State of the Market

[BigJohn]

You probably could do Data Science with spreadsheets (basic analysis). But from real data scientist, I would expect at least MSc, preferable PhD and he will use R + Python.
As you need statistics, ML and other related fields.

This is why many of us don’t want to be in permanent positions with titles and appraisals. Who’s to say that a candidate with degree level education 15 years of experience of R + Python, ML and other related fields isn’t in fact a better candidate than one with at least a MSc, preferable PhD you mention

[BlasterBates]

This is why many of us don’t want to be in permanent positions with titles and appraisals. Who’s to say that a candidate with degree level education 15 years of experience of R + Python, ML and other related fields isn’t in fact a better candidate than one with at least a MSc, preferable PhD you mention

A Data Scientist is an expert in statistical methods, not in the tools you use to implement those methods.

[jamesbrown]

A Data Scientist is an expert in statistical methods, not in the tools you use to implement those methods.

Both, actually. R was built by (academic) scientists for scientists. The Core Team is stuffed with academics. Most of the contributed packages in CRAN are contributed by scientists, not software engineers. But, yeah, data scientists are not software engineers, as you can probably tell from using R

[BlasterBates]

Both, actually. R was built by (academic) scientists for scientists. The Core Team is stuffed with academics. Most of the contributed packages in CRAN are contributed by scientists, not software engineers. But, yeah, data scientists are not software engineers, as you can probably tell from using R

R is now widespread and is used by many Quants programmers and Software Engineers who are not themselves Data scientists, but who are Engineers with familiarity of statistical methods.

[jamesbrown]

R is now widespread and is used by many Quants programmers and Software Engineers who are not themselves Data scientists, but who are Engineers with familiarity of statistical methods.

Yes, it is also used by people that aren’t data scientists

[Paralytic]

But that would the same for any job. As exampe if you write/update XML files and call yourself backend developer

Yes, proving that job titles mean very little. You can say you do X, but X at one company can be a fairly different role from X at another company.

[AndrewK]

This is why many of us don’t want to be in permanent positions with titles and appraisals. Who’s to say that a candidate with degree level education 15 years of experience of R + Python, ML and other related fields isn’t in fact a better candidate than one with at least a MSc, preferable PhD you mention

Not sure how title related to lack of science training. Having 15 tears experience in R + Python, ML would make you a good engineer, not a scientist.

[LondonManc]

Yes, it is also used by people that aren’t data scientists

R for statisticians, Python for data scientists.

[CheeseSlice]

That as any data scientist would tell you - correlation does not imply causation.
And data science is not about correlation, which is important but only as the first step in any analysis.
Just take a look at how many real data scientist Amazon and Google have.

It was a joke. Data scientists don't really do humour I take it?

[Paralytic]

It was a joke. Data scientists don't really do humour I take it?

Do you mean the ones that use Excel, the ones that use Python or the ones that use R?