Colleagues, whether you are seeking advancement in your current company or looking to make a change in your career path, here are 10 strategies that will accelerate your Data Science professional goals and earnings potential along with top industry-recognized certifications that will give you a competitive edge.
#1 - Leadership: Demonstrating leadership is key to your upward mobility. Leading projects within your department is a good starting point. Leading more complex inter-departmental/interdisciplinary programs is the next step. And third, leading strategies initiatives involving customers, ecosystem partners and the analyst community is a quantum step toward success.
#2 - Creativity: Creative, innovative, outside-the-box thinking is vital. Your development of creative problem-solving skills will set you above and beyond your colleagues.
#3 - Volunteer: Be proactive - anticipate needs before they become mainstream. Be the first to raise your hand when an executive identifies a mission-critical challenge that needs to be resolved. Show initiative. Taking on new responsibilities may require you to negotiate with your management the delegation of some of your current responsibilities.
#4 - Portfolio: Build a robust project portfolio of your greatest achievements. Make this accessible to your current management hierarchy (secure internal portals) and your industry at-large (LinkedIn and Github are great places to start).
#5 - Subject Matter Expert: Become a recognized SME in your domain (job function and/or industry) both within your company and externally with customers, business partners and industry analysts.
#6 - Publishing & Networking: Publish a weekly or monthly series on best practices, lessons learned or future industry trends. Engage with colleagues across disciplines and organizations within your business. Also build an online networking via professional associations, forums and events. Public speaking opportunities are an excellent means for gaining recognition.
#7 - KPIs (Key Performance Indicators): Understand how your senior management (e.g. Director, Vice President, General Manager) measure success and explicitly link your deliverables to their highest priority needs.
#8 - Interviews (internal or external): Always keep in mind the three most fundamental industry questions any hiring manager-executive is seeking to answer. First - Can you do the job? This question focuses on your skills, certifications and accomplishments. Second - Will you do the job? This question addresses your motivation and passion for doing the job at hand. And third - Will you fit in? Management wants to know that you are a team player, work well with others and are flexible.
#9 - Adding Value is Supreme: Boost revenue, reduce costs and enhance customer satisfaction-retention. You are not just performing a job, you are fully committed and contributing to the overall success of your company.
#10 - Top Certifications, Master Classes, Bootcamps and Specializations: Will bolster your Data Science career growth and income - adding an extra 5%-10% to your compensation. Industry-recognized certifications keep you abreast of industry trends and boost upward mobility. Don’t wait, enroll today!
Our analysis indicates that obtaining an industry-leading professional certification that increases your annual compensation by 5%-10% could potentially lead to an additional income of $250,000 to $500,000 over a 40-year career, not even accounting for the compounding effect of future salary growth on that initial percentage increase. When you factor in job promotions - perhaps every 5 years - this increases the net compensation increase two fold over the base case above. This highlights the significant long-term financial benefits of investing in professional development.
Begin your path to success today, Lawrence E. Wilson - Data Science Academy (share with colleagues & friends)
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