Technology enthusiasts know how much traction data science has received over the past few years. The field, which basically focuses on studying massive amounts of data and analyzing them to draw actionable insights, now supports other emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT), and more. Today, people generate quintillion bytes of data daily across the internet, and this has become a major source for businesses to capitalize on.
Any form of data generated through an ecosystem can point to patterns, tendencies, and the flow of whichever field or market the study is carried out and can assist in drawing valuable conclusions. This translates into many industries harnessing the potential of data and hiring skilled data scientists to perform data analysis and visualization. Data scientist is the hottest job in the market at present and requires a great mindset and skills to pull off. One needs to have a clear understanding of programming languages, statistics, data wrangling, data analysis, machine learning, data visualization, etc. to become a seasoned data scientist. No wonder people are seeking data science courses in Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and many other cities to gain all of these skills and step into this promising career field.
Do you want to know how to become a certified data scientist? Well, this article describes some of the best courses and certifications that will demonstrate your skills as a data scientist.
Becoming a Certified Data Scientist
Data scientists are professionals who understand business requirements and accordingly plan the perfect usage of datasets, build the data modeling process, design algorithms, and estimate the model output. All these activities help in extracting value from the data and present them in the form of reports to the concerned stakeholders.
Data scientists begin the process by gathering business requirements and what problems they want to solve through data analysis. They gather relevant data, integrate and store it to conduct data investigation and data analysis. Next, they apply appropriate data science techniques like statistical modeling or machine learning and constantly measure the model and algorithm outcomes to improve them in the next iteration. Finally, they visualize the trends and correlations observed and generate reports. These are then presented to business leaders to solve business problems and ensure better decision-making.
Now, when it comes to getting certified, individuals have two options. One is the certification offered by online training providers on completion of their data science courses. Master’s degrees offered by university programs are also similar ways of getting certified. The other way is to pursue some industry-recognized certifications in data science that usually involve passing a rigorous exam along with fulfilling certain eligibility criteria. Based on your career needs, you can decide whether to go for one or both of the options. Discussed below are some of the top certifications you can pursue.
Certifications by online training providers and universities – The top online training providers for data science certifications are Simplilearn, Datacamp, Coursera, Udacity, and edX. Simplilearn’s Data Scientist Masters Program and Udacity’s Become a Data Scientist Nanodegree program are specifically beneficial for aspirants. Coursera and edX offer online courses in partnership with universities like Harvard, John Hopkins, Stanford, and MIT.
The reason why you should enroll in such programs is that they are beginner-friendly, have highly qualified instructors, include industry projects to give you practical exposure, and have interactive quizzes and assignments to strengthen your learning. Some of them even offer job assistance to help you land your dream job.
Industry-recognized certifications – If you are ready to test your data science skills through a thorough exam, then you can consider achieving these certifications:
- Data Science Council of America (DASCA) Senior Data Scientist (SDS)
- Data Science Council of America (DASCA) Principle Data Scientist (PDS)
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate
- Open Certified Data Scientist (Open CDS)
- SAS Certified Data Scientist
- Cloudera Certified Associate (CCA) Data Analyst
- Dell EMC Data Science Track (EMCDS)
Though these certifications have detailed exam syllabus and sample questions, not all of them are available with a training program. If you have some prior knowledge of data science, then these certifications are worth your time and effort. Being offered by prestigious certifying bodies, these are recognized worldwide and open your doors to many job opportunities available in the data science landscape.
Bottom Line
The demand is quite high for data scientists these days and doesn’t seem to decrease any time soon. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected robust growth in data science with the number of jobs increasing by about 28% through 2026. This translates into roughly 11.5 million jobs available in data science. So, why not consider starting a career in data science and become a successful data scientist.
Though the demand is high, there are not enough skilled professionals to take up the available data science jobs. This has resulted in companies paying higher salaries even for entry-level data science positions. And if you achieve any data science certification, you will increase your credibility and command higher paychecks. A certification will also showcase your seriousness towards a data science job and employers will prefer you than other non-certified counterparts.
