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Many people pursue careers in data science after reading articles proclaiming that salaries in the field are sky high and that the job market is red hot. Both assertions are true, but what provocative headlines fail to mention is that there’s nothing easy about becoming a data scientist. Successful data scientists are well paid and courted by employers because they have a unique set of interdisciplinary skills related to programming, complex mathematics, statistics and problem-solving. But acquiring those skills is no small feat.

C-Suite Executives: Once, all roads led to Rome. These days, it seems they all lead to careers in data science. The big data deluge of the twenty-first century has created opportunities for strategic data analysis in every digitized field — which, in this digital era, means practically every profession.

If you’re a STEM professional intrigued by the current data science boom, a graduate degree in data science can make a lot of sense. Whether you want to change industries, add to your skill set or increase your salary, data science expertise can help you dig deeper into data-driven analytics and uncover a new career path.

Those are some of the most obvious benefits of an MSDS. The degree also offers several unexpected benefits, which this article discusses.

According to the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs Report, 75% of companies plan to adopt artificial intelligence technologies within the next five years. This increased interest in AI is driving rising demand for highly skilled data scientists and AI developers.

If you are already an experienced mid-career professional in advanced analytics, data science or a related role, you may not feel strongly driven to pursue graduate education. While 90 percent of data scientists have advanced degrees, there is still a global shortage of Big Data talent. Coupled with growing demand for data scientists, that talent shortage has created an employment landscape in which job seekers have the advantage. Consequently, you may find yourself facing a quandary if your employer offers to pay for an on-campus or online master’s in data science. For many professionals, tuition is a leading consideration, but if you are earning a comfortable income, the promise of tuition reimbursement may not be a compelling enough reason to enroll in a part-time graduate program.

Data is the future and it’s data science that’s going to get us there. Those who know how to get the most out of data hold the proverbial keys to the kingdom. One of the sure-fire ways to be the one holding those keys is pursuing your data science occupations online degree.

It’s often said data is the new oil. It can be an incredible boon to any company—as long as they are able to interpret it in a way that is useful. That’s where a master’s degree in data science comes into play.

When Covid-19 shuttered offices and turned other white-collar workers into remote employees, many data scientists were already working as part of distributed teams. Notable companies such as payment processing platform Stripe, IBM, Bank of America and the Google subsidiary Kaggle employed remote data scientists years before the pandemic. Companies across sectors may be welcoming employees back into offices, but data scientists still have a distinct edge when negotiating flexible working arrangements — provided they have the right skills and qualifications.

Big data and artificial intelligence loom large in business planning; 97% of businesses are actively investing in big data and artificial intelligence (AI), and 98% of executives believe it’s essential to increase their organization’s data analysis capabilities in the next three years.