premium and offer long-term incentives to attract and retain talent. According to Michael Page's 2021 India Talent Trends report, professionals with 3-10 years of experience receive an annual salary ranging between INR 25-65 lakh and those with more experience can command packages upwards of INR 1 crore. It further mentioned that experts with more than 15 years of experience can receive a salary up to INR 1.8 crore.
Omnipresence of jobs: Whether large or small, organizations irrespective of their sizes and industries are banking on technology for better efficiency. Industries such IT, BFSI, retail, healthcare, telecommunication and e-commerce are actively hiring data analytics professionals with salary increments to the tune of 35-45 per cent. Data science professionals today act as the backbone for organizations to harness data and meet their strategic goals.
Low entry barriers for existing professionals: Data science domain comes with very few entry barriers and allows for professionals from diverse backgrounds to join the workforce. It demands candidates to have proficiency in technical as well as business skills and with the availability of quality learning programs, anyone with the willingness to learn has the opportunity to enter this domain. The secret sauce lies in learning the required skills as well as improving the existing ones. Individuals can acquire good statistical and data mining techniques, programming languages, machine learning and advanced analytics by enrolling for a high quality upskilling program.
A large selection of roles within the field: The field of data science has a lot to offer to freshers and professionals. One may choose to opt for a job role based on their interest as well as experience level. Some of the job roles that are high in demand include data scientist, data architect, BI engineer, business analyst, data engineer, database administrator, data and analytics manager.
With the growth data science is witnessing across the globe, there are massive job opportunities available across industries resulting in the huge demand for skilled talent in this domain. Anyone who is looking to create an impact in this field should identify the skills required and should focus on acquiring the same by opting for the right learning program that best suits their profile.
