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The Struggles of a Data Scientist
I’ve been a data scientist for around 4 years now, though it really depends on your definition as I always did many parts of it, but it wasn’t really a defined job at the time. While I do find data science, along with reliability engineering, exciting and it is one of the most interesting jobs I’ve had, at times I can see the cracks in the veneer of its label as one of the most satisfying jobs. If you dig around the internet you will quickly find articles or posts that highlight there is a level of unhappiness or high churn rates.
Is data science a terrible job?
In my opinion that is not true. The newness and scarcity of the machine learning field is a big bonus in that good employers know your worth (average base pay in the UK is estimated at £42,000 per year) and give you freedoms (like remote working or flexible working hours) that can be a breath of fresh air to the more regimented office job. Additionally, the wealth of problems and uses of machine learning mean that your work can be immensely stimulating and rewarding.
So, what is wrong?
I think this newness and popularity is part of the cause of the problem. With the rush to get in on the “artificial intelligence boom” companies are trying to hire data scientists but they don’t know what skills they need and therefore…