(Ferenstein Wire) - Data scientists lead the pack for best jobs in America, according to a new report from company review site, Glassdoor. The report is based on voluntary reviews and self-reported incomes of the company's massive dataset; each job is ranked based on a composite score of median reported salary, job openings, and career opportunities.
According to the report, the median salary for a Data Scientist is an impressive $116,000 and there are over 1,700 job openings. For those curious, a "data scientist" typically refers to a mix of skills, part statistician and part computer programmer. For instance, data scientists often have to employ computer code (like the Python programming language) to scrape the web for data that may not be in a neatly packaged format, whereas a straight "statistician" is conventionally hyper-focused on sophisticated data analysis techniques (though opinions do vary).
This is why "data science" training programs, like those from coding bootcamps or an online provider, such as Udacity, teach both basic statistics and computer programming, but not advanced mathematics. For many data science jobs, advanced mathematics isn't necessary; many of the techniques were developed decades ago and software packages, such as R, run sophisticated algorithms with just a few lines of code.
Instead, companies need someone who can comb through dirty datasets and apply simple statistical tools to unearth patterns. Data science is often more about finding simple trends with basic summary statistics and colorful charts.
More and more tech companies are collecting vast amounts of data, but few managers or executives are trained in the computer code necessary to compile it into a report. That gives data scientists a leg up in a world increasingly turning to data for decision making.
Read the full report here and more about the methodology of Glassdoor's data here.
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