Universities Increasing Programs for Data Scientists

Challenge: The checklist of desirable attributes in a data scientist include a creative and well spoken systems architect, quantitative analyst, software engineer, and business analyst that's practiced in data integration and data visualization. So it's no wonder the data scientist is the unicorn of the industry. It also explaining why firms have found it almost impossible to hire one, and apparently just as difficult to keep one from being poached.

Why it's important: Still, as investment in big data grows, and as big-data analysis becomes more important for competitive advantage, it is critical to find data analysts proficient enough to use the technology, generate reports, and deliver insights. McKinsey Global Institute estimated that by 2018 there will be 4 million big-data-related positions in the US and a shortage of up to 190,000 data scientists. There’s also a need for folks who aren't quite full-fledged data scientists, but are data savvy nonetheless.

Read the complete outlook at Wall Street & Technology.

Becca Lipman is Senior Editor for Wall Street & Technology. She writes in-depth news articles with a focus on big data and compliance in the capital markets. She regularly meets with information technology leaders and innovators and writes about cloud computing, datacenters, ... View Full Bio