How to Become a Data Scientist in 2024: Top Skills, Languages, and Education

Among all the other career, in recent years, Data science has become one of the most popular careers for many people. As this is said to be as a multidisciplinary, people from any other background can take this as their main career option. 

Now, in this article, we have given an overview and brief information that would help you to become a great and better data scientist in 2024. Go ahead and read to know about the data scientist and how to develop data science skills and efforts.

About Data Science?

Generally, for any given business problem, it is a process to find the solution of it using data. Data science is very important as it is useful in every industry like Health care, Travel, Manufacturing, Fashion, Retail, Social Media, Banking and Insurance, and many more.

Overview

As per the survey, female data scientists are half the number of male data scientists from the past 3 years in a row. The trend and work given to both of them are equal and all follow the general trend in the tech industry.

The employee should know English as there are two languages spoken in general. 

• English and
• Particular mother tongue of respective state.

Now talking about the experience, no one can become a professional data scientist within a short time. To have the overall experience of the work, it almost takes 8.5 years. Every year as new technology is invented, and once you are enrolled in a Data Scientist Course, you have to stay one for that invention.

Programming Languages of Data scientists

According to 2018 records, 50% of the data scientists were seemed to use two main languages for programming. They are Python or R. In 2019, the ratio of using this programming language increased to 73% among the data scientists.

And as of now, the ratio has increased to 93% for using Python or R as a programming language. This is the stunning feet for tool and very surprising to any industry ever. These languages would start making a difference from your education itself.

Cohort has 80% of the scientists having a masters degree. And this has increased by up to 6% from last year. So, if you want to have excel as a scientist, then you must follow the languages used and try to focus according to it.

Apart from the Python and R, there are many other programming languages but are less in use compared to these two. They are, SQL, JAVA, C++, SAS, MATLAB, and many more. You can be expertise in any of them among all. But try to focus on trending languages Python or R.

Education and Degree to be a Data Scientist

The type of education acquired serves as a signal of the future the employees would have. So, let's see what are the signals to be a data scientist when you don't have too much experience.

As the higher academic qualification, data scientists much have a Ph.D., Bachelor, or a master degree and according to the latest survey of 2020, 56% holds master degree, 13% bachelor degree, and 27% Ph.D. degree. 

If you are the one who has pursued a bachelor's degree you can apply for a master's degree. Generally, two types of choices are given for acquiring a master's degree.

• Increasing your depth
• Increasing your breath. 

As per the trend and assumption, the bachelor's degree in computer science, Economics, or any other have better chances to have a master’s degree in data science. 

Now, let’s see some of the courses taking place for being a data scientist. There are so many institutes and online classes for data science. You can easily enroll for any of them as per your convenience. 

One of the degrees for masters is a post-graduation program in data science (PGP-DS). And apart from this, Data Science and Analysis is the degree that would easily allow you to get into data science. 

Years of Experience in Data Science

The tremendous increase is seen in the number of data scientists with the 2 to 3 or 3 to 5 years of experience as data scientists. As per the reports, in 2018, 25% of the data scientists were having 3 to 5 years of experience in the field. 

In 2024, it has been increased to 44% indicating senior data scientists are staying in the same place rather than changing the industry after certain years. 

These would help you to know the difference between the experience you should have and the time intervals in which you should change the industry. India is the country that offers the most opportunities for the freshers to start their careers as data scientists.

Within the first and second years of your job, more than 50% of the samples were of data scientists. Now, most of the world's largest companies are opening their offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad with no surprise on this data.

Skills and Requirements of Data Scientists

Among all the various requirements to be a data scientist, few of the prerequisites are discussed below. They are:

1. Problem-solving skills
2. Enjoy data working in every form
3. Statistics
4. Know at least one programming language
5. Machine Learning and its Algorithms
6. Data Visualization or Exploration
7. Frameworks of big Data Processing
8. Advanced Machine Learning

Following the above points would allow you to get you hired in one of the industries as a data scientist. 

Apart from this, as a data scientist, three-domain skills would make you responsible for the kind of job you have. The 3 main domains are:

1. Mathematical Reasoning
2. Business communication along with Leadership
3. Programming

These above-mentioned skills will help you to get the task leading with data science projects from end-to-end.

In the field of data scientists, this has been an amazing year for the third consecutive year in a row. The field is seen adapting the need for business as well as the growth and popularity of the academia around the world.

Master's degree has been established as a golden standard degree by themselves. So, to acquire a master's degree has somehow become necessary to have a proper career as a data scientist. Seek for the job in countries like the UK if you are having a bachelor's degree. 

Thus, this was the overall information on how to become a data scientist in 2024. We hope it helped you to grow your skills in programming and to let you have enough knowledge about the field.