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A common question asked by those who care the most about their education & deciding if their time should be best spent in graduate school or if they need to move onto bigger or better ways of getting their education for data science jobs: do I need a master’s to become a data scientist? It is a very heated question & theDevMasters would like to contribute to clearing up with what we work best with: data.

Simple answer: yes.

Complicated answer: depends on what industry you want to work for.

In a survey by Kaggle, 44% of data scientists in the U.S. surveyed in 2017 by Kaggle held a Master’s degree. But the survey also told us that 20% of these data scientists simply held a Bachelor’s degree.

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theDevMasters did our own research with current Indeed listings for Data Scientist & found that out of the first five pages of results, with a total of 46 jobs looked over, while a master’s degree is preferred the most, a bachelor’s is not too far behind!

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Additionally, of those 46 job listings, five of them did not specific the degree necessary, so in fact, students who do not hold a master’s can apply to those too & actually would benefit further on listings that do not specific the degree.

If we broke it down further by industry, most industries in do in fact prefer a master’s, but not only! Some industries prefer a bachelor’s only, or not even a master’s at all! This does not mean that data scientists are required to have master’s degrees; this means that data scientists do or do not need to get started with a master’s & still be able to work in an industry without too much hefty experience in the education background.

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Why does theDevMasters think this is happening?

We think that companies & companies in particular industries are starting to value projects & how candidates really engage themselves with the company on their resume more than their education. To us, education is the first step, but to fulfill all the requirements to be a data scientist, our students are noted to really put their analytical skills worthwhile into competitive company projects. This is why theDevMasters truly would like to say that having a master’s will not matter much longer in gaining a job in data science.

So, by far, look into further which industry you wish to work for & decide if that industry needs you to grab a worthwhile graduate degree or not!

If you would like more advice or our data scientists’ expert advice in any industry, feel free to email us at info@thedevmasters.com.