WHY BIG DATA PROMISES ‘BIG’ FUTURE FOR JOB SEEKERS

The term ‘Big Data’ is associated with a promising career, where demand fortalent is higher than supply.

We reached out to an expert to answer common queries on jobs coming upin Big Data segment and the skills required as well.

Here is what Himanshu Gupta,

director-strategic accounts, EMEA at Fuzzy Logix, a Big Data analytics company, hasto say on emerging careers in Big Data, skills and the hiring scenario.

TimesJobs: Which sectors are hiring big data professionals?

Himanshu Gupta: Most Big Data jobs are in the sectors which havetraditionally had rich and large data. Organised retail, telcom, airlines, banking,financial services are some good examples. Some sectors like healthcare have beenemploying Big Data professional in advanced economies but not so much indeveloping economies.

Newer opportunities are emerging in ecommerce, internet of things,engineering and process.

TimesJobs: What kind of jobs is Big Data industry generating now? Which ofthese will be relevant for next decade?

Himanshu Gupta: There are three distinct types of requirements:

1. The need for data scientists with background of statistics, algorithms andmathematics is pronounced and not many people have these skills.

2. Then there are technology oriented jobs requiring programming skills in the areaof R, Hadoop, SQL besides Java/C++ and database administration. As the datastorage requirement increases, the demand will rise for data architect as well aspeople who can help store data more efficiently.

3. The third type of requirements come from people with skills in products (SAS,Matlab, Fuzzy Logix, Aster, etc) as well as BI and reporting tools like Microstrategy,Tableau and Qlikview.

TimesJobs: What skills are required for Big Data-related jobs?

Himanshu Gupta: Besides mathematics, technology or product skills, one bigadvantage would be industry knowledge (someone who can interpret theconclusions derived from a particular sector). Many companies are now creatingroles like ‘chief data officer’ who is not exactly technical or mathematics orientedperson, but knows the business well to understand the outcomes. Some companiesnow have an insight manager who creates stories around the conclusions of analysisand helps individual units implement them.

TimesJobs: For the present professionals, what methods/means are availablefor upskilling?

Himanshu Gupta: If you are already working in the industry, try to gocross-skills. Most useful skills would be to marry your industry/function knowledgeto data analysis. For example, only someone who knows the sector well canunderstand when the correlation between two factors is due to causation and whenit is not. Such skills will always be in high demand.