The field of data science is an ocean of opportunities for those who have an interest in this regard. But to pursue it you need to have the right set of skills to become a successful data scientist. But, what is the most important skill to look for in data scientists?
Few established people in this field would recommend the technical aspects, others would suggest the non- technical aspects. Don’t get confused keep reading to find out the answer to the above question.
I’m assuming that the person reading this blog can be segregated into two categories:
- One is those who aspire to become a data scientist.
- Others are those who are looking to hire data scientists.
Communication Skill
The most important skill to look for in data scientists has to be his/her communication skill. Always remember, effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know. People who want to have career data science should focus on building good communication skill.
To make it easy for you to understand let’s take an example. Imagine you are fully packed with technical skills, able to analyze terabytes in minutes, also being able to write AI algorithms from scratch.
But what if you are unable to communicate the strategy or the approach behind such analyzation. You might end up facing a hard time and your potential might even go unrealized.
What makes a good scientist great is creativity with data, skepticism, and good communication skills.
Communication Insights
Some professionals also call it storytelling. The thing you should focus here is to be able to communicate the insights, i.e. the results/outputs in a concise, clear, and in a justifiable manner. So that other people working with you should be able to understand those insights and further work on them.
Data Visualization & Presentation
Every day huge amounts of data are being produced by businesses this makes data visualization an important part of data life-cycle. A data scientist should be able to translate the data in a format that will be easy to comprehend.
At times, breaking down raw data and then displaying it in a simple graph is received as way more effective and satisfying at conveying a point. Also, pay special attention to the results and values embedded in the data analyzed by you.
General Communication
One should learn to focus on delivering value and building everlasting relationships. Usually, data scientists work as a team which includes engineers, product designers, and operation managers, and so on. Here good general communication can help build trust and understanding which incredibly important for successful achievement of the desired objective.
You need to be able to take a data set and discover and communicate what’s interesting about it for your users.
Team Work
Another most important skill to look for in data scientists is teamwork. These skills are usually under-estimated. As we discussed above that data scientists always have to work in an integrated environment. They work collaboratively with teams to understand the requirements, gather feedback to reach solutions. On the other hand, work with other members to perform their tasks well. Being able to work in teams is always seen as rewarding and important.
Every team member has their own weaknesses, strengths, social preferences, and technical knowledge. Working with diverse people can be challenging at times so you being able to understand these aspects helps boost productivity at your workplace.
Scientists dream about the great thing, engineers do them along with the support of a good team.
Conclusion
The most important skill to look for in data scientist is communication skill along with teamwork. A data scientist should be a good communicator including the ability to process the challenging technical information into a form that is complete, accurate, and easy to present. Also, learn to work collaboratively with business people to communicate the actionable insights gained from the data.
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