Nowadays, data scientist position has taken more attention from companies. Many companies require a lot of data scientist to help them to process their data to be more useful. But how to become a data scientist?
Before we talk about how to become a data scientist, let’s talk about why become a data scientist.
If you want know more about the definition of data science and data scientist, you can read this article: What is data science.
Why become a data scientist
Advances in technology have made “data” to be the most valuable asset in today’s world. What makes companies valuable is the volume, uniqueness, and quality of the data they have collected over years of their service.
The volume of data has grown exponentially, especially if companies develop services or create new services. The increase in the volume of data will be unstoppable. This is the term “big data” started to be known.
You can read more about the definition of data and big data in this article: What is data and big data.
Today’s companies are always in need of more qualified people who can properly work with this huge data collection and help solve real problems for companies and help them continuously improve their products and services.
A data scientist is one of the most precious position in a company. Companies have claimed that data scientist can help them to read the data to be more insightful. They can understand more about behaviour of their customer. They can predict the future using data through artificial intelligence (AI). So many opportunity after they leveraged their data.
That’s why become a data scientist will help you to earn more money.
How to become a data scientist
If you want to become a data scientist, these steps may help you to achieve that:
Get Bachelor’s in Data Science Degree Program
You can be a data scientist through a formal education. You can go to university and get bachelor’s in data science degree program.
Students who major in data science as undergraduates study mathematics, statistics, and computer science and learn to use algorithms, statistical methods, and analytics software to extract information from large data sets.
In addition, some undergraduate programs in data science may incorporate coursework in business analytics, which introduces students to various business applications of data science.
Non Formal Way
If you cannot go to university to study in data science major, don’t be upset. You have still another options to become a data scientist.
As we know, we can learn everything through Youtube, self learning platform, and so on.
What we have to learn and master to become a data science?
- Learn Programming Language
Learn programming language is a must if you want to be a data scientist.
You can learn any programming language. But, our suggestion is you can take Python. Why? Python is the arguably the most popular programming language out there for its simplicity (readability) and usefulness.
Some programming languages are overloaded with parentheses, brackets, braces, commas and colons, but Python is simpler in that respect and also eliminates redundancy. - Understand Statistics and Mathematics
You need to understand various Statistics and Mathematics concepts in general to understand data processing using statistics and mathematics. Statistics is generally considered as one of the pillars of Data Science. - Learn Database and SQL
Learn about database will make you understand about how the data stored in databases. You will understand the data structure and data relation.
Learn about database will make you to understand how do you get data sources for your data science project.
SQL (Structured Query Language) is a language completely designed to interact with these databases. You need to know SQL to do many things like add, modify, or pull data from this database quickly. - Understand Algorithms
Algorithms are as important to computer programs as recipes for cooking. The algorithm will give you a set of instructions to follow, a guide, to implement your code efficiently. - Take Data Science Course
Today, a lot of self learning platforms are available in the internet. You can take Data Science Course on there. Usually, they offer some courses for beginner to advance.
That’s all, if you want to become a data scientist, it’s better if you start it right now. Good luck!