Data Scientist
What the work is
Applies analytical techniques and scientific procedures to datasets by creating algorithms and using statistical models. Builds and deploys analytics frameworks, such as machine learning, to obtain information for strategic planning and decision-making.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Prepares data for analysis, cleans data, and recognises and overcomes data anomalies
- Applies analytics techniques that incorporate mathematical, statistical, programming and database skills
- Builds and deploys machine learning and artificial intelligence frameworks
- Applies models to data, and evaluates and adjusts models to discover trends and extract insights
- Presents data-driven findings and outcomes to key decision-makers and stakeholders
- Provides strategic input and innovation to organisational data science initiatives
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in the data team of a fictional online grocery delivery business. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A messy pile of numbers becomes one chart that makes everyone say 'oh, that's why'
- A tool you built saves the warehouse team a whole morning every week
- You catch a data error before it reaches the people who would have acted on it
Hard days
- Someone senior loves a chart that you know does not tell the whole story
- Hours of cleaning data that nobody will ever see, followed by a request to redo it
- A pipeline breaks at three in the morning and the dashboards go blank
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 223234, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.