Because being great at your job is about more than just the code

In technology, data science is one of the hottest jobs, and data scientists are becoming sought after in almost every field. Data scientists are the middlemen between the goals of a business and product strategy. According to the Harvard Business Review, data science is the sexiest job of the 21st century, but it also comes with a lot of challenges.

You must possess the right interpersonal skills to be successful because you will need more than just technical skills to overcome these challenges. The combination of these skills enables data scientists to gain insights and help with decision making by effectively communicating the results.

• “Data science is more than just number crunching: it is the application of various skills to solve particular problems in an industry.”

  — Dr. N. R. Srinivasa Raghavan, head of the data science team, Infosys.*

You need to be creative and imaginative to thrive as a data scientist. These skills are transferable across different careers. Developing these skills will make you stand out from the crowd of data scientists.

Here are the top five soft skills for data scientists:

Communication

Effective communication is a skill sought after almost everywhere. Communicating data requires visual, written, and oral communication skills. Conveying information is vital and the most crucial soft skill to succeed as a data scientist.

In business, data scientists need to be proficient at analyzing data, and they must also be fluent in explaining their findings to both technical and non-technical audiences. Organizations rely on data scientists to convey their results and offer solutions to their business problems, which will enable them to make better business decisions. Data scientists can explain data-driven insights in business terms in a way that will help with the next line of action.

No matter how much of a whiz you are with the technical skills, your true value is tested when you can effectively convey the exact and right information to others. You will have to communicate with a lot of people from stakeholders to the technical team to the non-technical team. You will also almost certainly need to write up your analysis and recommendations.

Critical Thinking

Aside from gaining insights from data, data scientists should be able to ask questions in different ways and understand how the answers are related to the business to help with the best decision making.

Data scientists should be curious and have the ability to see different angles of a problem, considering the data source, and so on. With critical thinking, data scientists can analyze questions and obtain results.

Problem-Solving

Data science is basically about solving problems. You should have the skills as a data scientist to solve problems. There are certainly going to be problems, from messy data to bugs and more, and being able to solve these problems is a core skill. Problem solvers easily identify different types of issues, and they are quick to offer methods on how to address these problems that will give the best results.

Most times, companies do not care about how many courses you have taken and aced. They want to know the challenges you have encountered on real-life projects and how you approached and solved them. You should be able to discern the problems and potential challenges that need solving to sustain and grow the business.

Business Acumen

As a data scientist, you need to understand things that are specific to the particular industry you work in. Aside from knowing a lot in your field, companies ensure data scientists have domain knowledge and can translate data to results for them. The main goal of a business is to make a profit. As a data scientist in business, you are expected to bring value to the company with data.

You will need business acumen to determine in which projects you should and shouldn’t be applying data science, you will need to step out of your role as the data scientist to experience something closer to the side of the business that deals with finance. You will work with the business team to gain a deep understanding of how the business works and how revenue is generated

Intellectual Curiosity

Data scientists are curious, they try to discover underlying truths based on data given, and they have an impelling force to answer questions asked and not asked. They keep searching for answers and dig deeper to know more. They try to discover underlying truths.

Your technical skills are important as a data scientist. However, you will need to develop these soft skills above and many more to thrive and be the best in the field you find yourself in.

Do you know other soft and interpersonal skills that are also important? Drop them in the comment section below.

Thanks for reading!