Should You Become a Data Scientist in 2021? | Towards Data Science

IntroductionJob OutlookPayRemoteSummaryReferences
Introduction
Job Outlook
Pay
Remote
Summary
References
With every new year comes more awareness of the title Data Scientist. I find myself not having to explain myself as much as time goes on, on what my day-to-day is, as well as what I do in general as a Data Scientist. In addition to university courses, boot camps, and online video education, it seems as though the general public is catching on to what a Data Scientist truly is, as well as how to become one. With that in mind, what will the 2021 landscape look like for Data Scientists? Even though as Data Scientists we can think now that we have been around for quite a while, it seems to be prevalent in job descriptions from various companies that the need is still there — the outlook is positive. What are some of the reasons you are a Data Scientist now, and if you are not one already, then why do you want to become a Data Scientist? Is 2021 a good year to become a Data Scientist? These are the questions I will be answering or discussing in the sections below. Read on if you would like to learn more about the outlook of the Data Science career from a professional Data Scientist.
Personally, I have seen more jobs pop up and have heard from others as well that more positions are becoming available at various companies. But, as a Data Scientist, I want to look at the data itself. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook [3], for Computer and Information Research Scientists, the outlook is projected to grow over the following years, which includes 2021.
Here are the official figures for the outlook:
15% increase from 2019 to 2029
2019 employment: 32,700 positions
2029 employment: 37,700 positions
As you can see, the numeric increase is 5,000 for the projected employment. Along with computer and information research sciences, Data Scientists can also fall into other job categories like software engineering and statistics, which are also seeing growth. It is important to note that the growth rate expectation is higher than the average for all occupations, which is at 4%.
For Data Scientists and other mathematical science occupations specifically, the growth rate is actually projected at 31%, one of the highest in The United States. Here [4] is another source of past employment and wages for Data Scientists on an even more granular level, including industry breakdowns, and maps by US state.
As a Data Scientist, I have some hypotheses or general expectations of what to expect in 2021. As 2020 has become an incredibly tough year, it has also become difficult to predict for companies. The year 2021 will look to find how the 2020 data will impact their 2021 projects. Additionally, companies will emerge or grow in different parts of the business because of the constraints that current events have pressed upon them. For example, movie production companies will weigh the pros and cons of theater vs streaming when releasing a new movie. Is there a certain demographic that is more likely to go to a theater in person if they are open? Are some type of people more likely to buy a more expensive, new movie at home with streaming? You can see that there are tons of new questions that can be raised from the effects of 2020.
Some of these questions can be answered by Data Scientists who will use new data and work with new use cases with Machine Learning algorithms to help predict or make a new process more efficient.
For example, one might expect that a company will target marketing towards certain counties in a state for more of an in-person theater experience, or the opposite can be said for targeting the other counties to watch new movies at home. A lot of these new Data Science problems will be focused on not only prediction, but also optimization with more granularity — than ever before.
The year 2020 aside, somewhat independent is the pay for a Data Scientist or a Computer and Information Research Scientist. There a ton of statistics on these pay expectations. However, even with the data presented, it is important to analyze what role you are specifically applying for or pursuing, and researching yourself realistic expectations for salary at your next or even current workplace. As someone who has applied to several Data Science roles over the past few years, I have been shocked by the range in salary for this position — so it is critical to be aware of what type of role you are pursuing. Some positions will, unfortunately, hide the true Data Science work in the description and interviews, and you will expect the role to be an intro role when it is more senior level and vice versa. What are some other factors for deciding pay? As you can see, this question is somewhat of a Data Science problem in itself — can you predict how much an offer will be from a company? So let us treat this question as a Data Science problem and present the features that are important in explaining the salary variable.
Here are possible important features or factors to think about when negotiating salary for 2021:
Personal factors
years of experience/seniority (e.g., 1–2 years, 10+ years)
education level (e.g., bootcamp, statistics, master’s degree?)
skills (e.g., SQL, TensorFlow, Deep Learning)
previous pay (e.g., expecting the same or more money for the next role)
Company factors
location overall (e.g., San Francisco)
industry (e.g., movies)
location type (e.g., city or rural?)
other Data Scientists on the team (e.g., a limiting factor is someone else’s salary)
job title (e.g., Sr. Data Science Manager, Jr. Machine Learning Engineer)
So even though the median annual wage may be a certain number, you will have to think of the above factors as well as several others to determine both your company and personal salary expectations.
Below are the documented pay statistics.
Median Annual Wage
* 2019 May: $122,840* Lowest 10%: $69,990* Highest 10%: $189,780I would expect these values to stay the same or increase for 2021
Of course, it is no surprise that Data Science pays well as it demands a wide variety of skills, and the impact it can have is significant. 2021 will be no expectation.
Current events have led many to work remotely if they can. As it becomes more proven over time that working from home does not halt progress, more positions in 2021 can expect to be remote positions. Whether you prefer or do not prefer to work from home, you are not limited by working remotely only as a Data Scientist. A lot of the work required in Data Science is in its simplest form is programming (of some sort) — meaning that physically, to perform your job, you only really need your laptop, software, and the ability to code and share. There are other aspects of Data Science that can benefit from working in-person, but those can also now be performed at home with live video software applications. Of course, if you prefer in-person or in-office that option may start to become available as well in 2021.
I would expect more positions to become remote in 2021. Of course, there are cons to working from home, but in 2021, we may not have the luxury of working in an office or worrying about that. Therefore, I will be focusing on the positives of working from home.
Here are some of the benefits of working from home:
no commute
not tired from your commute
more time to work — if you want
fewer distractions — depending on your situation
less time spent walking to meetings (e.g., sometimes I would have to drive to meetings as a Data Scientist in the past)
safely traveling/working in safe, different, motivating spaces
As a result of having more time from not commuting-
more time to work out
more time to sleep
more time to be healthy
As you can see, there are several benefits of working from home as a Data Scientist, regardless of the year — however, 2021 may present more work-from-home options for Data Scientists, even past 2021.
Data Science may have a different landscape with different opportunities in 2021. However, you can still expect growth in the field, as well as a competitive salary, along with the benefits of working from home.
I discussed the following in this article, answering the question of “Should You Become a Data Scientist in 2021?":
* job outlook — 2021 and beyond* pay/salary * remote/working from home
If you would like to learn more about the top 5 reasons to become a Data Scientist, I have written a more granular article covering the benefits that can be applied to 2021 as well [7]:
towardsdatascience.com
Thank you for reading! I hope you found this article both interesting and useful. Please free to comment down below and to discuss your expectations on Data Science in 2021.
It will be interesting to hear about how you feel about working from home as a Data Scientist, as well as if you think Data Science will stay as popular as it is now.
[1] Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash, (2020)
[2] Photo by Seb Mooze on Unsplash, (2019)
[3] Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Computer and Information Research Scientists,at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/computer-and-information-research-scientists.htm (visited December 01, 2020).
[4] U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2019, 15–2098 Data Scientists and Mathematical Science Occupations, All Other, (visited 2020)
[5] Photo by Viacheslav Bublyk on Unsplash, (2019)
[6] Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash, (2019)
[7] M.Przybyla, The Top 5 Reasons to Become a Data Scientist, (2020)