Data drives our modern world; thus, it should come as no surprise that data analytics represents one of the most promising career fields. If you appreciate all that data allows us to accomplish and enjoy diving into details, you could have a fruitful future in this exciting field. Boasting unprecedented growth and excellent job satisfaction, this is an ideal path for ambitious, detail-oriented, and tech-driven professionals.
A data analytics career path may be promising, yet it’s not right for everybody. While data literacy will be expected across numerous fields, some people are uniquely equipped with the passion and skill set necessary to navigate the challenges presented by vast data sets and the cutting-edge technologies used to navigate them.
In this guide, we cover several central questions to provide clarity as you make key decisions about your career and education. Most importantly, we’ll answer these essentials: What is data analytics, and why is it a good idea to pursue a data analytics career? Keep reading to learn what this career path involves and how the Master of Science in Data Analytics could prepare you for a bright future in a growing field.
What Is Data Analytics?
Understanding data analytics begins with understanding data — a concept that receives a lot of attention in our data-driven economy and yet remains murky to the very people who work with and rely on that data. Simply put, data represents a form of information (typically facts and figures) that can be efficiently and effectively processed. The process of collecting, cleaning, managing, examination and use of that data for making decisions is known as data analytics.
Revolving around the collection and analysis of sizable data sets, data analytics is often business oriented. Data analytics tools and techniques produce powerful insights, which, in turn, can be leveraged to boost performance, efficiency, and ultimately profits.
The Growing Demand for Data Analysts
It is well understood that data analysts are in high demand. Name an industry or an organization, and you’ll find employers clamoring to work with the best and brightest analysts. This reality is evident based on conclusions from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), with data scientists enjoying an outstanding job outlook of 35 percent. For comparison, this rate rests at a mere 3 percent across all occupations.
3 Factors Contributing to the Rising Need
Data has been a driving force in our economy and our way of life for decades. Now, however, this is accelerating to the point that analytics professionals are in exceptionally high demand. Factors contributing to this phenomenon include:
- Data abundance – It would be an understatement to claim that we enjoy access to a wealth of data. It’s difficult to determine how much data exactly we produce, but estimates from Statista suggest that humans collectively generate 328.77 million terabytes of data every day. It takes a lot of effort and expertise to organize, clean, and extract insights from these gigantic data sets, and without experts on the job, high volumes of data tell us little.
- Embracing data-driven decisions – The data economy has arrived, marking a departure from intuition-based decision-making processes that were once common. These days, leaders trust data to deliver valuable insights about everything from consumer demand to workplace efficiency. Analytics provide a trusted and straightforward system for gathering insights and making difficult decisions, and,
- Complex data ecosystems and technological advancements – There’s no denying that the sheer abundance of data has proven transformative, along with the increased willingness to make use of that data for business purposes. Previously, though, leaders struggled with limitations regarding how much data they could process and how quickly. Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to make such concerns a thing of the past. This rise of AI will not, as some fear, displace data analysts — rather, there will be a greater need for human capabilities alongside machine learning (ML) and other cutting-edge technologies.
Industries That Utilize Data Analytics
As we’ve mentioned, data analytics drives value in every sector imaginable. From finance to healthcare and even real estate and recreation, data analytics strategies have a proven track record for driving value through better decision-making. Analytics also play an increasingly central role in public sector pursuits, such as community health and education. Moving forward, we can expect data analytics to transform:
- Environmental science
- Agriculture
- Pharmaceuticals
- Hospitality
- Nonprofits
Data analytics are used across all industries and at every level, ranging from marketing to product development and even the C-suite. Few professional pursuits are as versatile or as far-reaching, particularly when a data analytics degree is paired with other credentials or targeted industry experience.
Career Growth and Specialization in the Field of Data Analytics
Many aspiring data analysts find the field’s rapid growth highly compelling; there is a certain confidence that comes with knowing that your skills are in great demand. We delve into this rapid growth below, along with what it says about job opportunities and anticipated wages:
Job Market and Salary Potential in Data Analytics
It would be an understatement to refer to the data analytics job market as strong. All signs point to a bright future for data-driven professionals, indicated first by the aforementioned 35 percent growth rate, along with promising insights from recruiters and even rising wages.
Job Market
Job opportunities abound in data analytics, and even when data-driven professionals lack titles such as “data analyst” or “data scientist,” analytics skills are highly sought after by top employers. As we’ve mentioned, this translates to job opportunities spanning numerous industries and available at the entry level and extending into the C-suite.
Strong Demand
The data analytics market is vast. Prominent forecasts suggest that, by 2030, this market will reach an astounding $301.8 billion on a global scale. Simply put, this means new job opportunities, as referenced not only by the BLS outlook but also by results from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) Corporate Recruiters Survey for 2023.
GMAC findings suggest that, in many regions, graduates from Master of Data Analytics programs are the most likely to be hired among those with graduate-level business degrees. Experts from GMAC reveal that data analytics graduates fare especially well in the tech space.
Diverse Opportunities
Data analysts have a powerful role to play across a variety of industries and in every niche imaginable. From corporate opportunities to government agencies and industries such as healthcare, there are plenty of ways for highly trained data analysts to specialize as they pursue their passions. Many are backed by a solid technical foundation but eventually move into niche areas they find compelling.
Global Reach
Data analytics crosses not only industries but also borders. Combine this with a wealth of remote opportunities, and analytics professionals can find a myriad of jobs or even consulting gigs that align with their interests and priorities.
Emerging Fields
Cutting-edge solutions such as artificial intelligence and machine learning have played a central role in the recent growth of data analytics and are expected to continue fueling growth far into the future. Technological advancements and global trends are expected to spark niche opportunities that relate to data privacy, real-time analytics, and unstructured data analysis.
Salary Potential
With strong demand comes a clear willingness among employers to pay top dollar. Data analytics wages can vary depending on education, experience, and industry or niche, but it is common for data analysts to earn well over six figures.
BLS data reveals that, in 2022, the median annual income for data scientists reached $103,500. Jobs within the data science category “scientific research and development services” produced median annual earnings of $118,620, and, across the entire occupation, employees in the highest 10 percent earned $174,790 every year.
Specialization
It would be an understatement to claim that the scope of data analytics is broad. As we’ve mentioned, this practice plays into nearly every industry imaginable and has achieved an expansive reach due to the ever-increasing array of technologies that help data analysts gather and interpret data. Compelling specializations include:
Business Analytics
Representing the intersection between data science and business strategy, business analytics provide an in-depth examination of past performance metrics. This, in turn, influences decision-making and helps predict future outcomes. Through business analytics, organizations can mine data and extract powerful insights regarding patterns that would not otherwise be easily observable.
Big Data Analytics
Big data are vast data sets that are too extensive to be collected, analyzed, or interpreted via traditional, human-based tools and technologies. However, through big data analytics, we can utilize highly efficient and accurate AI solutions to more efficiently and accurately collect and process a growing wealth of data.
Environmental Analytics
Drawing on comprehensive information regarding air, water, soil, and even food, environmental analytics provides a data-oriented glimpse at the world around us, along with the impact of human activities. This emerging field could have huge implications for future sustainability initiatives, as it may reveal which environmental strategies produce the greatest benefits for the natural world and the human economy.
Text and Natural Language Processing
Blending data science and linguistics, natural language processing (NLP) grants computer programs a greater understanding of human language. NLP tasks and techniques allow programs to translate and even interpret human text by breaking it down into smaller, more digestible parts.
Through text classification and sentiment analysis, businesses can categorize and make sense of vast volumes of textual data. This represents the next frontier in data science.
Predictive Analytics
Past data can play heavily into predictions of future events or trends. Predictive analytics provides a systematic approach to gathering historical data and extracting insights to reveal what is possible in the months or years to come. Through the use of data mining and machine learning, this practice can uncover patterns that humans struggle to understand on their own.
Geospatial Analytics
Drawing on a blend of location data and high-resolution images, geospatial analytics elevates our visualization and understanding of geographic information. From environmental patterns to demographic details, geospatial analysts can build location-oriented insights into a variety of data-driven practices and decision-making initiatives.
Energy Analytics
Power utility companies increasingly rely on energy analytics to boost field production while continuing to operate at peak efficiency. Through these data-driven practices, organizations are empowered to develop scheduling and automation systems that promise to dramatically cut waste and reduce costs.
Econometrics
As an important branch of economics, econometrics draws on powerful statistical models to provide quantitative analyses centered on economic circumstances and phenomena. Through this practice, economic theories can be compared with real-world data to facilitate greater confidence in financial forecasting.
Advantages of Pursuing a Master of Science in Data Analytics
Moving forward, leaders across various fields will be expected to exhibit a strong command of data analytics. Unfortunately, many ambitious professionals still lack such competencies. Therein lies the need for targeted training.
The Master of Science in Data Analytics (MSDA) provides a solid foundation in programming languages, statistical methods, and other essentials while also providing opportunities to apply these concepts in real-world settings and situations.UTC’s highly regarded MSDA program encourages future analytics leaders to embrace today’s data-driven environment while preparing for a bright, data-dominant future. Reach out to learn more about this program or to take the next step and apply.
