Indian and multinational companies from almost every industry — be it Fortune 500 name or a local startup — are hiring data science experts to help them garner insights from big data. The entire industry has seen a sharp increase in demand for highly-skilled professionals. Companies are also on a constant lookout for talented persons who can fill the gap. Our survey for June 2018 endeavoured to find out the current scenario of hiring trends and jobs available in data science.
The data science sector is flourishing to such an extent that our earlier Jobs Survey published in association with Edvancer revealed that more than 90,000 job openings in data science and related fields are being advertised in India as of now.
About The Survey:
We tried to look at variations in skill sets, work experience and educational qualification in this survey. We took opinions from three groups of persons — hiring managers, job seekers and students — to get a thorough idea of the hiring scenario in this swiftly-developing area.
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Our survey was met with much enthusiasm — and we got some great insights from it. Some of them were expected, and many of them were real eye-openers.
1. Importance Of Formal Education:
We asked our survey takers to tell us if a degree or formal education in data science was necessary to get a job in data science. The respondents clearly thought it was.
- 33% respondents thought that formal education was crucial to get a job in this sector. This is in keeping with the current trend in the industry.
- 28.3% respondents thought it was important as it can be clearly seen by the increasing reliance by employees as well as students on MOOCs to keep themselves updated.
- Only a minority of the respondents — 11% — thought formal education was completely unnecessary.
2. Programming Experience:
Our data clearly shows that a vast majority of the respondents think that experience in programming was important to get a data science-related job. In fact, the numbers show:
- 48% of the respondents think that prior experience was important to get a job in the new tech sector.
- 29% respondents thought that it was crucial for their career. This is in line with what the organisations have been thinking. Most of the companies in new tech think that educating an employee for a basic skill like programming can be time-consuming and a drain on resources.
3. Work Experience:
A clear majority of our respondents have shown that having an experience in a similar field is definitely helpful in landing a job in data science.
- For example, a clear 35.8% people have said that a job experience is crucial in data science sector.
- Another 26.2% have said that it is important. This is in keeping with studies which have shown that a majority of companies in the analytics and data science sector prefer candidates with five or more years of work experience.
- Only 2% of the survey takers did not agree with the statement.
4. Transition From Non-Data Science Background To New Tech:
This questions seemed to have stumped our respondents. Here, the answers seem of two polar opposite opinions. Firstly, almost 30% of the people did not have an opinion about the matter.
- Otherwise, 15.2% of the respondents thought it was very difficult to make the transition from a non-tech background to data science.
- 23.2% thought it was difficult, but not impossible to do so. This response is clearly not surprising, given the great pace at which the industry is progressing. It is already hard for people in the industry to keep up with changing trends, and therefore jumping into a vibrant sector suca as data science is perceived as very difficult.
- On the other hand, only 5.6% people thought it was very easy to do so.
5. How To Get An Entry-Level Job In Data Science:
This question had a clear-cut answer — perhaps because of the personal experiences of our respondents.
- 42.7% people thought that internship was the best way to make your way into a company. You make contacts, meet mentors and friends that last for a lifetime.
- 21.8% respondents voted joining data science communities or networking as the great way to get jobs.
6. What Language Should An Aspiring Data Scientist Learn First:
Having a mastery over one or more programming languages is considered a great asset in the data science and analytics community. Here, our respondents — job seekers as well as recruiters — had a clear idea about what languages were the most popular in the market right now.
- Python was clearly the most popular language for data science practitioners as well as learners. Over 47% respondents said that it was crucial for job seekers to know this language to get an opportunity in data science.
- The next favourite language was R at 39%
7. Top Skills For Data Scientists:
Our respondents identified three important skills for anyone to flourish in a data science-related field:
- Statistical modelling at 35%
- Machine learning at 28%
- Business intelligence at 17%
- Data mining came in next with 10% votes
8. Reliance On MOOCs For Skill Upgradation:
Professionals as well as students are now relying heavily on massive online open courses. Our survey clearly indicates that:
- 33% of the respondents relied on MOOCs extensively to upgrade their skills in new tech and keep themselves updated with emerging technologies.
- On the other hand, 28% used it frequently for the same purpose.
- Only 9% of the respondents said that they didn’t use MOOCs at all.
9. How To Find A Job In Data Science:
Here, the answers were unanimous, as well as expected.
- At 47.1% LinkedIn, the social networking website for professionals seems to be the first choice for looking for as well as posting a job in data science.
- The next popular way to find a job is checking with friends and acquaintances to look for employment opportunities at 19%.
- This is followed by popular job portal Naukri at 15.7%
10. Which City Has Most Job Opportunities For A Data Scientist:
This question had a congruent, solid vote for Bengaluru with 73% of respondents saying that the Garden City had the best job opportunities in new tech. The next favourite was Mumbai at 13.9%.
11. Which Industry Holds The Most Opportunities For Data Scientists:
Data scientists are in great demand, as discussed above. The results are thus scattered across several sectors.
- Most of the industries starting with IT and services at 26.8%
- Followed by e-commerce at 23.6%
- And banking at 23.6%
12. Area Of Interest For Data Scientists:
This survey also showcased that data scientists want to work in three key areas:
- Customer service at 37.2%
- Banking at 32.2%
- Medicine 13.2%
