`So you have decided to become a data scientist. There are a variety of reasons why you opted for this career option – lucrative salaries, high demand, and many many popular companies hiring. There is no denying that the data scientist job role is one of the most talked-about designations these days. All the job portals are filled with vacancies for this role, not only the software companies, but startups, retail, and banking also. Find out the certifications that make you a well versed data scientist.
You may now be thinking about how to start gaining the skills required to become a data scientist. And even if you do gain them, is there a way to showcase them and get the attention of the hiring managers? Well, there are some industry-recognized certifications in the field of data science that let you demonstrate your skills. People also search for online courses to step into this field. Whether you take a data science course in Mumbai, Delhi, or Chennai, make sure their curriculum is updated and impart job-ready skills.
Discussed below are some of the top certifications you can consider achieving. You can check out their official website to know the entire application process and the eligibility requirements. Some of them require you to complete the associated training program and then appear for the exam. Upon cracking the exam, you may earn a certificate that is usually sharable on professional networking sites like LinkedIn.
Let’s get started.
IBM Data Science Professional Certificate
This digital badge by IBM is given to those professionals who are ready for a data science career with demonstrated skills in solving real-world problems. They are capable of applying data science methodology, working with Jupyter notebooks, accessing relational databases using Python and SQL, and creating Python apps. Moreover, the badge holders know how to use python libraries for data visualizations, perform data analysis using Pandas, build and evaluate machine learning models using Scikit-learn and SciPy, and apply data science techniques to real location data sets.
To earn the certification, you need to enroll in IBM Data Science Professional Certificate program on Coursera and complete all the 10 courses included in it, along with quizzes, assignments, and projects.
SAS Certified Data Scientist
This certification is designed for professionals who want to learn how to manipulate and gain insights from big data with various SAS and open source tools. You will learn how to make business recommendations with complex machine learning models and deploy them at scale using the robust and flexible SAS environment.
Individuals who want to hold this Data Scientist credential need to earn the following:
- SAS Certified Data Curation Professional or the SAS Certified Big Data Professional credential.
AND
- SAS Certified Advanced Analytics Professional or the SAS Certified Professional AI and Machine Learning credential.
For the certifications mentioned above, there are associated exams that you will need to qualify for.
Data Science Council of America (DASCA) Senior Data Scientist (SDS)
You will be heading towards a promising career if you get certified from DASCA, the world’s foremost standards and credentialing body for the data science profession. The Senior Data Scientist is ideal for those individuals who are seasoned big data technologists and willing to slip into data scientist roles. It demonstrates your readiness to lead crucial functions like business intelligence and impact the competitiveness, performance, and success of an enterprise directly.
To achieve this vendor-neutral certification, one needs to fulfill all the eligibility requirements, apply online, use the SDS Certification preparation kit, and finally appear for the SDS certification exam and pass it. You can check the eligibility requirements mentioned on the DASCA website.
Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate
Microsoft Azure is one of the leading cloud services platforms and offers a range of certifications for technology pros. This data scientist certification is intended for those who apply their knowledge of data science and machine learning to execute and run machine learning workloads on Azure, and specifically, using Azure machine learning service.
One can achieve this certification by passing the DP-100 exam – Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure. The exam will test your skills in setting up an Azure machine learning workspace, running experiments and training models, optimizing and managing models, and deploying and consuming models. Microsoft also offers self-paced and instructor-led training to help you gain the skills needed to get certified.
HarvardX’s Data Science Professional Certificate
Harvard University needs no introduction, and certification from this institute will undoubtedly improve your career prospects. Its data science program is available on the edX platform, and it is entirely online. You will learn about R programming, statistical concepts, essential tools for practicing data scientists like Unix/Linux, RStudio, GitHub, and implementing machine learning algorithms.
The program consists of 9 skill-building courses that will take around 1 year 5 months to complete if you spend 2 to 3 hours per week. The courses include motivating case studies as well. After finishing the courses, you need to complete the capstone project involved, post which you will be awarded a certificate.
Knowing your best options, when are you taking the first step towards becoming a seasoned data scientist?
