READ THIS: What's behind the slump in PC sales? Can the industry turn around?

Topic: Big Data

Why data scientists are in demand and how they enable big data

Summary: Just as big data is one of the hottest topics in IT, data scientist is one of the hottest jobs. IBM's James Kobielus explains what the role involves and why it's so important.

Jason Hiner

By for Between the Lines |

The role of "Data scientist" isn't new but it has evolved into one of the hottest jobs in tech, as IBM has suggested that there will be 1.2 million new jobs in big data analytics created over the next decade. A big portion of those jobs will be for data scientists.

In this two-minute video clip, IBM big data evangelist James Kobielus explains what a data scientist does, the skill set that it requires, how they collaborate with subject matter experts to deliver important insights, and why the role is so important to the future of IT and big data.

This clip is part of the bonus coverage of ZDNet's Techlines event, "Big Data Debunked – Finding the Data Signals," on October 4, 2012 in New York City.

Topics: Big Data, TechLines

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

10 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion

  • Great

    From now on I won't call myself a database designer anymore, I will call myself a data scientist!

    All I need to know is brush up on some basis statistics and world is my oyster!

    If you can't sell your current skills, try them under different marketing - works like a dream every time.
    jorwell
    Reply 2 Votes

    • Marketing is merely the act of lying to convince others

      Then we wonder why nobody's ethical anymore... still, it was tried 2000 years ago and didn't get very far... or 6000 years, it depends on your point of view and which stone tablet you prefer to believe in...
      HypnoToad72
      Reply 1 Vote

      • The triumph of rhetoric over reason

        seems to be ongoing.

        Which means we are all pretty much stuffed.
        jorwell
        Reply 1 Vote

      • Ah, so that's why Kobielus is a "big data evangelist"

        will there be three other big data evangelists each giving us an inconsistent take on the story?
        jorwell
        Reply 1 Vote

  • I did a search for "data scientist" on a couple of job boards

    I got exactly one result.

    How quickly will the other 1,199,999 jobs become available?

    Or can it be that a data scientist is merely a figment of IBM's fevered imagination?
    jorwell
    Reply 1 Vote

  • The 1.2 million jobs

    One data scientist using "modern" big data tools that copy the data wholesale and have no integrity rules or consistency checking and 1,199,999 million jobs to clear up the mess afterwards, reenter data dozens of times and deal with customer complaints.

    So Big Data is a Roosevelt/Keynsian style new deal job creation program.

    I await supply siders denouncing Big Data as a socialist plot of the newly re-elected Obama administration.
    jorwell
    Reply 1 Vote

  • Whatever became of "Knowledge Engineers"?

    I remember when that was the "next big thing" in careers. I'm OK with visionaries trying to imagine what the next big thing is, but journalists and readers should take these predictions with a grain of salt.
    kellycarter
    Reply 1 Vote

    • As former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt put it

      "Wer Visionen hat, sollte lieber gleich zum Arzt gehen!"

      Those who have visions should go and see a doctor.
      jorwell
      Reply 1 Vote

  • Impressive

    Those may well be the most hairy ears ever captured on film.
    seanaegan
    Reply 1 Vote

  • Can you say "Autonomy"????

    Heeee.... Today we see thqat the only "big" about big data is the amount of spoofing and "irregularities" associated with the "business" of raping unknowing customers. Don't just walk away, RUN, RUN!
    Willnott
    Reply 1 Vote
CNET Join | Log In | Privacy | Cookies Close