So you've heard of data analysts and data scientists but aren't too sure what the difference
is. Then you have come to the right place. Today we'll discuss the difference between the two jobs
and which one is the right one for you. I'm Samanvay, a data scientist living in Sydney,
Australia. During my professional career I've worked with quite a lot of data analysts so
I've got a fair idea as to what their job entails and how it compares to that of a data
scientist. So let's first talk about the differences in the job descriptions
between the two professions. First up let's talk about data scientists. The main role of a data
scientist is to solve business problems using data. So first up they'll talk to stakeholders
to come up with a data brief. Then they'll work with the data engineer to set up the ETL pipelines
to collect that data and to then clean that data, if the data doesn't exist in the first place.
Then after the data collection and data cleaning the data scientists will figure out whether or
not a machine learning algorithm can be applied to solve the business problem and after they've
come up with a solution then there's a whole process of implementing it. Then the final stage
is setting up A/B style experiments to figure out the efficacy of the implemented solution. So as
you can see a data scientist works on everything from stakeholder management to engineering to
machine learning. This job is great for anyone that loves working on multiple things at the same
time but be warned that in this drop you do a lot of boring things like data cleaning and a lot of
other mundane tasks. So it's not all sunshine and rainbows and I've mentioned this before but the
machine learning component of the job takes less than 10% of the data scientists time. Now let's
talk about what data analysts do. The main role of a data analyst is to interrogate and analyze
existing data sources to investigate business problems and surface up any inefficiencies
in any business operation. A data analyst will work very closely with stakeholder teams,
even closer than a data scientist. The main output of data analysts are dashboards reports
and presentations. Data analysts are quite skilled at distilling insights from already available
data. So they've got a good attention to detail. I often liken the role of a data analyst to that
of a detective. So they're a little bit like Sherlock Holmes of the data science industry.
And I have to say that they're quite crucial to the operation of a business unit. So this
job is great for anyone that enjoys data-driven analysis and finds fulfilment in distilling the
insights in the form of a dashboard or a report to present in a business oriented environment.
In terms of tooling, both data scientists and data analysts will use python whereas data scientists
will be using a python for making data tooling and engaging in machine learning, Data analysts will
also be using python for data analysis. So there isn't a need for data analysts to be production
level programmers which is often the case for data scientists who are actively shipping data products
to production. I'd say SQL is a must for both data analysts and data scientists. I would say that it
is the primary language that data analysts will be using more often than not. While data scientists
will be proficient in machine learning packages like tensorflow and pytorch, data analysts will
be better at using dashboarding tools such as Tableau PowerBI and Looker. Finally you'll
be using a significant amount of cloud in both professions. In terms of educational background,
a STEM degree is needed for both professions but I would say that being a data analyst provides a
lower barrier to entry for non-stem degrees because the role of a data analyst is not nearly
as technical as that of a data scientist which requires good knowledge of software fundamentals
as well as AI algorithms. Finally in terms of salaries in Australia, data scientists
can look to earn anywhere from $80k to $95k on average. Now this is significantly lower than
the salaries of data scientists who make around $120k on average per year. Hopefully you now know
a little bit more about what the data analyst does compared to a data scientist. So that's a
wrap for this video if you enjoyed it then smash that like button and I'll see you next time.