![A female data scientist presents her findings to the team.](https://images.ctfassets.net/wp1lcwdav1p1/7f1PBUwJzIIHzR9w30e50m/4033a88e9968ce1d9a847aed832e2c16/GettyImages-1308902708.jpg?w=330&h=216&q=60&fit=fill&f=faces&fm=jpg&fl=progressive)
Your Guide to Data Science Careers (+ How to Get Started)
Careers in data science are in demand. Learn about the world of big data and machine learning.
April 21, 2022
Article
Explore the world of data science and unlock new career goals with Coursera. Whether you're just getting started or diving deeper into data, we have the resources to help.
Build in-demand data science skills
IBM
Skills you'll gain: Dashboard, Data Visualization Software, Data Wrangling, Data Visualization, SQL, Statistical Methods, Plotly, Interactive Data Visualization, Jupyter, Exploratory Data Analysis, Data Mining, Data Cleansing, Matplotlib, Data Analysis, Generative AI, Pandas (Python Package), Data Manipulation, Regression Analysis, Seaborn, Professional Networking
Build toward a degree
Beginner · Professional Certificate · 3 - 6 Months
Skills you'll gain: Data Storytelling, Rmarkdown, Data Visualization, Data Presentation, Data Ethics, Interactive Data Visualization, Data Cleansing, Interviewing Skills, Data Validation, Ggplot2, Tableau Software, Presentations, Spreadsheet Software, Data Analysis, Data Visualization Software, Stakeholder Communications, Dashboard, Sampling (Statistics), Analytics, Stakeholder Management
Build toward a degree
Beginner · Professional Certificate · 3 - 6 Months
Skills you'll gain: Exploratory Data Analysis, Data Storytelling, Sampling (Statistics), Data Ethics, Data Visualization Software, Data Presentation, Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Regression Analysis, Feature Engineering, Data Transformation, Data Visualization, Probability & Statistics, Tableau Software, Data Manipulation, Advanced Analytics, Data Cleansing, Object Oriented Programming (OOP), Applied Machine Learning, Statistical Analysis, Jupyter
Build toward a degree
Advanced · Professional Certificate · 3 - 6 Months
Data science skills are in high demand across many industries. That's why we've complied resources related to data science and similar topics, including:
AI and machine learning
Data analytics
Data engineering
Data science
Data science has critical applications across most industries, and is one of the most in-demand careers in computer science. Data scientists are the detectives of the big data era, responsible for unearthing valuable data insights through analysis of massive datasets. And just like a detective is responsible for finding clues, interpreting them, and ultimately arguing their case in court, the field of data science encompasses the entire data life cycle.
That starts with capturing lots of raw data using data collection techniques, and then building and maintaining data pipelines and data warehouses that efficiently “clean” the data and make it accessible for analysis at scale. This data infrastructure allows data scientists to efficiently process datasets using data mining and data modeling skills, as well as analyze these outputs with sophisticated techniques like predictive analysis and qualitative analysis. Finally, these findings must be presented using data visualization and data reporting skills to help business decision makers.
Depending on the size of the company, data scientists may be responsible for this entire data life cycle, or they might specialize in a particular portion of the life cycle as part of a larger data science team.
In today’s era of “big data”, data science has critical applications across most industries. This gives students with data science backgrounds a wide range of career opportunities, from general to highly specific. Some companies may hire data scientists to work on the entire data life cycle, while larger organizations may employ an entire team of data scientists with more specialized positions such as data engineers to build data infrastructure or data analysts, business intelligence analysts, decision scientists to interpret and use this data.
Some tech companies may employ much more specialized data scientists. For example, companies building internet of things (IoT) devices using speech recognition need natural language processing engineers. Public health organizations may need disease mappers to build predictive epidemiological models to forecast the spread of infectious diseases. And firms developing artificial intelligence (AI) applications will likely rely on machine learning engineers.
Yes - in fact, Coursera is one of the best places to learn about big data. You can take individual courses and Specializations spanning multiple courses on big data, data science, and related topics from top-ranked universities from all over the world, from the University California San Diego to Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Coursera also offers the opportunity to learn from industry leaders in the field like Google Cloud, Cloudera, and IBM, including options to get professional certificates.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.