As more data is generated by users, the demand for capable data scientists is increasing within companies of all sizes! However, there is a noticeable vacuum in this sector as conventional educational institutions are not producing enough qualified graduates to fill all of the vacancies that are created. Recruiters must be resourceful and competitive to lure in talent in this sector which is why the data scientist is considered the sexiest profession of the decade.

Take a simple glance at LinkedIn, you will see more than 30,000 vacant positions for data scientists and analysts all over the world, with many of the professionals who are holding positions in this sector having the text “We’re hiring!” in their LinkedIn tagline.

Why are professional data scientists suddenly so desirable by employers? Perhaps we at IE Exponential Learning can shed some light on this….

As it stands, there is a lack of qualified talent. First and foremost, there simply are not enough qualified and experienced data scientists to fill the vast amount of positions that recruiters seek to fill. In addition to coding and analytical skills, a competitive data scientist must have excellent communications and soft skills in order to present their findings easily in layman’s terms.

As data science is a recent addition to higher education curriculum, and still niche, most of the talent in this sector is still in the learning phase of their career. For this reason, bootcamps with a curriculum of coding, R, Python, and data visualization are becoming increasingly in demand as they can propel learners into the jobs of the future at an accelerated rate.

Data Science will be integrated across the board, in companies of all sizes, just as social media is today.

Small and medium companies will need data scientists just as their larger counterparts do. Do you recall in 2012/2013 when all companies, regardless of their size, hopped on the social media bandwagon? Data science will have an equally meaningful of an impact on the future of business in 2018. According to Harvard Business Review: “Companies in the top third of their industry in the use of data-driven decision making were, on average, 5% more productive and 6% more profitable than their competitors.”

Newcomers into the data science arena are often drawn to startups because they have the freedom and agency to build their data teams from the ground up and set the precedent for how they will scale up.

Curious to enhance your existing skill set?

Would you like to dive into data science? Enroll in the IE Data Science Bootcamp today! Over the course of 11-weeks, you will learn the coding languages of R and Python, attend Master Classes with industry leaders, and network with a cohort of international and like-minded peers. Fill out your application here!