Data Scientist Takes Spot as Best American Job for Third Year in a Row
With the data scientist role being the hottest job on the market, numbers and data are quickly becoming the best spots for career growth.
Numbers aren’t normally seen as sexy, but when they bring in big paychecks and bigger payoffs for companies, numbers-based jobs can be the hottest roles in demand. For the third year in a row, the data scientist position has been ranked the most sought-after and “sexiest” job on the market.
The accolades come as part of Glassdoor’s annual ranking of the 50 best jobs in America. The job application and review site considers a number of factors including job satisfaction, number of job openings, and earning potential.
“Data scientist has ruled as one of the hottest jobs for years, proven by its third consecutive No. 1 ranking,” said Glassdoor Chief Economist Dr. Andrew Chamberlain. “This is due to the high demand (4,524 open jobs), the high salary ($110,000 median base salary) and high job satisfaction (4.2). Not only are tech companies scrambling to hire data scientists, but industries across the board, from health care to nonprofits to retail, are also searching for this talent.”
Chamberlain also noted that the skills used in data science can also move beyond the field into other industries.
“A key trend we see for these best jobs is that many of these roles are also ones that can be found in almost every industry — from data scientists to HR managers to executive assistants,” explains Chamberlain. “This is encouraging for people with these skills, as there is a wide range of career opportunities to consider.”
In this year’s listing, 20 out of the top 50 best jobs were tech and/or STEM related.
Just give “data scientist jobs” a quick search anywhere online, either through Glassdoor or another go-to job search website. On Glassdoor alone, there are over 1,000 results from Amazon, Zillow, Lyft, Microsoft and other companies.
Amazon especially has a number of openings for data scientists, and as Alexa becomes more and more ubiquitous in homes, data scientists will be needed at a rapidly increasing rate.
According to Udacity, “no matter what type of [data scientist job] you’re interviewing for, you’re likely going to be expected to know how to use the tools of the trade. This means a statistical programming language, like R or Python, and a database querying language like SQL.”
There’s also a very good chance that data scientists will have to handle machine learning at larger companies or at a company that uses data-driven products or services.
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“Workers with certain technical and soft skills, such as creativity, flexibility and good judgment, are at an advantage across industries, from healthcare to finance to HR, to leverage advances in artificial intelligence and automation,” Chamberlain added. “That’s because AI is increasingly complementing these jobs, while not replacing the people needed to do them.”
Other jobs in the top 10 include manufacturing engineer, product manager, mobile developer, and electrical engineers. In second place came DevOps Engineer with a ranking of 4.6 out of 5 stars and a job satisfaction rating of 4.0. The median base salary was an impressive $105,000.
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