New series on the sought-after data scientist – can you relate?
Everyone is talking about the increasingly desirous data scientist. But w
ho is a data scientist, really? Is it just a “business analyst who lives in California,” per Paul Kent, SAS VP of Big Data? I bet many of you fall into this category, whether your business title says so or not.
Stephanie Robertson, SAS Insights Editor, recently kicked off a series of articles about data scientists. Since so many organizations will pay top-dollar for these “unicorns,” how do managers know if they’re ready to build out this function? Articles in the series provide some food for thought on hiring data scientists and ways to set them in the right direction – Dr. Michael Rappa, founder of the Institute of Advanced Analytics at North Carolina State University (NCSU) gives advice on this front.
The series also profiles REAL-LIFE data scientists. For example, Alex Herrington, a data scientist for a major US retailer, and Kristin Carney, who works in Research & Analysis for World's Foremost Bank, talk about their jobs and training in a couple of articles.
More Q&As are coming so you can see if their day-to-day routines match yours, or if this is something you may be interested in pursuing. Dr. Rappa’s program at NCSU even offers a short online quiz to see if you’re analytically ready.
Keep an eye out for future articles from this series on the community in the coming weeks. For now, comment with your thoughts on the data scientist. Are you one? If so, you must know your importance.
As Brooke Fortson discovered at Strata Hadoop earlier this year, unicorns (aka data scientists) do exist AND take #selfies 
Looking forward to the series!
