Silver Blog, Aug 2017Data Scientists: What They Do and How to Become One

Data science is growing, and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Whether you are a student or an expert, here are courses to help further your knowledge of this promising field.



By edX.

Data is everywhere.

Now that new, emerging technologies have advanced our ability to accumulate data, companies of all sizes, across all industries, are collecting massive amounts of data. In many ways, that's the easy part.

The hard part is actually manipulating and making sense of all that data. Organizations need someone to analyze it in order to help make better, data-driven decisions. Queue the data scientist!

Many companies are more than willing to pay a competitive salary for a good data scientist. Everyone wants one, but not everyone can get one. As you might imagine, given the excess demand, salaries for data scientists are remarkably high, with a national average of over $113,000.

With high paying job opportunities at every turn, data science is undoubtedly the field to be in right now. In fact, Glassdoor released a list of the 25 best jobs in America, and yes - you guessed it - data scientist holds the #1 spot.

Data science is growing, and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Whether you're a student planning for the future, a working professional looking to change careers, or a data scientist trying to brush up on the latest practices, there are plenty of opportunities to learn, and it certainly isn't too late to do so. Regardless of your current exposure to data science, here are three courses to help further your knowledge of this promising field:



Data Science Orientation
- Microsoft
- Self-Paced



This is the place to start. Learn what it takes to become a data scientist and begin planning your learning schedule. This course is part of the Microsoft Professional Program Certificate in Data Science developed to help you gain the skills you need to get the data science job you want.



Python for Data Science
- UC San DiegoX
- Self-Paced



Learn to use open-source Python tools to analyze data and solve compelling data science problems. This course is part of the Data Science MicroMasters program.




Programming for Data Science
- AdelaideX
- Self-Paced



Develop your computational thinking and programming skills to solve real-world data science problems. This course is part of the Big Data MicroMasters program.