Majors related to data science are now in demand. It seems that we have just discussed Industry 4.0, and without realizing it, the discussion on Industry 6.0 is slowly starting to emerge. This shows the rapid development of the industry in the digital era. Are you interested in contributing a lot to the world of technology? You can try and have a career in the world of data science! Here’s everything we need to know about data science and college majors in order to work in the field of data science and become a data scientist.

What are Data Science and Data Scientist?

Quoting IBM, data science is a multidisciplinary approach to extracting the large and ever-increasing volume of data collected and created by organizations and enterprises today. Data science includes preparing data for analysis and processing, performing advanced data analysis, and presenting results to reveal patterns and enable stakeholders to draw informed conclusions.

While data scientist is a profession; someone who is an expert with data, manages, and processes data to become useful information. A data scientist works closely with IT and business teams to help solve complex problems and make decisions.

 

Benefits of a Career in Data Science

Do you know? The world today lacks data scientists. Many articles write that vacancies for data scientists have increased a lot, but very few qualified talents. In fact, the Harvard Business Review calls data science “the sexiest job of the 21st century.” Why? This is because the data science field is huge and the pay is very high!

If you haven’t studied or entered the world of data at all, don’t worry. According to a data by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, data science careers will show a very high growth rate from 2020 to 2030. Technology will also continue to develop and grow, and jobs in data and technology will be popular and in demand for a very long time. Especially if you can work abroad like in the US, the salary of a data scientist can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars! Interested? Here are the college majors that you can take to learn to become a data scientist.

 

Majors To Become a Data Scientist

• Data Science

Going straight to the point, you can just dive directly and major in Data Science. Also, if possible, don’t stop at your bachelor’s degree and continue your education. Currently, there are many international Masters programs that you can take online. If you major in data science, you will immediately learn all the core courses to become a data scientist such as data, mathematics, statistics, computer science, artificial intelligence, and others.

For other majors that will be mentioned below, you will need or be recommended to take additional courses to become a competent data scientist.

• Engineering

Any engineering major will give you the basics and foundations to jump into the world of data science. Because in the engineering department you will learn about programming languages ​​such as Python, and you will also learn about SQL and its friends. To maximize your knowledge, you can take math courses such as statistics. Interested in studying engineering? Multimedia Nusantara University (UMN) has various study programs under the Faculty of Engineering & Informatics!

• Computer Science (Computer Science)

Just like engineering majors, computer science is also a basic major that you can take if you want a career as a data scientist. Computer science graduates are believed to be easy to learn about data and have high problem-solving and analytical-thinking skills. Even so, it is recommended to maximize your math knowledge by taking online classes.

•  Mathematics (Mathematics)

Mastery of mathematics is considered the top 3 most important things for success in a career as a data scientist or any other job in the world of data science. An important mathematical specialization to master is statistics. In the world of data science, mature mathematical skills are needed. Why? Math comes into play when it comes to machine learning studies, algorithm analysis, and more. You can supplement your knowledge by taking a computer science minor course or a course to learn programming languages.

• Physics (Physics)

Last but not least, physics. The physics major is also considered a very flexible major. When you study physics, you will learn the mathematics needed by data scientists. Even so, many people give testimonials on the internet saying that if you want to become a professional data scientist faster, it is better to take the majors above. But don’t be sad if you want to major in physics! Being a physicist and a data scientist have many similarities such as problem-solving, collecting data, data analysis, and others. You can take additional courses to practice coding and use your programming language by taking coding classes.

Can Non-IT Students Be Data Scientists?

No doubt you can! For those who are interested in becoming a data scientist but don’t have an IT background, don’t worry! Citing Medium, 67% of data scientists come from backgrounds such as social science, mathematics, statistics, business, fine arts, humanities, and others. You can take many online courses and data science boot camps available on the internet to learn to become a data scientist from scratch.

Sources:

• Coursera
• Harvard Business Review
• IBM
• Medium
• UMN

*by Levina Chrestella Theodora – UMN News Service