From SkilledUp
How To Tackle The Data Scientist Skills Gap For Your Company
By Corrie Pelc
Right now, big data is what’s big in business. Experts estimate the amount of data some companies hold could be worth as much as $8 trillion, according to a Wall Street Journal report, while a study conducted by tech research firm IDC at the end of 2013 predicted the big data market would hit $16.1 billion in 2014....
And data scientists are different from standard analysts of data sheets and databases because they are often thinking outside the box to pose different questions an organization may have and then using the collected data to find an answer, says Coye Cheshire, associate professor for the UC Berkeley School of Information.
“The data scientist is proposing questions, working on how to capture and analyze the data, and then doing interpretation as well,” he explains....
Next, data scientist candidates should be familiar with what Cheshire calls the “technology bucket,” which includes the main software packages being used at the time. However, he says HR should be looking for data scientists who know how to use these technologies, along with analytical reasoning and problem solving skills, to be able to pose questions from data or that can be drawn from data.
“What’s really challenging is finding people who can formulate a problem by looking at a set of criteria and saying this is the data we have and don’t have. How would I go about answering this, and how would I know if I got the answer that I predicted or didn’t predict,” Cheshire explains....