{"id":3215,"date":"2012-09-05T07:00:09","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.formtek.com\/blog\/?p=3215"},"modified":"2012-09-05T07:00:09","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T15:00:09","slug":"big-data-what-makes-a-data-scientist-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/formtek.com\/blog\/big-data-what-makes-a-data-scientist-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Data: What Makes a Data Scientist Good?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rise of Big Data brings along with it a need to have skilled workers that can analyze and make sense out of all of it. \u00a0These workers are being called ‘data scientists.’<\/p>\n

Mike Driscoll, the founder of Big Data company, Metamarkets,\u00a0 said<\/a> that a\u00a0data scientist can be thought of as “the interdisciplinary athlete of the modern organization.”<\/p>\n

Who are data scientists today? \u00a0A survey by SiSense <\/a>found that data scientists are mostly male — 80 percent. \u00a085 percent of them have college degrees; 39 percent have a Master’s degree; and 5 percent are PhD’s.<\/p>\n

So we know a little bit about the demographics of a data scientist, but what does it take to be a great data scientist? \u00a0Bill Franks<\/a>, chief analytics officer for the data warehouse appliance vendor Teradata, told SearchBusinessAnalytics.com<\/a> that “As much as you’d like to follow the book and go by what the formulas say, the data is never as complete as you’d like, the data is never as clean as you’d like, and the problem is never as well-defined as it would be in a textbook. \u00a0The really good analytics professionals and data scientists are those that are able to understand the business problem; they’re able to apply creativity and present the results well.”<\/p>\n

Tom Wheeler<\/a>, senior vice president of development at customer interaction analysis firm ClickFox, said <\/a>in a Forbes article\u00a0that “A data scientist can find patterns in data that you haven\u2019t sent them to find. \u00a0You don\u2019t send a data scientist for a specific business function; you provide a massive amount of data and free rein to use their skills to discern patterns in that data… Companies are designing very specific schemas, going after specific business problems, and trying to reduce everything to transactions and customer-based data. \u00a0But they\u2019re not getting much value out of the investment in all of that storage capacity. What a data scientist gives you is the ability to look at the data in a different way than throwing classic BI tools at it or trusting an outsourced solution to do the statistical analysis for you.\u201d”<\/p>\n

Jason Ward<\/a>, country manager for Ireland, EMC, said <\/a>that “Chief executives should get ahead of the curve now and start identifying people in their organizations who have proven themselves as both technically adroit and analytically creative. It is important not to confine the review to IT professionals. \u00a0The big data team should draw heavily from disciplines capable of thinking beyond typical linear problem-solving. Then, invest in them through training and certifications in big data analytics and data science, which colleges are beginning to develop”<\/div>\n
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The rise of Big Data brings along with it a need to have skilled workers that can analyze and make sense out of all of it. \u00a0These workers are being called ‘data scientists.’ Mike Driscoll, the founder of Big Data…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

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