(People love to talk about bubbles, so I thought we could talk about one closer to home.) I'm a data scientist. Like most data scientists you meet, I didn't call myself a data scientist just a few years ago. In fact, I used to be a physicist who happened to love working with computers and programming. A few years ago I started hearing more about the idea of a data scientist and decided to transition into the world of "tech". I was not alone in wanting to make that transition it seems, and I regularly field questions from prospective data scientists asking how to make that transition. Having met many, many new data scientists, it has led me to wonder if we are starting to reach some saturation level. Many articles cite the 2011 study from McKinsey about the pending shortage that will leave us approximately 20 bajillion data scientists below the market need. I am unaware of an update to that study and have heard many stories of people having very long job hunts. Additionally, my relatively unknown startup has recently started the process to hire another data scientist and we have been inundated with applications. I'm sure this inundation is not unusual when anyone with an internet connection can apply, but so far we have had very few applicants that were obviously unqualified. Nearly all had education and/or work experience fitting of the title data scientist. An article recently submitted to DataTau, http://firstround.com/review/how-to-consistently-hire-remarkable-data-scientists/ claims that they need/get 150 applicants for every (great) hire. The article's point seems to be that you need a robust system in place to filter out the 149 to get the one shiny, brilliant diamond in the rough. Another take away could be that the market of potential data science hires is very crowded. So the question is "are we now in a data scientist bubble?", with more so-called talent than jobs to fill? I am interested in any thoughts people have on this. |