The growing rate of information communication technology has led to the daily addition of big data into the information highway. Data are available to organizations in volumes and varying forms and will be of no value without a proper understanding of their usage. This has led to the emergence of data analysts, data scientists, big data analytics, and many skills that the industry needs today to solve its numerous challenges including data storage, capturing data, data analysis, sharing, search, transfer, visualization, information privacy, querying, updating, and data source.
Big Data Defined
Big data has to do with semi-structured, structured, and unstructured data sets that are too complex to be managed by traditional data-processing application software.
Importance of big data
Organizations make use of big data at their disposal to increase revenue, enhance operations, and reach their desired goals. Proper use of big data keeps an organization ahead of its contemporaries due to the ability to make well-informed decisions with available data.
Skills required to be successful in Big Data
To be successful in this field one needs an array of skills. Tech Diary has put together the following top in-demand big data skills.
- Machine learning: This is studied under artificial intelligence. It deals with the use of statistical algorithms to learn from and or spot data patterns.
- Critical thinking: Data analysts are tasked with receiving and interpreting data based on organizational needs. Critical thinking keeps you abreast with new trends in technology, patterns, and their implications beyond the figures. As a data analyst, your critical thinking skill is needed to boost your decision-making skills, problem-solving skills, and data interpretation skills.
- Data visualization: This is an integral skill in big data, it is the act of effectively conveying findings/insights for decision-making through visual presentation.
- Programming: Being a programmer means you will know Python, scala, java, and other programming languages to be able to sort, analyze, manipulate, perform complex analyses, and handle key automation tasks.
- Data mining: According to Wikipedia ‘’Data mining is the process of extracting and discovering patterns in large data sets involving methods at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and database systems’’. As a data analyst developing this skill will give you an edge on the job as experts in the use of data mining tools are in high demand.
- Excel: This is an important skill for creating charts, and tables and analyzing data. Irrespective of the level of high or advanced technologies available to a data analyst an understanding of the use of Excel is crucial as most organizations prefer reports or data sets presented in Excel format.
- Cloud Computing: The knowledge of cloud computing and its tools is important for every data scientist to be able to effectively visualize and analyze data stored in the cloud. You also need to be able to make use of remote servers (cloud) like Google Cloud, Microsoft, Azure, and Amazon Web Services to store data.
- Data Cleaning: Data cleaning is a fundamental skill for data analysts. It deals with how missing data are handled, detected, and corrected from a database. Research shows that this skill set accounts for about 80% of the work of big data analysts.
In conclusion, big data is an evolving field and its challenges are enormous. It is important to master the skills required to be successful before going into the field. Big data will continue to be in high demand in all industries which is why it is expected that professionals in the field should equip themselves with appropriate skills.
