Back in the fall, the Harvard Business Review named data scientist as the "The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century," or the new computer engineer or finance quant from the 1980s and 1990s. "If 'sexy' means having rare qualities that are much in demand, data scientists are already there," wrote Thomas Davenport from Harvard Business School and Deloitte Analytics and D.J. Patil from Greylock Partners. "They are difficult and expensive to hire and, given the very competitive market for their services, difficult to retain. There simply aren't a lot of people with their combination of scientific background and computational and analytical skills."
And now, Nature Jobs offers tips on joining the ranks of data scientists. Data scientists, Michael Koploy from SoftwareAdvice.com writes at Nature Jobs, come from a variety of backgrounds, and, before and after graduation, they need to keep up with the current trends in field by reading academic journals. Further, he adds, aspiring data scientists should also develop some business sense. "Obtaining a better understanding of the business' underpinnings not only directs the data scientist's research, but helps them present the findings and communicate with the less-analytical executives within the organization," he writes.