How can I grow from a data analyst to a data scientist?

Question

Could someone tell me is it possible to grow from data analyst to become a data scientist?

Answer 1

Moving from one career to another, while not easy, is not an entirely impossible feat either. Before getting into how you can go from being a Data Analyst to a Data Scientist, let’s first understand each role.

Data Analysts sift through data from market researches, sales reports, and other sources, and focus on identifying and discovering trends and patterns in that data to drive better decision-making. These professionals may also be proficient in the visual representation of the data through plots, charts, graphs, etc. For upskilling yourself in Data Science, I strongly recommend you Intellipaat Data Science Certification. This course starts explaining things from the very basics and goes to advance knowledge.

A Data Scientist, on the other hand, while also working with data interpretations, possess programming and mathematical modeling expertise. They work with machine-learning tools and make use of scientific methods and algorithms to drive insights from structured and unstructured data. 

Before making the move to a Data Science profile, consider the following:

1. Identify and connect with the right pool of people that have more knowledge and experience of Data Science and who can guide you through the process.

2. Exercise your Data Science skills in your current role with the data already available in your organization.

3. Work on your Data Science foundational skills like model-building, tackling real-life problems, and handling different projects under the supervision of other experts.

4. Acquire the necessary skills and position yourself well in the industry. 

Here are some skills that you may consider acquiring to start a career in Data Science:

• Programming languages: Python or R

• Non-relational and relational databases: MongoDB and MySQL

• Data visualisation tools: Tableau, D3, GraphX, etc.

• Machine Learning models: Neural Networks and Regression

Any data-driven practitioner can successfully pursue Data Science. Meanwhile, check out Intellipaat’s complete Data Science tutorial to get started.