1
$\begingroup$

Most discussions center around hard skills, e.g., coding, learning specific languages. I'm curious what are the soft skills one needs to thrive in data science.

Veterans, what would you tell the you from five years ago?

Beginners, what soft skills did you realize you lack when you embarked on your journey?

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ please don't ask opinion based questions here. $\endgroup$ – Aymuos Dec 23 '20 at 14:35
0
$\begingroup$

Some soft skills which are important but often overlooked imho:

  • Ability to "translate" expert knowledge for non-expert people, i.e. skills related to pedagogy
  • Writing skills: being able to express complex concepts/methods clearly and accurately in reports
  • A healthy skepticism about the suitability of data science techniques (especially the latest fashionable trends) for solving specific problems.

The main idea is this: a good data scientist doesn't only have the expected technical skills, they must be able to integrate data science methods in the real world where datasets are messy, people don't understand the scope of data science methods and data scientists themselves are often excessively optimistic about what can be done with DS methods.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.