The Data Science Vacancy Gap In India

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Quick. At the top of your head, think about a profession that has many open positions in the market. It’s not engineering. It’s not commerce or the arts. It’s data science and its better-known subset machine learning.
Did you know that data science was once termed to be the hottest job creator for the 21st century. It goes without saying that the large data generation coupled with the technology to play around with the data has given birth to a profession where the demands overrun the supply by a large margin.

Getting Straight To The Facts

  • In India alone, you will find that data science courses and machines learning are the hottest and trending topics of interest not limited to the IT sector alone but also for other industries.
  • Platforms like Thomson Reuters and Great Learning indicate that more than 50,000 positions related to data and data analytics are currently open for the taking in India.
  • The number of postings reached an all-time high towards the end of 2017 and had been rising to a constant range over the following months.
  • The reports also indicate that India currently contributes nearly 12 per cent of all data science positions when compared to the rest of the world.
  • Sectors like banking, finance, e-commerce, media, marketing and healthcare account for more than 67 per cent of the positions spanned mainly over eleven primary Indian states with the highest concentration being from metropolitan centers and urban districts.
  • Similar reports suggest that the banking and financial services are the biggest market for data analytics and data science professionals and are expected to create at least 58 per cent of all jobs for the year 2018. E-commerce is accounted for 17 per cent of the total job share.

Looking At The Factors

  • It is undeniable to say that there has been a rapid rise in the number of colleges and institutions offering data science training, data analyst training but the striking fact is that such skills are becoming increasingly common with completely unrelated professions as well.
  • Employers are no longer looking for candidates with a working level of understanding of computers but rather those who can utilize and leverage the data towards producing meaningful results.  
  • The large gap in the employment sector has been linked to the lack of institutions that properly prepare candidates for the tasks at hand. While there may have been an explosion of data science learning institutes all over the country, quick studies of the curriculum show a stark difference from what the industry is currently looking from.  
  • Government statistics, on the other hand, argue that while more and more data scientists and data analysts are being funneled out, nearly 44 per cent of fresh graduates choose

to work elsewhere outside the country or shift to another position due to dissatisfactions with the pay.

  • It should, however, interest people that average pay scales for data science positions are heavily influenced by the industry the candidate chooses to work in. Top level startups offer initial pays ranging from 89-91 K per year but tend to be higher for well-established companies.

Where The Road Leads Ahead   

  • Software and data science tools like Hadoop, SPSS, SAS, Python and IBM Watson are expected to be the next frontier for leading changes to the data science career as a whole and will likely be the most sought-after skills in the future.
  • More than 39,000 analytics jobs are anticipated to be created in India by 2020 with cyber-security taking an 11 per cent share, healthcare taking up 55 per cent, engineering studies taking up 8 per cent and space exploration 16 per cent.
  • Besides these, agriculture and aviation too will be engaged heavily with data analytic jobs as well as automation and the new buzzword driver less transportation.

How Beneficial is Data Science Prodegree For Your Career?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Data Science is one of the most sought after career tracks at the moment. There is a reason that the hype on data science exists. The fundamental focus of data science is that it assists human being on taking better decisions, quicker decisions. And it’s not that this is a requirement of only a handful of industries from a particular segment. This is true across industries, even where decisions are automated for e.g. in online shopping, retail etc.,

There is a rapid growth in the data science field. Its prominence is directly proportionate to the record level of increase in the raw material i.e. structured and unstructured data.

There are a number of other factors that are adding significance to this field. The number of sensors that accumulate information like internet, phones etc.., along with advanced and sophisticated machine learning techniques that help give better insights with the help of better extraction algorithms.

All these forces are working in one direction, the direction to ensure that the skills of using available data to extract actionable insights for business to impact better decision making which in turn will impact the revenue of the company is here to stay. Recognising this most MBA’s have also introduced Data Science into their MBA curriculum.

What skills does one learn in order to become an effective Data Scientist?

Large bits of unstructured data are not easy to interpret, one needs a unique skill set, one needs to develop useful auxiliary skills, some technical attributes required to apply is the top line. One needs to create a perfect balance of various skills. Predictive modelling, analytics, organisation skills and above all communication skills.

Besides the above to be able to secure a lucrative job in the organisation of your choice one needs to develop excellent and valuable coding skills. Efficiency in SAS Statistical Analysis System, R programming language, Python programming language etc.., further aids your skills as a data scientist or analyst. It helps you to think logically in terms of algorithms, which in turn allows you to better manage irrelevant data.

Another additional set of skills that are essential to have academically and through experience are contextual understanding of possibly any given situation, skills in probability and statistics. And finally the most important of all the skills is the ability to communicate, explain, in the method and language of the audience, your findings. So storytelling and presentation skills become imperative.

Why Data Science Prodegree at Imarticus Learning?

To begin with the Data Science Prodegree at Imarticus is designed in association with Genpact as the knowledge partner. It essentially covers all foundational concepts and offers hands-on learning of leading analytical tools such as SAS, R, Python, Tableau etc., and the learning is integrated with relevant industry case studies and projects, which is essential in gaining in-depth problem-solving capabilities.

The course is divided into four semesters and is focused on ensuring that the candidate not only gain the theoretical knowledge of the tools but also learns best industry practices and business perspectives through live interaction with the gurus of the corporate world through guest lectures and regular project submission.

To ensure maximum learning efficacy the course ranges over 200 hours and is delivered in two modes, online and classroom. The course offers career readiness assistance too, at Imarticus the Career Assistance Services provides you customized industry specific mentorship, with assistance in resume building workshops and one on one mock interviews.

The Data Science Prodegree is a power packed course endorsed by Genpact, which has a comprehensive coverage aided by project based learning, with effective and efficient program delivery along with career assistance. Thus preparing you to confidently apply your newly learned skills and excel in your given role right from day one, making you a sought after data driven decision maker.