Citizen Data Scientist: How to Become One?

With the following skills and experience, the Citizen Data Scientist job will be well within reach

For most of the business functions, data science has become an integral part. The big data arena is rife with automated tools which help in extracting insights from humongous amount of data. This leads to the question of whether data science as a specialization can stand the invasion of AI. Definitely, AI is not just around the corner but is at the very center of many businesses. Seems there is no room to wonder if data science is going to fade. If we leave that question to experts, there is a new breed of data scientists called Citizen Data Scientists, which every company is looking forward to invest in. Ryohei Fujimaki, founder and CEO of DotData, stated in a report that, model development and operationalization, can be simplified by automation. Companies can make AI and ML deployment easy with an improvised data team. While this statement may not be a pointer for eternity in data science, it definitely indicates scope for the citizen data scientist role.

Why are companies looking for Citizen Data Scientists?

A citizen data scientist need not be a professional with a world-class degree or certification. they act as bridges between the business team and data analytics teams with the specific role of generating insights using visualization tools and point–and–click interfaces. They create data science models using predictive analytics without doing much statistical analysis. This particular category of data scientist job is never featured on recruitment websites because companies, most of the time, train the staff who are analytically inclined towards processing data and data presentation.

Where to look for Citizen Data Scientist skills

Though you need not be an expert in statistical analysis, having some knowledge in regression analysis will help you to a great extent to become a Citizen Data Scientist. Be it visualization tools like Tableau, KNMIE, Excel, or SQL, it is critical to understand these tools from a predictive analytics perspective and be able to apply them to solve real-life business problems. This is called Data Literacy. There are few noteworthy online sites such as Udemy, EdX, and LinkedIn Learning where you can gain significant knowledge about how data is processed to derive insights.

Gain hands-on experience

And finally, before taking the leap, test the waters. Platforms like Kaggle facilitates experimenting with different sets of data using different tools. Work on projects with real data sets so that you would have a broad understanding of how the tools actually work and moreover, it will help you gain experience even before getting hired. Master the art of storytelling with data and visualizations. At the end of the day, a Citizen Data Scientist works towards conveying the message to the stakeholders.

According to a Gartner report, the number of Citizen Data Scientists will grow five times faster than the number of highly skilled data scientists. This is primarily because Citizen Data science simplifies data science by augmenting it in unconventional ways.