How to Become a Data Scientist in Australia

Being a data scientist requires deep knowledge across multiple disciplines. A good foundation degree will provide a career platform.

Choose a program that has strong relevance to the field. You don't have to get this perfectly right, as any relevant learning could be valuable, a source of specialist expertise, and give you better access to the job market in the short term. Inevitably, you will need to keep learning and stay abreast of technology changes throughout your career.

Programming skill has been a major part of the field, but this is quickly diminishing in significance with the ability of AI to perform routine programming tasks. Therefore, you may want to steer clear of courses with a heavy coding curriculum, instead favouring courses that emphasise concepts and leverage AI capabilities.

Useful topics in your undergraduate degree include data management, statistical methods, machine learning fundamentals, and data visualisation techniques. Specialisations like cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing deepen your expertise. Cross-disciplinary options, such as bioinformatics, enterprise systems development, and blockchain technologies, broaden your skill set.

The need to gain real-world experience as a technology professional can sometimes be overlooked. Going straight from a bachelor degree into postgraduate studies could be considered a naive way to get into the profession. You don't know what you're getting into and can easily misdirect your study efforts.

Several kinds of jobs are good career preparation for a future data scientist.

• Working as a data analyst, for instance, exposes you to the nuts and bolts of data. You get hands-on with data cleansing and basic analysis.
• Machine learning engineers and data engineers dive deep into algorithms and data frameworks. This builds technical prowess.
• Roles like analytics manager and AI engineer showcase the strategic value of data science. They illuminate the power and ethical stakes of AI.

Such experiences refine your skills and widen your view. They reveal which data science facets spark your passion. You learn where you excel. This guides your further education and career path with precision.

Postgraduate qualifications in data science offer a high return because Australian employers value them. For a complex discipline such as data science, it's a good idea to invest in a university program that covers unfamiliar learning areas.

You can study data science online while maintaining a full-time job, which lowers the opportunity cost of postgraduate courses. It's also common to start with a four-subject Graduate Certificate in Data Science, with the option to use completed subjects as credit towards a graduate diploma or master's degree.

University programs cover areas such as artificial intelligence, database management, analytics, data visualisation, and machine learning. There is usually significant flexibility in what you study, allowing you to target your areas of interest.

We recommend you identify the kinds of jobs you're interested in before finalising your program of study. You should check out job adverts to see the skill requirements.