How To Get A High Paying Data Science Job
Over the past few years, Data Science has become one of the most in demand jobs that command high salaries in the industry. Taking my own company-Microsoft- and for that matter my own team for example, most Data Scientist have their salaries above $100,000 even with just 1 to 2 years of experience which is not the case in other departments. Even some colleagues of mine in some other departments who are at managerial positions have their salaries at the same level as Data Scientist who are just mere team members.
How is that? Well they are Data Scientists and they provide tangible results with data. Just like that !!
Most people who want to get into Data Science have heard one or two good things about this field and are motivated to reap the benefits. However, only a few really command this high benefits.
The challenge to get a high paying Data Science job isn’t that the jobs are not there or the companies do not have the money or are not willing to pay the salary. No! far from that. Companies are willing and ready to offer even double the amount currently seen as the hype-level.
The question is: Do you have the right skills to provide value that companies will be willing to pay for?
In this field, and in fact in many other fields, you are paid according to the level of value you provide. Data Science is a very lucrative career to have but it can be very toxic if you are not able to easily find your way out of problem statements and provide value. What even makes it more challenging is that many businesses and companies who do not really understand the capabilities as well as the limitations of Data Science turn to assume that Data Scientist are their saviour or magicians to business success and once you are not able to help them to, for instance, recover their 30 years debt, you are seen as part of the company’s problems.
However, in as much as you are not a magician to perform magics in organizations, your versatility and ability to hear what the data is saying which others can’t hear and your ability see what the data is showing which others can’t see is your ARSENAL!!
*Arsenal: a collection of weapons and military equipment.*
How do you develop this?
The Following Recommendations Will Help You Get A High Paying Job In Data Science:
1. Master your Skills
There is no two ways about this. Your skillset will open the doors for you and will sustain you whilst on the job. Although you are not expected to know everything before getting started on a job, after all you learn on the job as time goes on, however, if you do not showcase considerable amount of skills and command over the crucial concepts in Data Science during your interview, you will not make it into the organization let alone getting the chance to learn.
How To Master The Concepts:
Spend time diving deep into the various concepts and don’t just have an idea of what it is. For example if I ask you “Do you know the Naive Bayes algorithm?” you may probably say yes, however, if I ask you to explain in which circumstance will you choose Naive Bayes over KNN, that might be challenging. During the learning stage, you need to have patience to understand the concepts and they will go a long way with you.
As per my experience leading a team of Data Scientist here at Microsoft, I have seen some team members who contribute less to the success of the project being in stress and frustration most of the time than their mates who feels on top of their game. The sad truth is, if you are in a team and you are not able to contribute much to the project at hand (not that you don’t want to but you don’t know how to), your team mates look down upon you and it becomes very stressful to wake in the morning knowing that you are going back to the office to meet such an environment created for you.
I have personally trained team members, cooperate employees and students to land high paying Data Science jobs and become top performers in their Data Science team and I have put my kind of training in this course which you can easily access.
I advice during your learning stage, strive to become a Full Stack Data Scientist and afterwards take a specialization in one area and master it well.
2. Practice
To land a high paying job in Data Science requires some level experience or proof of concept.
You can’t rely on certifications. It doesn’t count much these days. It is better to present your Github profile showing recruiters what you have done in the field of Data Science than listing bunch of certificates in your resume.
No one gets impressed with certificates anymore.
Project portfolio is the hype now!!
During your learning stage, get involve in Hackathons (realistic ones). Get an internship-whether paid or not(don’t focus about the money at this stage).
Getting involve in real word projects will help you have some level of experience and proof of concepts.
Strategies
3. Look for a Work-from-home Data Science job (preferably in the USA, Australia, Germany, UK, if you are outside these countries).
The reason is that you can get a very high paying Data Science job in these countries that will pay you 4–5x higher than your home country. It’s a fact!! There are a whole of platforms you can get these jobs, linkedin Job portal is one such place to find these jobs.
4. Strive to get 2 or 3 offers. Why? it’s a strategy. Let’s say you get 3 offers from different companies and Company A is willing to pay you $95,000, Company B is willing to pay you $105,000, Company C is willing to pay you $107,000.
Now ideally in terms of salary, not counting other benefits that might come, you might want to choose Company C which has the best offer, BUT you can go back to Company B and tell them you also have an offer from Company C which is willing to pay $107,000, however, if they can offer to pay $110,000, you will like to work with them. At this moment, you are in a better position to negotiate your salary. Company B will agree to increase your salary because a) it will cost them another budget and time to start the recruitment process again. b) they now understand your real value and they have gotten a confirmation that they are hiring the right person and will therefore be willing to maintain you.
CONCLUSION
You need to realize that you are not the only one who is thrilled about the Data Science buzz and wants to taste the honey that comes with it. You have competitors and as much as companies are rushing for Data Scientist, so are applicants rushing for job offers. What will distinguish you from the mass is your skillset. There are plenty of resources out there but very few will really help you master the right skills needed. I recommend checking out this resource that I have personally put together for you.
You can connect with me on Linkedin for any enquiries.
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Stay safe and never stop learning!!
