Data science is an emerging and developing field of science that is interdisciplinary in nature. Data scientists are in high demand and by 2026 there will be 11.5 million job openings as per Michael Page India’s’ The Humans of Data Science’ report. But as a student wishing to study in Top 5 Colleges in Coimbatore for Engineering or a parent guiding your children, you may be confused about how to become a data scientist. The complete guidance to becoming a data scientist follows up.
Table of Contents
The Complete Guide for Students to become a Data Scientist
What is the role of a data scientist?
Data analyst vs Data scientist
Steps to follow to become a Data Scientist
Data Scientist Qualifications in India
Subjects to study in school to become a data scientist
What undergraduate course should you study to become a data scientist?
Is it essential to have a post-Graduate degree and a doctoral degree to become a data scientist?
Becoming a data scientist by learning additional courses
Skills essentials for a data scientist
Salary of a data scientist in India
Best companies in India that recruit data scientist
Best Data Science Colleges in India 3
Who is a data scientist?
In this modern era where we use the internet and technology, we generate a lot of complex data in a large amount, commonly known as Big Data. Using this data for the development of our technology and society is what the data scientist does.
What is the role of a data scientist?
A data scientist collects, organises, and analyses either structured or unstructured data to solve a problem. The problem can be faced in any field, such as search engines like Google, e-commerce platforms like Amazon, OTT platforms like Netflix, the research field, the medical field, for the government to strategize on policies for people, to market a product, etc. Data is involved everywhere and can be a source of solutions to many problems. An example of a data scientist’s work: Google places ads according to what you search for. If you must have searched for “wristwatches to buy online”, the next day when you search for something else, you will find ads popping up for wristwatches. Your data is curated by Google using algorithms and data scientists work behind this process.
Data analyst vs Data scientist
A data analyst evaluates, analyses and condenses the data which is a less complicated work than that of a data scientist. Data analysts do not form strategies and solutions as data scientists. Data scientists work on creating new procedures, protocols, and algorithms to collect data that can be used by data analysts to analyse. So, data scientists are designated at a higher position than data analysts and are paid high.
Steps to follow to become a Data Scientist
The step-by-step approach to follow from your school studies to higher education to become a Data Scientist:
- Get proper higher secondary and UG education related to data science.
- You can either join a PG course specializing in data science or take a certification course or join work as an entry-level data scientist and gain professional work experience.
- Pursue a doctoral degree (Ph.D) in data science to broaden your opportunities and get a higher position with a salary more than the national average.
- Keep yourself updated with new data science technologies every day to sustain yourself successfully as a data scientist in a long run.
Data Scientist Qualifications in India
As data science is an interdisciplinary field it needs at least some basic knowledge from various fields to get a hold in the industry. Let’s now see how to choose your subjects and courses from school till your doctorate to become an expert data scientist.
Subjects to study in school to become a data scientist
If your higher secondary education has subjects like mathematics, computer science and statistics it will be an advantage when you plan to pursue under graduation in data science
What undergraduate course should you study to become a data scientist?
Search for the undergraduate courses that specifically deal with data science. But finding such a degree in India is difficult. A deemed university in Coimbatore for engineering, the Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, provides courses targeting data science. They provide B.Tech Artificial Intelligence and Data Science and B.Sc Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence and Data Science). Joining a UG course like this will help you learn data science from scratch. If you could not get admission in specialized UG courses as there are only fewer data science courses available and competition is more, you can join in UG courses such as B.E Computer Science, BSc. Mathematics
BSc. Mathematics, BSc.Statistics, etc which relates to data science and then do a course in data science or pursue a PG degree in data science.
Is it essential to have a post-Graduate degree and a doctoral degree to become a data scientist?
Data scientists who are highly paid are the ones with Postgraduate degrees and Doctoral degrees. To improve your opportunities and develop your knowledge you can think of doing higher studies in data science. Highly qualified Data scientists have high opportunities in India and abroad as well.
Becoming a data scientist by learning additional courses
There are also many certification courses available via which you can specialize and upgrade your knowledge in data science. You can also enrol and complete such courses to pursue your career as a data scientist.
Skills essentials for a data scientist
Data scientists need data specialized knowledge from different fields such as computer science, coding, statistics, mathematics, informatics, information technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc. This doesn’t mean you should master all these fields, but knowledge in all these fields is essential to excel as an expert data scientist.
Data scientists use different types of data and analyze them using software such as SAS, BigML, Apache Spark, etc to bring about effective solutions and strategies. They follow a lot of data points, scrutinize the data and a lot of functionalities should be performed by data scientists.
Other skills that are much required for a data scientist are,
- Python Coding
- R Programming
- SQL Database/Coding
- Hadoop Platform
- AI and Machine Learning
- Data Visualization
Data science is updating every day and you need to keep updated all the time with the new technologies arriving.
Salary of a data scientist in India
As a fresher you can earn up to ₹5,00,000 per annum as a data scientist, with more than 5 years of experience you can earn more than ₹10,00,000 per annum and a senior data scientist earns around ₹20,00,000 per annum. These salaries are just indicative, and these values may rise in future as big MNC companies are recruiting data scientists for a higher pay scale.
Best companies in India that recruit data scientist
Many IT and MNC companies well known to you recruit data scientists in India, some are,
- Amazon
- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
- Accenture
- LatentView Analytics
- HData Systems
- Cartesian Consulting
- Oracle Cloud Solution Hubs
- IBM
- HCL
- MYNTRA
- Flipkart
Many companies follow this list and many more established MNCs are also following suit due to the increased application of data science.
Best Data Science Colleges in India
Undergraduate and postgraduate courses specialising in data science are very rare in India due to high competition. It is available only at famous institutes like IITs and IIMs, but there are no full-time courses there either. But Artificial Intelligence Colleges in Coimbatore are now providing full time courses. It is the best engineering college in Coimbatore. Karpagam is a deemed university with “A” grade NAAC accreditation and is ranked 251-300 in the NIRF 2021 ranking. As mentioned above, there are B.Tech in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science and B.Sc in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence and Data Science) programmes available. You can visit https://kahedu.edu.in/for admissions. The data science field is fast growing with more research and development. With evolving new technologies like metaverse, data scientists have a high level of opportunities globally. If you like to be a data scientist, you can confidently select this as your career and work efficiently to become an expert data scientist.
