A day in the life

What does it meant to be a data scientist?

Watch the video to find out what being a data scientist involves – skills, tasks, knowledge and interests – and how all the pieces fit together.

Data scientists can be found in many different kinds of organisations, large and small. They could work across government, in business, in labs, and in research.

The skills of a data scientist may be the same, no matter where they work, but how they apply them, reasons behind the work they do and how their work impacts others may vary considerably.

Feel free to browse the YouTube videos below to see how the data scientist role varies across industries.

The big picture – gathering and presenting data for actionable change. Watch the TEDxBerkley talk Data science for the environment, where Dan Hammer (2018) talks about his work for Global Forest Watch. He makes an interesting statement in his talk: ‘you can’t change what you can’t see’ (referring to the visualisation of data).

Improving processes – being the ‘data person’ and promoting data-driven decision-making. Watch Day in the Life: Data Scientist, where Alena Crivello talks about her work in data science at Chevron.

Teaming up – working productively with a range of people to address important problems. Watch this video describing the collaboration between pharmaceutical and data science specialists to find new treatments for serious diseases: Data Science and Artificial Intelligence – Turning Data into Knowledge.

The Daily Routine – the day-to-day activities most data scientists do, no matter their subject area. A number of data scientists share what they do in a series of blog posts from KDNuggets: A Day in the Life of a Data Scientist: Part 4.

Your task

Have the above examples raised any questions or concerns for you?

Share your thoughts in the comments area below.

References

_{AstraZeneca. (2020, February 18). Data science and artificial intelligence – Turning data into knowledge [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSGk9pVfujM}

_{Crivello, A. (2018, February 12). Day in the life: Data scientist [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wk9T_G-u4o}

_{Hammer, D. (2018, March 8). Data science for the environment [Video]. YouTube. TEDxBerkley. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph439t-kTIE}

_{Mayo, M. (2018, April 2). A day in the life of a data scientist: Part 4. KDnuggets. https://www.kdnuggets.com/2018/04/day-life-data-scientist-part-4.html}