Do You Need A Certification To Become A Data Scientist?

With the market flooded with numerous certifications in data science, it is not surprising if you have second thoughts about whether or not you should go for data science certifications. And you may be plagued with questions like Is a data science certification really needed? How can I get certified?

Which is the best certification for data sciences?

If questions like these bother you as well, then this is the place where we’ll help you understand and decide which certification can help build your data science portfolio, that makes for a perfect fit for your future recruiters. What makes for a good portfolio is collecting projects that show your skills, knowledge and demonstrate your ability to build strong data science projects. Leveraging your portfolio with credible data science certification is a good idea to showcase the recruiter that you are keen on honing your technical skills in this ever-evolving data science field.

Before we even delve into the certifications, foremost question to be asked is – Why do you want to become a data scientist? Is it just the fad industry that you wish to be a part of or you’re keen on building a career out of data sciences? As many people apply for the same job role with the certification, but do not have the right skillset for the job resulting in a crunch of high expectations from this industry.

Here are some ways you can reach your goal of becoming a Data scientist:

In these modern times, digitization has proved to be a boon for the ever-enthusiastic learners, who look forward to enriching their knowledge and upskilling their skillset with the latest in the industry. There’s no dearth of means to get to the sought certification or course that leads you to your dream certified senior data scientist role. The different resources and their considerable worth are discussed below:

• Reading blogs
• Learning through video tutorials
• Free courses
• Certification courses

There are ways, more than one, that you can earn your data science certification. There is a course for everyone, if you wish to join them online or in a physical classroom. The different formats are:

MOOCs

Massive Open Online courses are self-paced and can be started anytime. You can access their courses without formal admission. But the cost of certificate is too high as they’re usually conducted by top universities like Harvard, Stanford, and others.

Classroom courses

These are regular classroom sessions just as school or university with a batch size and a predetermined curriculum. Due to pandemic, these courses are running as live classes online.

Online courses

As the name suggests, these are pre-recorded online videos designed as per the curriculum that can be accessed at any point in time.

Hybrid courses

These courses are quite beneficial as they offer part classroom course and part online course assistance. With the self-paced content, you can attend their classroom classes as well for clearing your doubts.

Over the decade, many data science certification courses have appeared on the shelf, leading to their generalization. One can take up a certification and claim to be a data scientist, but it doesn’t go like that when you talk about recruitments. Sitting across table in an interview, you’ll be tested on every bit of your skills mentioned in your resume. The best way is to gain the right skillset and practical application knowledge, so as to do justice to your resume skills along with the certification. As it all boils down to the applicability of your skills and knowledge that will lead you to the data science consultant role.

Selecting the best data science certification can be an uphill task for many of you. Here are certain guidelines that you must keep in mind while deciding on the one for you:

• Time– Time is a variant that affects the quality of your certification. If you’re a working professional, getting into a 3-month online course could be an option for gaining the basics. But, if you wish to gain more knowledge, then longer the duration would be for the course.
• Skills taught– This is an important aspect as while selecting the course, you must have a clarity as to which programming language (Python/ R/ SQL/ Excel?) or skill you wish to hone and strengthen.
• Mentors– The core quality of any data science certification course could be gauged from the mentors, their area of expertise and years of experience they possess in the field. Getting a one-on-one session with the mentor is going to help you immensely.
• Prerequisites– Making sure you know what is required out of you during the entire course is going to help you in absorbing and delivering the course content well.
• Cost– There are many online courses that come at a cost that is affordable and does justice to the courseware. Go for the one that is affordable and worth your investment.

Taking up a data science certification without the right skillset won’t serve you the purpose. Deciding on the right certification involves adding value to your skills besides just a certificate addition choose the one that complements your skills.