330 Discussion

You may certainly reply to posts, but this is not a discussion topic so much as a 'mini-research' post.  You will be evaluated only on your research post.  It is helpful to have all posts in the discussion area so we can benefit from everyone's work.

This is NOT a 'group approach' discussion topic.  All students are required to submit a 'Research Post' this week.

Before embarking on this post, be sure you've reviewed the readings from last week and this week.  The Tutorial and Update Tutorial on Big Data Analytics: Concepts, Technologies and Applications.

It is well documented that the analytics job market is booming, but not particularly organized.

Job titles can vary widely, as can requested skills, degrees, certifications, etc.

There are also subtle differences between data science, data analytics, business analytics, etc.

You have two research options this week, OPTION 1 involves an attempt to synthesize a few articles/posts on the issue--3 citations minimum.

Pay particular attention to WHEN articles or posts were published because all these job characteristics have been a moving target for several years.  This does not necessarily mean that you need to ONLY focus on content from the last 6 months (or 6 days), but when you compose your initial post, it's important to acknowledge any differences/discrepancies between content from 2014 and last week.

Alternatively, for OPTION 2, you might consider looking at actual job postings in analytics.  If you choose this route, do not stop at the first 3 job listings you find.  You should reference at least 5 job postings.  You may want to limit your search to entry level jobs (using keywords like 'junior' or 'entry level').   All the 'usual suspects' in terms of job boards are fair game, such as  indeed.com  or  usajobs.gov  for government jobs.   If you want to cast a wider net, check out this blog post on  25 websites to find data science jobs  (you can also search for 'analytics' on any of these sites).  Also consider looking at UMGC's own  Career Quest  website.

Again, I'm going to leave this research post open ended so we can encourage a variety of perspectives.  Please do not restrict yourself to the first page that Google shows you.  If we all do that, we'll end up with a limited perspective on this question of the job market in analytics.

Different kinds of questions you might address are (you are NOT required to address ALL these!):

· In terms of the Watson's Tutorial (2014) and Update Tutorial (2019) on Big Data Analytics: Concepts, Technologies and Applications, have Watson's observations on data analytics skills and job categories from 2014 remained valid?

· What is the latest growth projections for the job market in analytics?

· Has there been any standardization in analytics job titles?

· What are some of the fundamental skills required?  This could be technical or not.

· If technologies are mentioned, which ones?

· Are there any recently emerging (hot) skills?

· What about degrees, certifications?

· Are there specific industries which seem to be hiring more analytics specialists than others?  Specific geographies?

· Again regarding Watson's Tutorial (2014) and Update Tutorial (2019), the author mentions privacy issues in both.  Any sign of privacy as a theme/skill/specialization in any of the articles or job postings you've reviewed?

· Keep going, don't limit yourself

For Option 1: You should have a MINIMUM of three sources (citations and references in APA format) in your initial post. 

For Option 2: If you reference an article, you should have a citation and reference in APA format.  Citing a job announcement can be tricky (plus 5 are required and I don't want SO much time spent on citations), so APA format is not required, but please include a URL for each job announcement (either within the text or at the end of your post).

For both OPTIONS, initial posts should be 250 words should be a minimum.

References

Watson, H.J. (2014). Tutorial: Big data analytics: Concepts, technologies and applications. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 34(Article 65), 1247-1268.

Watson, H.J. (2019). Update tutorial: Big data analytics: Concepts, technologies and applications. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 44(Article 21), https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.04421