January 17, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Data Scientists
January 18, 2011 at 6:28 am
Job titles and your name on your office door don't mean anything today IMHO, show me the money! 😀
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
January 18, 2011 at 6:38 am
I enjoyed the editorial. Getting at least a basic understanding of statistical analysis and all that would certainly give a person a hand in helping their employer get better business intelligence out of their data. I know I put the things I learned in university to good use. Sometimes people don't even know when to use a weighted average instead of a simple average.
I have my career path already, but if I knew someone trying to figure out what to study in post secondary and I knew this person excelled in math, I'd encourage them to get into some of the heavy duty math and analytics these data scientists use. Seems like a line of work with some growth. I always wanted to be a data miner when I grew up, and I'm close enough to that today.
January 18, 2011 at 7:06 am
Steve, some companies have Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma programs. I would advise people to take these courses if they are given the chance.
The 3 week Greenbelt course is basically an intro to statistics. The Blackbelt course builts upon that for about 6 weeks and is very strenuous in the practical uses of the statistical tools.
January 18, 2011 at 9:00 am
Thanks, Joe. I haven't worked for a Six Sigma company, but that's a good suggestion for those that do.
January 18, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Any project where there is a need to analyze the data scientifically will typically have real scientists on staff on contract. I've worked on projects side by side with statisticians and where the end users were epidemiologists, nutritionists, etc. However, I wouldn't consider myself a "data scientist" or even a "computer scientist". Most developers, even BI developers don't really look at the data using scientific standards; we're just the IT equivalent of a lab technician; we look where we're told to look, and our goal is to create a process that produces whatever outcome is documented in the requirements.
"Data analyst" or "data engineer" perhaps.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
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