Recruiting for the Data Sciences

Your hiring manager tells you that another data scientist quit, and it leaves you scratching your head as to why you cannot keep qualified data scientists at your company.

With the tight data science talent market, the demand for analysts outstrips the supply. This increases the pressure to retain your existing data team. While you may not be able to control everything once someone starts in the job, here are some things you can do before they start.

The advanced analytics space is all about results. Your company expects the data team you built to deliver actionable insights that improve the company. However, when that same team fails to achieve the desired results, you get the brunt of the blame.

The market for data science talent is tight, and it doesn’t give you much range to find top talent. Sometimes it seems like finding qualified analytics professionals is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Even when you think you have hired the right person, you are left scratching your head when that person turns out to be a bad hire. You ask yourself, "what am I missing? What do I need to change?"

Here are some things to think about during your next data talent recruitment.

An Expansion of Analytics-focused Role

In response to the huge growth in data and its increasing importance to organizational strategy and growth, a variety of roles have been created to manage and support organizational efforts. This has created a growing set of opportunities for analytics professionals to build a career focused on data, strategy and analytics.

These roles run the spectrum of needs, from data engineers responsible for database design and data acquisition, to data scientists focused on exploring captured information and deriving insights, and business analysts and analytics managers leveraging data to monitor organizational performance.

These roles – in particular data scientists – enjoy some of the most competitive compensation and widest array of opportunities for new professionals.