There isn’t a globally-broadcast Olympics for data scientists quite yet, though Kaggle might be on its way to becoming that. The competitive platform describes itself as “data science as sport,” and it appears the meme is spreading. In a recent post at VentureBeat, Christina Farr names data scientists “the top athletes of the enterprise world.” Citing reports by SiSense and McKinsey & Company, Farr observes that data scientists are “highly in-demand and earning sky-high salaries in their prime but insecure about their future prospects.” With Big Data driving a global shortage of skilled practitioners, the immediate prospects for data scientists are very positive. But as Farr notes in her post, the long-term career prospects for data jockeys rely on management teams that embrace the value and potential of Big Data.
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