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How to Start a Second Career as a Data Scientist

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carby Angela Guess

Aaron Beach recently wrote in IT Pro Portal, “Let’s say you’re a marketer with a passion for numbers; maybe you’d describe yourself as a bit of a stats geek and you love an illustrated workflow. What if you’re having a change of heart on your chosen career? What if you now want to retrain as a data scientist? The fact of the matter is, there is a growing global demand for competent data analysts and PhDs within data science disciplines, but not enough candidates to fill the roles. So how do you transition into a career as a data scientist from more of a marketing-based role and what temperament should you have?”

Beach continues, “Marketers or business analysts seeking to transition their career could be of great strategic value to a company. They can offer insights into how to gain market advantage (given their perspective on wider business processes) and often have a very holistic understanding of each of your customer segments.This is something that’s often lacking in most data scientists, many of whom arrive directly from academia with little real-world ‘on the job’ experience. A new type of job shift is emerging, blending the skill-set of a marketing expert with that of a data scientist.”

Beach goes on, “The ‘engagement scientist’ can be seen as an evolution of the data scientist’s role. We can — and should — see engagement science pick up steam as a discipline in the next couple of years. So what special skills or attributes does the engagement scientist need? Growth hackers may practise engagement science, but by no means should growth hacking be equated to engagement science. Yes, growth hackers and engagement scientists both bridge marketing, product, and engineering disciplines, but there is a fundamental difference. Engagement science connects its measurements (such as the level of engagement with an email through open rates) directly with tangible marketing outputs.”

Read more here.

photo credit: Flickr/ flazingo_photos

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