Assessing an industry
The Great Upgrade Assessment Part One
This article series is intended for data practitioners of all levels, especially those interested in leadership positions and in advancing their careers. You may be more interested to lead as a technical individual contributor than as a people manager, or vice versa. The lion’s share of this article has been excerpted from Chapter 10 of How to Lead in Data Science.
Now is a prime time to take stock of your career and consider potential avenues of advancement to capitalize on The Great Upgrade. In this article, we will discuss the industry considerations to evaluate opportunities. Keep in mind new opportunities may often be within the industry you are currently in.
You can apply Data Science to a broad range of industries. When evaluating an industry to enter, consider that large industries will have the most job opportunities, while fast-growing industries will create many leadership opportunities over time. For data scientists with appropriate experience levels, industries with the highest demand for data scientists are likely to pay a premium in compensation. Figure 1 illustrates some important considerations when selecting an industry.
Figure 1 Three perspectives for assessing an industry to pursue
The contribution of Data Science to the economy is still in its infancy as of 2021. According to LinkedIn Talent Solutions data, the discipline has found the most traction in IT, computer software, and internet industries. These three industries together employ 42% of the professionals with the data scientist job title in the US. The 42% number is not surprising, as these industries are at the forefront of computing technology adoption. They are closest to all the computing servers generating and storing the data responsible for delivering business impact. However, according to United States Bureau of Economic Analysis data, the data processing, internet publishing, and other information services industry only contributes 1.4% of the private sector GDP in the United States.
On the other hand, Data Science is rapidly gaining traction in two other areas that are much more significant to the economy. In the United States, the finance and insurance industries contribute 9.4% of the private-sector GDP, and the healthcare industry contributes 7.1% of the private sector GDP.
In the US, the financial services, banking, and insurance industries currently employ 12% of today’s data scientists, and the demand is increasing faster than in the IT, computer software, and internet industries. The healthcare, biotech, pharmaceuticals, and health/wellness/fitness industries currently employ 10% of today’s data scientists with an even higher growth rate.
If you are looking for leadership opportunities in Data Science in 2021, you can find the most opportunities in the IT, computer software, and internet industries. Many leadership opportunities will be created in the financial services, banking, insurance, healthcare, biotech, pharmaceuticals, and health/wellness/fitness industries in the coming years.
There are also many smaller high-growth industries with high demand for data scientists. These include defense and space, e-learning, video games, medical devices, apparel and fashion, and consumer electronics.
When selecting an industry to pursue, it should be one that you are passionate about. It can take two to five years to build up expert knowledge in an industry, including data nuances, organizational structural barriers, and regulatory stumbling blocks. You may encounter many failures and frustrations working with industry limitations. Being in an industry that you can be passionate about can allow you to persist further on your path to become a leader in Data Science.
The Top Places to Work for Data Scientists by Jike Chong, Ben Lorica, and Yue Cathy Chang identified top companies for data scientists at different career stages to work for in 14–18 industries, while The Top Places to Work for Data Engineers by the same authors identified top companies in 17 industries for data engineers to work for. You can use these as reference points in your assessments of industry.
If you have views, questions, or examples you would like to share, feel free to comment below or contact us directly.
About the authors:
Dr. Jike Chong and Yue Cathy Chang build, lead, and grow high-performing data teams across industries in public and private companies, such as Acorns, LinkedIn, large asset-management firms, and Fortune 50 companies.
The writing and opinions expressed are solely our own and are not shared, supported, or endorsed in any manner by our respective employers.
