Big Data jobs bucking the global meltdown trend
Predictive analytics is the future. Big Data is what is swooping on in every sector. HR is not behind. The kind of interest Big Data is generating, it is not difficult to see that Data Analysts jobs are the hottest jobs in the market today. IT staffing firm TeamLease estimates that about 10 lakh jobs will be created in the Data Analysts segment. The research firm IDC forecasts that the global big data technology and service market will grow at about 26.4% compound annual growth rate to $41.5 billion through 2018 which is about six times the growth rate of the overall information technology market.
According to Forbes and Wanted Analytics, a CEB company, the top five industries hiring big data-related expertise include Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (30%), Information Technologies (19%), Manufacturing (18%), Finance and Insurance (10%) and Retail Trade (8%).
Unlike large companies, which pay around Rs 9.6 lakhs, Indian startups are willing to pay over Rs 10.8 lakhs per annum to attract the best talent in the analytics industry, as stated in the Analytics and Big Data Salary Report 2016 by Jigsaw Academy and Analytics Vidhya.
TeamLease reports, fresher level salaries for economics or statistics graduates range from Rs 4-7 lakh per year, compared with Rs 3.5 lakh for engineering graduates for analytics jobs. At the middle level, pay cheques range from Rs 12-15 lakh per year. According to the report, analysts get the biggest jump in salaries once they have clocked 5 years in the industry and can expect a raise of up to 70% with an average pay of Rs 12.3 lakhs per annum.
According to CNBC, “with interest in big data increasing exponentially, many experts fear that US companies will be unable to keep up with international competitors. And workers' awareness of the job's generous salaries and extras makes it more difficult to find truly qualified people.” While IBM’s statistics in 2015 said, globally 2.5 quintillion bytes of data is created every day, and because of the quantity of data and the sophisticated algorithms required to decipher it, normal business analysts can’t do the work effectively.
In India, the analytics and big data sector has seen a consistent growth over the last five years despite an increasingly uncertain global outlook. However, experts feel there will be a huge shortage of 20,0000 data analysts in India by 2018. And this is where the Science graduates are moving ahead of their fellow engineers. Science subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Statistics and even Economics are gaining much more importance in this data-driven world. With more and more companies relying on data – be it recruitment, retention and also in revenues – they are scouting for data specialists even more.
Mu Sigma is the forerunner in creating this data space in India. Other companies like Accenture, Affine, American Express, Aon Hewitt, Boston Analytics, Capillary Technologies, Citi Bank Analytics, Datamatics, Fidelity Analytics, Genpact Analytics, Goldman Sachs, HP Analytics, IBM Analytics, Nomura Analytics, PwC Analytics, SmartCube, Towers Watson, WNS Analytics, are also doing important work in the field of data among various other organizations.
In the US, while some universities—including Arizona State, Oklahoma State and the University of Georgia—offer programs with a big data focus, those students won't enter the workforce for several years. In India, among the top IT firms, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro run programmes exclusively to hire and train BSc and MSc graduates.