Not so long ago, some newspaper called DS the sexiest job in 21st century. Naive people flocked into this field and universities and bootcamps quickly promoting courses that enroll thousands people for huge profits. Fast forward to 2023, many companies are laying off Data scientists in drove, this field is dying so fast that people have not even paid off their tuition loan before losing their job. Not only it is no longer the sexiest career, it is becoming the most depressing career. Companies start to realize DS is just an overblown hype and most DS are just talking jargons with minimal impacts. SQL monkeys become dime a dozen and machine learning models stop at prototyping phase. It is a huge waste of money and companies are just getting rid of all these now.
It really depends on how DS are utilized and if they have a seat at the product- related decision making
Data Scientist may not be applicable for all the companies but the companies that will specialize in ML/AI to cater to other companies will always need more DS imo
True. Many companies don't need data scientists. They can use ML services/APIs that other companies build (e.g. OpenAI, Google, AWS, etc)
True. One of the reasons I became an MLE.
True phd data scientists are probably okay. The data scientists with bachelors/masters that are basically glorified data analysts with new age tools are probably not doing so hot.
In my experience, most companies interpret “data scientist” as “analyst who can code”. Machine learning focused data scientists usually get put in “ml engineer” roles.
Yea but who wants to do all that extra schooling for hardly even better pay and sometimes worse pay
Glorified report writer.
Specially at Banks
I can’t speak for everyone, but in my personal experience as a data scientist it takes a huge amount of resources to build anything of real value and I just haven’t seen that investment from the business side. Usually, it’s a desire for “quick” model solutions that end up being poorly developed or maintained due to the lack of resources. Real data science projects should be handled like software engineering projects (full team, PM, etc) but they’re usually handled like analytics projects.
Yes
Agreed
I think glorified big tech data scientists are a dying career. Smaller non-big tech firms still need data scientists and analysts. If anything they’re desperate for qualified talent and a lot of them just got laid off. People just need to broaden their search
Data scientist really is just “quant analyst” with a fancy new title and code ability on top of statistics. That’s not going away, but data scientists who don’t have people skills might get filtered out. PowerPoint is an underrated skill lmao.
People forget that industrial statisticians and quant analysts existed long before DS, long before big tech, and will continue to exist. Business stakeholders (and many "technical" people) are morons at even basic stats. Most of us are probably just 10-20% overpaid right now with DS title, and market needs to adjust.
IMO the talented DS&A (Data Science & Analytics) folks that have a good mix of stats, data engineering, product, presentation, and communication skills have nothing to worry about. The reason why SQL monkey's exist are there are not enough smart people in the DS&A field. I've heard my entire career that the field is dying, but my TC grows stronger year after year and I keep getting promoted. If anything, to me, it seems like DS&A continues to grow and many companies are yet to figure out how to effectively leverage the position. The hype around becoming a data driven product team doesn't seem to be dying and more and more companies are investing in data.
just because it was growing, it does not mean it was useful and not hyped especially during the cheap money period.
Exactly this. Specialized data scientists will be fine, especially ones who are able to translate their work into business value. If you're capable of making business decisions like a traditional analyst with the benefit of also knowing how to code, you're golden. Powerpoint is really the most valuable skill a data scientist can have.
As a DS, agree with you