DATA S C IENT I ST S I N DE M A ND
‘It’s their time
to shine’
According to executive search firm head Linda Burtch,
the job prospects for data scientists and other elite
analytics professionals have never been better – and
the future is even brighter.
BY PETER HORNER
n April, the executive search
firm Burtch Works released
the results of its first-of-itskind salary and demographics survey of data scientists, a follow-up
survey of big data professionals conducted a year earlier. Among other findings, the 2014 survey quantified that data
scientists are well paid, relatively young,
overwhelmingly male and that almost half
(43 percent) are employed on the West
Coast.
Linda Burtch, managing partner of
Burtch Works, has been involved in the
recruitment and placement of high-end
analytics talent for 30 years. She started her career with Smith-Hanley before
founding her own company five years
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ago. Analytics magazine editor Peter
Horner interviewed Burtch in April, not
long after the survey of data scientists
was released. Following are excerpts
from the interview.
What did you find that surprised
you the most from the salary and demographics survey of data scientists?
First of all, I find it funny that everyone is interested in salaries and what
data scientists and big data professionals make, but it’s such a taboo subject to
actually talk about. Not to me. I talk about
salaries all the time. That’s my business.
What surprised me? That’s an interesting question. It actually turned out
the way I thought it would – a lot of the
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