Data Scientist should know Statistics, Business & Technology

Usually data scientist comes from every field,

especially from Engineering and Statistics background.

My job is to apply a combination of math, business and technology to solve complex and challenging problems using data.

I am Aayush Agrawal, a data scientist working in Land O’Lakes, Inc.

Who is a Data Scientist?

Data scientist solve complex business problems by using large amounts of data which includes advanced statistical knowledge, business context, technical skills and curiosity to solve business questions.

What motivated you to become a Data Scientist?

My final year project during my undergraduate program inspired me to take a second look at my career choices.

The project was on optimizing the load curtailment (it’s a program where companies agree to potentially reduce their electricity usage for a brief period, on demand, to help with the crisis) on electrical grids using smart meters. I used MATLAB and genetic algorithms to run simulations to solve complex equations of power generation and transfer. And that’s when I understood the power of numerical optimization and mathematical optimizations.

Therefore, I realized that there can be a lot done by just using programming and mathematics. Hence, I decided to start my career as a trainee decision scientist at Mu Sigma a big data analytics firm in Bangalore.

After I started working on solving problems using data, I have never looked back. But, continued to grow and learn more in Data science.

What do you do and how do you do it?

As a Data Scientist in Land O’Lakes, Inc., I get to work with businesses directly.

I mostly work on more than one projects at a time and usually in a project life cycle we follow agile practices.

As a data scientist, I need to work directly with businesses to understand their problems, then identify key business objectives and translate them into task which can be solved using data and advanced statistical techniques and then communicate actionable insights in form of recommendations or dashboard back to business with a compelling story.

What steps did you take to land in your present job?

I did my semester long project with Land O’Lakes as part of my experiential learning project during my Masters in Business analytics program at Carlson School of Management. I got absorbed after my project in the company.

You can read about the project here.

What things would you do differently in preparing for this career?

I started learning through online courses on Coursera, edX and datacamp.

I wish I had known earlier about data science as a field and wish that I had taken these courses before I even started my first job.

Do you have any advice to your younger self?

My advice to my younger self would be:

Start learning right from your under graduation and finish all the basic prerequisites like programming in R/Python, statistical courses and machine learning courses.

What do you love about your current role?

I think the best thing about the job is to see your project get through the pipeline and actually getting implemented.

Usually data science projects are measurable and you can quantify the impact of your work which is pretty cool in itself. Also ability to work with diverse problems keep the daily work environment pretty exciting.

I also think data scientists are well in demand and are paid pretty generously.

What type of data scientists will be high in demand in the near future?

I think data scientist who are able to do statistical analysis as well as who are able to form compelling stories using data would be the most in demand. I also think the ability to use big data tools to do analysis on larger scale would be really useful as data is increasing with time.

Can you please summarise your career?

10+2 – Mathematics + Science
Bachelors of Technology in Electrical Engineering, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur
Trainee Decision scientist in Mu Sigma Business Solutions
Data analyst in Snapdeal
Senior Business Analyst in Taxiforsure
Masters in Business Analytics in Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota
Data scientist in Land O’Lakes, Inc.

What sort of experiences helped prepare you most?

I think all my experience in my work and all the courses I have done online have helped me grow as a Data science professional.

I also participate in competitions organized by AnalyticsVidhya and Kaggle which helps me keep updated on latest techniques.

What are the skills and education required to be a Data Scientist in 2020?

The skills required are:

ability to define business problems and convert them into Data science tasks
ability to manipulate data at large scale
able to apply statistical concepts
able to tell a good story out of data

Education:

Usually BS in Data science is only present in few colleges and the closest kin to that would be BS in Statistics.

What basic knowledge should one have to pursue MSc in Business Analytics?

It depends on which school and curriculum you are joining. Some courses are 2 years and well suited for people who are beginners while others which are on accelerated track of 1 year required 2-3 years of analytics experience.

I think being comfortable in R/Python and statistics would be the basic knowledge someone should have before pursuing MSc in Business analytics.

What are some alternate career options for a Data Scientist?

The few of the many roles Data scientist can get into are:

Business analyst
Data engineer
Visualization expert
Product manager

What do you think potential recruiters look for in a fresh Data Scientist?

A fresh data scientist should have:

good knowledge of statistics
programming skills in data manipulation
problem solving abilities
good in communication skills

It also depends on where and which team are you joining and the expected job roles. It’s a vast domain and Data scientist as a job role title is very loosely bound.

Who do you think should take up this Career choice?

Data science is a field for you:

if you are naturally curious
enjoy solving puzzles
good in math
not scared of programming

Also life long learning is also a part of Data science and as there are so many new innovations happening in the field.

Usually data scientist comes from every field, especially from Engineering and Statistics background. If you have the required skill sets then you can become a data scientist.

How do you like to spend your free time?

I spend half of the time learning about new things happening in data science, reading Kaggle blogs and kernels or doing a new tutorial on Coursera, udacity or edX as this field is evolving at much faster rate and the other half in general activities like hanging around with friends, travelling and watching animes.

Any recommended resources for students who are interested in Data Science?

There are lot of websites you can follow, some of them are –

There are many more websites than this but following these is a good starting point.

What do you think everyone leaving higher secondary school should know?

Usually people who are coming from higher secondary school should have awareness about various streams they can venture into.

Doing research into various fields of interest and seeing what fits their interest and abilities would be something which will help an individual to understand what he/she should be doing to get into their required field.

Any final messages?

Work hard
Stay honest to what you do
Always keep learning new things

These 3 things will get you a long way in your career and life in general.

A quote which I really like – This is something Andrew NG said about continual learning and I can totally relate to it-

“Every Saturday, you will have a choice between staying at home and reading research papers/implementing algorithms vs. watching TV. If you spend all Saturday working, there probably won’t be any short-term reward, and your current boss won’t even know or say “nice work.” Also, after that Saturday of hard work, you’re not actually that much better at machine learning. But here’s the secret: If you do this not just for one weekend, but instead study consistently for a year, then you will become very good.”