The world’s leading publication for data science, AI, and ML professionals.

Is It Worth Spending Two Years to Learn Data Science?

What are the rewards?

Photo by Windows on Unsplash
Photo by Windows on Unsplash

Data Science is arguably the hottest profession nowadays and it will likely keep its popularity up for a long while.

Data has always been a valuable asset. In 1863, Florence Nightingale created the diagram of the causes of mortality in the British army which was an astonishing data visualization considering the technology in those years.

Her study revealed important insights which helped them reduce the mortality rate from 6.9 to 1.8 percent in the following 10 years of study.

The potential of data is not something new. What changed is our ability to collect, transfer, process, and store data. Very large amounts of data can easily be handled with the current tools. The more data we have, the better and more efficient models we can create.

All these improvements has lead to big investments in data science. As a result, there is a high and increasing demand for people to work in this field.

This is the reason why a lot of people pursue a career in data science. Even people that have several years of experience in another profession are making a career change to become a data scientist.

What it takes to become a data scientist is a question that is difficult to answer. It is definitely not an easy task. You are likely to spend long hours for studying and learning. It takes time, effort, and dedication.

But, is it worth it?

I put a specific duration in the title which is two years. That is how much it took me to land my first job as a data scientist. The duration may vary but it will not be much shorter.

I asked myself this question several times. My answer consists of two parts which are the monetary and non-monetary rewards.

The monetary rewards are quite standard and they are based on the high number of jobs and the salary. Once you have the required skills and knowledge, it is relatively easy to find a job because the demand is high.

I do not see any reason for this demand to decrease in the near future. The scope of data science is limitless. It can be applied to any process or business where we can collect data. Thus, although some tools are claimed to replace data scientists to an extent, I still think that the demand for data scientists will keep increasing. So you should not worry about whether your efforts will be a waste of time in the future.

Regarding the salaries, the scale depends on where you live and your experience but the jobs in the data science ecosystem are usually well-paid. The popular job portals share average salaries for different professions. You must have noticed that the data scientist is always listed among the top ones in terms of average salaries.


Non-monetary rewards are not standard as the monetary ones but they are just as important. What I value the most in this category is job satisfaction. Yes, I do some tasks that are not so fun but in general, I really enjoy what I do.

The word "routine" is far away from a data scientist’s world. Each and every dataset has the potential to give you some valuable insight or even surprise you. The process of discovering, analyzing, and modeling a dataset is certainly not a routine or boring task.

Another non-monetary reward is to always have something to learn. It keeps your mind fresh and fit. If you work in the field of data science, there will always be something new to learn.

In the data science ecosystem, the new tools are introduced in no time. Some tools can be considered old but gold. However, the new ones usually offer better performance and more capabilities. Thus, you should learn and practice them in order to stay competitive.

It might sound like a burden but I see this requirement for learning as a reward. Not every profession offers you this chance. You may have to do the same thing with same tools over several years.


Long story short, I definitely think that it is worth spending "two years" to learn data science. In fact, the learning does not stop after two years. It is rather a continuous process for data scientists. The title of the article could have been "is it worth spending two years to find a job as a data scientist?".

The challenges and rewards might be different in your case. However, the end result will make you happy if you put enough effort to reach your goal.


Last but not least, if you are not a Medium member yet and plan to become one, I kindly ask you to do so using the following link. I will receive a portion from your membership fee with no additional cost to you.

Join Medium with my referral link – Soner Yıldırım


Thank you for reading. Please let me know if you have any feedback.


Related Articles