You have probably heard the term Data Science. However, do you know what it means? Intuitively, it means the study of data, as science is usually associated with studying some subject. More appropriately, it is extracting meaning from your data. That is, it is helping your business gain a competitive edge by learning about various aspects of your business through your data.
Data Science has been around for a while. In fact, many people believe it's a buzzword for Statistics. To some degree, there is truth to this. However, it is a discipline that involves more than just using statistics. Yes, statistics is a key component. But, so is programming and data cleansing.
The reason the term Data Science has taken on an almost cult-like fervor is due to the amount of data available and easy accessibility to that data. We have bigger storage for our local drives (with cheap external storage available) and there is massive amounts of storage available on the cloud.
To effectively use your data or to help others use theirs, you will need to learn some techniques. It's part of the discipline. You will need to learn statistics and you will need to learn some programming. Take comfort in knowing that you don't need to be a full-fledged computer programmer to learn data science. Some programming will be needed but it's not the core part of the field.
You may want to decide which aspect of the discipline you want set your sites on. Do you want to be involved with more of the analytics or would your rather get your hands dirty with the nitty-gritty cleaning of the data? Perhaps you just want to concentrate on the visualization components involved with data science. In most data science jobs, you will need to be familiar with all aspects. However, people do specialize in these areas. Your decision to be a specialist can help you hone your studies.
Don't wait to get a job before learning. You can start learning now and even start applying what you learn to the data you work with. This hands-on approach will go a long way when you go on interviews. You'll be seen as a go-getter!
I am putting together a plan for people which helps showwhat is available in the field to come up to speed quickly. I will also publish tips on what I have learned over the years and how it can help you. I will also try to keep you away from nonsense that is going to cost you too much money and not do much for your goals towards Data Science.
Do You Need Data Science?
My personal feeling is that everyone should learn the basics of Data Science. It's a field that affects everyone and every business. It's hard to imagine anyone not coming in contact with data as part of their jobs or even in their own personal dealings.
For instance, if you are a blogger, can you see how insight into data can enhance your blogging efforts? Blogging is becoming competitive and you need to stand out. Using Data Science can help you.
If you deal with products in any way with your job, you can start to learn more about those products. Perhaps you are thinking of selling in another country. You can obtain data dealing with other companies in those countries and see how products are doing over there.
There are so many uses for data that would quadruple the size of this article and bloat it to the point of not being useful. Don't worry. I will be reporting on information surrounding the industry. You'll receive tips, techniques, resources, etc. You will not want for useful information from this website!
