In the ever-increasing world of data and information technology, various roles open up for people to start and build their careers on. In other instances, traditional careers utilize new technology to bring in new positions that can benefit early adopters and career-driven individuals. This is the case of data science: a field that centers on mathematics and computer science. A data scientist plays an important role in decoding large volumes of data and present it through a good analysis of its trends to draw a deeper insight on what it means or entails. Additionally, one utilizes their business knowledge with IT to analyze complex dataset that draw a good insight on companies to guide them in leveraging good actions for their strategies. Essentially, data science is a lucrative career that one can venture into if they have the right mindset and skills in Mathematics to build strong analysis on companies and organizations.

Building a successful career in Data Science will require one to harness their education level, build soft and hard skills, and create a good network that will support them in their job search. Currently, the market dictates one to have a university qualification as a basic requirement. However, others overlook it as the field majors on one’s knowledge of programming languages such as SQL, Python R or Julia. Developing hard skills in these programming languages places one at a better advantage over others. Additionally, soft skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving and communication helps one analyze and present their data in a language best understood by other professionals. Beyond hard and soft skills, one should strive in learning about data visualization and reporting, machine learning and math, as well as working with big data. All this education is futile if one lacks the right networks, where one can link up with fellow data scientists or gain opportunities in the field. One can start by meeting up local data scientists in their area for their regular or annual meetups. Making a connection or two will spearhead their ability to gain further knowledge and get an opportunity to work on projects. Additionally, be open to engage in data science tasks no mater how small they are as they play a part in one’s growth. Join various networking spaces such as DataCamp Workspace to expand one’s network and gain further knowledge. Ideally, the field of Data Science is robust and intriguing to individuals that envision a career in the field.