In 2017 Glassdoor proclaimed Data Scientist the best job in America. Smith Hanley not only shared this with you in a blog but did an infographic as well. History repeats itself in 2018 with Data Scientist again in Glassdoor’s top spot.
Glassdoor ranks positions through a combination of job satisfaction, median salary and number of openings. Data Scientist is #1 because there were 4524 job openings (500 more than last year), a $110K median salary (no change from last year) and a 4.2/5.0 level of job satisfaction versus 4.4/5.0 last year.
Data Science Recruiter, Paul Chatlos, details the top four skills needed to be a Data Scientist in our blog coming up on 2/22. Here is a sneak peek:
- Programming – KD Nuggets says 55% of Data Scientists use Python, R is at 52% utilization and SQL is used by 35% of all Data Scientists.
- Quantitative Analysis – Masters in Statistics or equivalent, experimental design skills and any machine learning experience is a major bonus.
- Intellectual Curiosity
- Communication Skills
Interestingly Data Engineer dropped from #3 to #33 on Glassdoor’s list with 300 more openings than last year at 2816, and #4 Analytics Manager dropped to #18 with half the position openings of last year. Why this downgrade for positions that support or are closely aligned with the Data Scientist role?
Many positions are being labeled data scientist that don’t belong in that category. Analytics Manager is an important role in any organization committed to in-depth analysis and the resulting application of that analysis to products and business processes but most Analytics Managers don’t have the programming or statistical chops to truly fulfill the data scientist role yet companies are labeling their positions with the data scientist title. This is typically an effort to attract hard to find candidates and perceived as an elevation in the role by job hunters.
Data Engineering is a little more perplexing as we have only seen growth in the need for data science oriented sophisticated IT support. #2 on this year’s ranking is DevOps Engineer. Perhaps some of the Data engineering role has moved into the DevOps Engineer much the same way Analytics Manager has been renamed Data Scientist?
