For some years now I have seen the new profession "Data Scientist" appear more and more frequently in articles, papers and job advertisements. It seems like every employer want to hire Data Scientists. Lately I have begun to think "How cool wouldn't it be to be a Data Scientist", just the word Scientist has a certain aura around it.Yes I want to become a Data Scientist, so I Googled "what is a data scientist". A lot of hits, and they all replied about the same, IT professional who can help the business to analyse the business (this is one of the best of those I found, go directly to the video clip by Kirk Borne, PhD, Principal Data Scientist at Booz Allen Hamilton. I'm a bit bored at the "this is not an IT function, this is a business function", the weight is definitely on the IT side.).
The result was sort of an anticlimax, Data Scientist seems to be what I have done part time more or less my entire career. But I have given myself more humble titles, report writer, programmer, data analyst, BI developer, it is basically the same as the more gaudy "Data Scientist". Of course the methods have changed over time in the old cobol paper days, the options were more limited, but the core "help the business find and analyse the data" is very much the same. I have now upgraded myself with the flamboyant title Data Scientist.
I can hear some people say "but you have never understood the business". I have created an MRP system and an BI system, how can you do that without understand the business? When I left the company the first time the IT manager told me "you are the only one in the IT department who fully understand the material flow in the company". That was not really the case, I understood the material flow well in the business area producing mine equipment, for the other business areas my knowledge was more superficial. Nevertheless I think I qualify for the Data Scientist title😎
