Can You Freelance as a Data Scientist In 2022?
Tags: datascience, freelance, programming, beginners
Published: 2022-05-17 12:40:14

It's 2022, and Data science is one of the most in-demand skills, if not the most. As the demand is high, supply is also considerable. Not much high, not much low but moderate. But the opportunities are abundant. 

The traditional job requires you to show up at the office, work there for a considerable amount of time, and leave exhausted at the end of the day. Also, working under someone might not be for everyone. But freelancing is quite the opposite of a traditional job. You can be your own boss, take on as many projects as you want, and have a peaceful mind at the end of the day. Businesses have also started hiring remote workers and freelancers, especially after COVID. Primarily because of their cost-effectiveness. 

Freelancing in data science is possible, and it is indeed a lucrative career path. If you are good at probability and statistics, if you have skills like programming and data visualization, then you are on the right path to [becoming a data scientist](https://dev.to/mainashem/the-ultimate-guide-to-getting-started-in-data-science-4c1d). While there are so many pros attached to it, such as the opportunity of working with different clients and industries, and time flexibility, there are cons as well, like not being able to find a client, doing everything from pitching to the proposal and booking a client. You must take a call according to your risk appetite and financing. 

Let's take a look at freelance gigs available for data scientists. But before that, if you are a beginner, you need to have a good understanding of tools and languages like python, Django, excel, tableau, power bi, flask, dash and shiny. 

Data visualization projects are the most common ones here. Startups often require a data scientist to make communication with data better and easier. And this requires building interactive graphs and dashboards using the tools mentioned above. Data visualization pays 58$/ hour depending on experience and works quality. 

Data cleaning is a critical step for data science projects. Data cleaning is putting data in such a format that it can be used again for implementing new algorithms. Data cleaning is often regarded as a routine and tedious task, and it requires you to have a good knowledge of data manipulation. The average pay for data cleaning ranges from 40$ to 90$ per hour, according to the complexness of the data. 

Building data models is a complicated type of gig. It requires more practical knowledge of implementing machine learning, artificial intelligence and big data algorithms. Building data models also include building bots and recommendation systems. The average pay here can be as high as thousand dollars because it takes months to complete. 

Startups hire data scientists to conduct customer research. This requires freelancers to extract data, design models and build prototypes for them. As we know, the demand for data science is high, massive number of people now want to learn the skills required for data science. If teaching is your passion, you can definitely take tutoring gigs as it pays well. 

To find a freelance gig for a data scientist, you use marketplaces like **[Gig4u](https://gig4u.co/)**. I want to give one piece of advice: work on your skills, become better at them and build a strong portfolio. And you are ready to take high paying freelance gigs.