Reuters Insider - What data scientists want. (It's not just money.) - Expert

PB Holding NV

29/08/2014 18:22

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 Source:             Thomson Reuters                                   
                                                                       
 Description:        Claudia Perlich, Chair of the 2014 Conference on  
                     Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, explains the 
                     incentives tech companies offer to recruit data   
                     scientists, and what candidates are looking for.  
 
 
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Transcript (May be auto-generated)

 I'm here with Claudia Perlich, who is a woman of many titles. She is the Chief 
Data Scientist at Dstillery, Professor at NYU Stern, and also the General Chair 
of KDD which is an annual gathering of data scientists happening here in New 
York this year. Claudia, thank you so much for being here. Welcome, it's a great
pleasure. So we're talking about the market for a data scientist which has been 
really heating up over the last few years. And I'm wondering, first off, what 
are tech companies doing to attract this kind of talent? At this point, as you 
say, the market is so focused on who can offer the best setup and environment to
talent that you seem- it's really a bias market where you can dictate the terms 
of the engagement. And we see companies not offering great monetary incentives 
but in terms of being able to support flexibility: you can work from home, 
giving them the exact technology environment that they are used to, making sure 
that it's typically teams larger than one because we kind of come in groups - we
like to work together and brainstorm - so, having a good environment and the 
data-driven culture. So when you come into a company and you feel, "Huh, they 
really care. They don't just want a data scientist because everybody has to have
one of these days. But if I'm going to make a recommendation, I will be listened
to. And there is actually somebody on the management side that understands 
enough about data science that I can have a good conversation with." So it's not
just about ping-pong tables and free snacks. It's about sort of where you want 
to see growth in your own career over the next 5 to 10 years. I think the 
somewhat age group of data scientists that are probably the best and most 
effective have come to the point that they're beyond the ping-pong tables and 
feel that they want to meddle. And that what they can do should be part of the 
culture and everyday decisioning. And as such, they care a lot about this 
appreciation for their work and the intellectual environment. So what is the 
ideal combination of skills that tech companies from the giants like Google and 
Amazon down to some of the startups that we're hearing about, what is the 
perfect combo that they're looking for in a potential hire? So it depends really
what the structure of your team is. There are a very few all around us that can,
A, communicate with their managers and understand the business problem enough to
help shape not just the solution but even the problem, because very often the 
way it is perceived when there's an issue on the business side and they come, 
say, "Hey, can you help us do this?" They often don't really know how to do the 
mapping and often ask a slightly misplaced question that is not connected to 
data. 

So having somebody who has the ability to communicate is one of the sides of it.
Of course, you also need the ability to then execute. So you have minimum 
requirements on knowing algorithms, having experience with data, and that's 
where the growing into a new generation beyond just skills you can pick up in a 
university to then actually having done a lot of different things with data 
across many different industries, that experience, that craft part is very 
important. My personal favorite: it's curiosity. You need somebody who wants to 
know, who wants to understand and not easily satisfied with the first possible 
answer. That's the combination I would be looking for. Let's talk about KDD. 
What's happening with conference organizers in terms of helping do some 
matchmaking because there are a lot of recruiters- people who I've talked to 
saying, "Look, I'm here to find 50 people," and then a lot of PhD students 
representing projects and doing fantastic research as well. So we have, as a 
community, as KDD which has been around for 20 years, really not taken advantage
of that asset that we have. We are bringing 500 PhD students from top 
universities who have exactly that skill that everybody wants. And so we, for 
the first time this year, started a process where we are pairing sponsors with 
students who are interested. And to my understanding, there were more than 200 
resume submissions on top of all of the companies who are having both reporting,
so many students coming actually being interested- learning more of, "Wow, there
is data science at Siemens." Yes, of course, there is. 

We didn't know about that. So having this kind of communication and dialogue 
there, I think it's very appreciative from both sides. The matching right now is
still in its early stages. So like a tryout but we do want to continue not just 
have it going on at KDD but be part of the KDD community that is constantly 
available where people, who are looking for jobs, can actually submit their 
resume and companies can try to hire. What is happening to pay scales right now?
Can you talk about that? 

Is it just skyrocketing or is that a bit of an- So I personally have decided 
that I don't want to know because I love my job and I do not wish to be tempted.
Okay. I have heard numbers from the Bay area where supposedly beginning salaries
are north of $200,000 at this point. I have heard competition here in New York 
City to be fierce, where for a given candidate who had two offers from very 
well-known and respected companies, and then once that's okay, we're going to 
add another $100k. So that's all I want to know about it. But it's certainly has
gone up. 

Now, the other side, we have been very successful hiring at much friendlier 
terms. And I think it depends on what are you're bringing to the table. And in 
our company, we have a group with a reputation, so people come to us because 
they want to learn, because they still want to grow their expertise and they are
happy to spend two or three years working in a really great environment, maybe 
not at the highest pay scale. So we're not all purely driven by money. Alright. 
Well, thank you so much, Claudia. We really appreciate your insights. Thank you.
My guess is Claudia Perlich. I'm Lily Jamali. This is Reuters