Data Science Career in 2026: Is it worth it?

What is Data Science?

In simple terms, Data Science is the study of data. It includes creating methods of recording, storing, and analyzing data to extract useful information from a huge amount of unstructured data.  

It integrates various tools, techniques, algorithms, visualizations and machine learning principles with the aim to discover hidden patterns from the raw data. 

All this information is then used to gain insights, predict trends, and decide what direction the business needs to take. It helps in decision making and tries to ensure that every decision has a greater chance of leading the company to more success. 

Let us understand it with an example.

How Netflix Uses Data Science?

With a company valuation of over $243.54 billion, Netflix has surpassed Disney as the most valued media company in the world. All this extraordinary can be attributed to their impressive customer retention rate, which is 91%. 

Netflix collects a lot of data from subscribers. It collects customer interaction and response data to a TV show. For example, Netflix knows the time and date a user watched a show, the device used, if the show was paused, does the viewer resume watching after pausing? Do people finish an entire TV show or not, how long does it take for a user to finish a show, which scenes/ episodes do people rewatch and so on. 

With this data, Netflix creates a detailed profile for its users. One of the few uses that it puts this data to is to recommend TV shows and movies based on the user’s preferences. 

According to the company, they earn over a billion in customer retention because the recommendation system accounts for over 85% of the content streamed on the platform. 

Netflix also uses its big data and analytics tools to decide if they want to greenlight original content. To an outsider, it might look like Netflix is throwing their cash at whatever they can get, but in reality, they decide to produce content based on the data that they derive from their user base.

Powerful analytics models can process terabytes of data to churn out meaningful information. Judicious use of data analytics done by expert Data Scientists is the main reason for Netflix’s success. 

All this highlights the value of data analytics because it presents an incredible insight into user’s preferences allowing the company to make smart decisions that deliver maximum ROI on their decisions.

All this makes Data Science the most in-demand career option after Digital Marketing in 2023. Both careers are interrelated to each other. The existence of both careers would be impossible without the other.

Tip: You can go through our detailed guide on How Data Science Compliments Your Digital Marketing Knowledge, to know more about how both are related to each other. 

Now you might have understood the meaning of data science and how it can be used to enhance the business. So, let’s move ahead and see what is that which makes data science a popular career option. 

What Makes Data Science So Popular?

The amount of data we produce every day is truly mind-boggling. We generated about 5 exabytes of data from the dawn of humankind till 2003. Today, we generate that much data every 2 days. And this number is going to keep increasing. 

Source : Finances Online

Traditionally, the data that we had was mostly structured and small in size, which could be analyzed by using the tools. Unlike data in the old systems that were mostly structured, today most of the data is unstructured because there is simply so much of it. This data is generated from different sources like text files, multimedia forms, financial logs, sensors & instruments, user behavior on digital platforms, etc. 

Simple tools are not capable of processing this huge variety of data. This is why we need advanced algorithms and analytical tools for processing, analyzing and drawing meaningful insights out of this raw data. 

This is not the only reason why Data Science has become so popular. Let’s dig deeper and take a snap at how Data Science can be used in various domains. 

• Think about if you could know the precise requirements of consumers from the existing data like their purchase history, past browsing history, age and income. No doubt you had access to this data earlier too, however now, with the help of Data Science you can train models more effectively and recommend the product to these customers with more precision. This will be amazing as it will bring more business to your organization. This is exactly what Amazon does.
• Let us take another scenario. How about if you had a cab available near you whenever you wanted one? With the use of Data Science, companies like Ola, Uber, and Rapido try to predict the demand for cabs and their availability. They introduce things like more driver benefits and surge pricing for customers to manage their fleet more efficiently.
• Let’s see how Data Science can be used in predictive analytics. Let’s take weather forecasting as an example. Data from ships, aircraft, radars, satellites can be collected and analyzed to build models. These models will not only forecast the weather but also help in predicting the occurrence of any natural calamities. It will help you to take appropriate measures beforehand and save many precious lives.

There are various other domains in which Data Science is making an impression. A few of them are: 

What Makes Data Scientists the Most Highly Paid Professionals Today? 

Data is like the oil of the 21st century. In fact, it has become even more valuable. However, it can only be used once it is refined. This data is a real treasure hoard and people who can acquire insights from this data are going to be very wealthy.

Today almost every data-driven organization depends completely on data analysis for making the best decision for their businesses. With the help of data analysis tools, algorithms and different methods, organizations try to derive insights from data. They try to use these insights for better targeting of potential customers so that they would end up purchasing the product or service.

For all this analysis, these companies require data scientists who are proficient in several fields like Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science and Data Science. Since such skilled individuals are very few in number, the value of a Data Scientist is very high in the market. Thus it makes Data Science the most demanding career option of the decade. 

And due to the less number of Data Scientists experts in the industry, the salary of a Data Scientist is very high. Don’t believe us! Let’s take a look at the annual salary of a Data Scientist in various sectors.

Why it’s the Perfect Time to Kick-Start Your Data Science Career

Data Science is the career of the future. Industries are becoming data-driven and new innovations are being made every day. The field of technology has become dynamic and with more and more people interacting with the internet, a mind-boggling amount of data is being generated.

Companies like Ola, Uber, Oyo, Swiggy, Zomato, Amazon, Flipkart and many more- all depend heavily on Data Scientists to understand how best to serve their consumers and how best to gain more profit. While governments also rely on data to make better policy decisions.

In today’s world, it has become a necessity to possess data literacy. The demand for data scientists has increased drastically, and if you know how to transform raw data into meaningful insights, then you can have a great career in this field. 

So, if you want to kick-start your career in the field of Data Science, then start learning by enrolling yourself into a good Data Science Course and take a step towards nurturing your career in this field. 

And as we have mentioned earlier, data science is the most demanded career after digital marketing. We can say that not only Data Science but also Digital Marketing is the future. So if you want to start your career in the field of digital marketing, then this would be the perfect time for you to begin.  

With IIDE’s Online Digital Marketing Course in India, designed by the industry experts, you can enhance your digital marketing skills and take a step ahead to start your career in this field. 

We hope the blog was informative and you enjoyed reading it. Let us know your views in the comments section below.