Discover How Online Degree in Big Data Prepares You For Big Opportunities

Yes, big opportunities await you in the big data marketplace
if you have the qualifications for one of the growing jobs inside. Perhaps, you
might have assumed before now that acquiring a degree in this filed requires
expensive on-campus commitments. Contrary to that, this article is meant to
enlighten you a bit and expand your perspective. First things first, what
exactly is big data? And what are the major career opportunities in this
seemingly over-hyped tech field? To answer these questions and more like them,
let’s look through the perspective of Peter Levine, a partner at Andreseen
Horowitz one of the renowned venture capital firms that has been investing in
lots big data start ups.
‘Big data is the collection of massive
amounts of information, whether structured or unstructured’
According to Wikipedia
‘’Big data is extremely large data sets that may be analyzed
computationally to reveal patterns, trends and associations especially relating
to human behavior and interaction’’
Interestingly, the overall growth of the IT industry and its
penetration into other major sectors contributes to the growth of opportunities
in big data market. More specifically, input and out layers across cloud,
mobile, social and even wearable technologies also results in explosion of big
data. These are some of the major factors responsible for the growing demand
for professionals who can create or extract big value out of this new form of
raw material. Just like in core traditional IT, the cross pollination of ideas
within and across sectors like healthcare, financial services and education
provides room for interesting innovations.
In order to get the biggest edge in transitioning to the big
data field, it is better to step in from professional backgrounds like computer
science, software engineering, applied mathematics, statistics and database
administration. Other disciplines in life and health sciences could also prove
relevant. Hence, coming from any of the backgrounds mentioned gives above give
you a better chance of making the most out of an online degree in big data,
data science, data mining, predictive and business analytics. Practically,
majority of the jobs I have seen in the marketplace requires some 2-5 years
experience in any of the professions mentioned earlier. Now you can see whether
your existing skill set and experience are suitable or not.
Looking at the size of opportunities in this market, Gartner
Inc; a global research and analytics consulting firm estimated that between now
and 2018 there would be 140,000 – 190,000 big data jobs in the US alone. Part
of the factors fueling this is the consistent growth of venture capital
investments in innovative startups positioning for big profits in the niche.
Besides this, there also is a growing number of employers in traditional
economic sectors like education, healthcare, transportation, consumer
electronics and HR, all competing for the few best talents within the space.
From the foregoing, it becomes obvious that demand for big data talents will
remain on the upward side for a long to come.
In financial terms, a typical job here promises an
opportunity to start earning something like $90,000 – $150,000 for a candidate
with 2-5 relevant experience. If you have 6-10 years experience, the pay is
likely to be higher. See this link for more insights on this. Note that this is
mainly for US market and may not apply in any other geographic location. In
other words, there will always be staggering differentials. So why won’t you
invest in acquisition of online degree and related fields?