The concept of big data has been around for years; most organizations now understand that if they capture all the data that streams into their businesses, they can apply analytics and get significant value from it. But even in the 1950s, decades before anyone uttered the term “big data,” businesses were using basic analytics (essentially numbers in a spreadsheet that were manually examined) to uncover insights and trends.
The new benefits that big data analytics brings to the table, however, are speed and efficiency. Whereas a few years ago a business would have gathered information, run analytics and unearthed information that could be used for future decisions, today that business can identify insights for immediate decisions. The ability to work faster – and stay agile – gives organizations a competitive edge they didn’t have before.
Big Data Jobs in 2018 and Coming Years
According to Forbes, the top five industries hiring people with big data skills are the Profesional, Scientific and Technical Services industry, the IT industry, the Manufacturing industry, the Finance industry, and the Retail industry. The graph below shows the distribution of job openings in the above-mentioned sectors:
Forbes also reports that the demand for sales representatives that have the skills to sell big data solutions are going through the roof. They believe this trend will continue in 2017 and subsequent years. Big data professionals – Information Security Analysts, Management Analysts, and Information Security Analyst are also in very high demand. The growth in demand for these positions are as follows:
Big Data Job Titles
Here is a list of job titles that require big data skills. These titles are useful in determining search terms for big data jobs.
- Data Engineer
- Big Data Engineer
- Machine Learning Scientist
- Business Analytics Specialist
- Data Visualization Developer
- Business Intelligence (BI) Engineer
- BI Solutions Architect
- BI Specialist
- Analytics Manager
- Machine Learning Engineer
- Statistician
Demand for Big Data Skills
The demand for professionals with big data skills is increasing alongside the increased investment in big data. Companies today realize the value of data analytics. As a result, they are looking for skilled people to capture and make sense of it. Job portals like Indeed, Dice, Glassdoor and many more provide a clear picture of the demand for big data jobs. Although big data is a broad term, job listings use it often. You will find it in job postings for data analysts, data scientists and other important roles within the data industry.
Technology changes frequently, and so do buzzwords. Big data, which was one of the most-used terms until recently, has been replaced with ‘real-time’. This doesn’t mean that the demand for big data skills is now low. Rather, it simply means that the keyword has been replaced. Textion, a Seattle-based startup, has verified the same after studying 500,000 job applications applying for big data related jobs.
According to the findings of IDG’s research on big data, organizations are set to invest big in skill sets necessary for big data deployments in the next 12-18 months. This means, more opportunities for data scientists, data architects, data analysts, data visualizers, research analysts, and business analysts.
The gap in Demand and Supply of Big Data Skills
Despite huge demand, however, there is still a significant gap between the demand and supply of big data skills. As a result, many organizations are trying to bridge the gap internally by training their employees. The ‘Annual IT Forecast’ by TEKsystems also confirms this shortage. Positions that require big data skills are hard to fill according to this report. In the survey by Knowledgent, too, over 55% of respondents said that finding professionals with big data skills was a challenge.
Big Data Skills for Bigger Paychecks
As big data gathers momentum, it is creating a great number of career opportunities for IT professionals with big data skills. With companies scurrying around for big data professionals, it is an apt time to gather the necessary skills to land one of the hottest jobs today. There is no doubt that if you possess or gather these skills, your value in the IT jobs market will be significantly higher.