Data Scientist
Also known as: Associate Data Scientist · ML Analyst
Uses statistics and machine learning on data to answer business questions and make predictions.
What you’d do
A data scientist uses statistics and machine learning on data to answer business questions and build prediction models. Employers include product companies, banks, e-commerce, analytics and consulting firms, and startups. A typical day involves exploring data, building and testing models in Python, and explaining results to business teams.
- Cleans and explores large datasets
- Builds and tests predictive models
- Explains findings to business teams
- Tracks how models perform over time
How you get in
Direct fresher entry is limited; many start as data analysts or ML interns and move up. A strong portfolio of projects, statistics fundamentals and SQL help; a master's is common for research-heavy teams.
Salary in India
Fresher salary over the years
middle of the 0–1 yr range, ₹ lakh a year
Fewer than two years of fresher data so far — the trend shows once there are two.
Skills you’ll use
From our guide · a curated list is coming
- Statistics and probability
- Python for data and ML
- SQL
- Model evaluation
- Communicating results
About this field · for freshers
Job openings by year
Is demand growing?
Not added yet.
Competition4
How many graduates enter each year?
B.Sc (all subjects) graduates in 2023-24 at institutions that reported to AISHE — everyone finishing that degree, not only those entering this role.
Who hires
IT firms, banks, government, startups?
Not added yet.
Where the jobs are
Which cities?
Not added yet.
Women in the field4
Is it diverse?
Share of women among B.Sc (all subjects) graduates in 2023-24 — the entry degree, not people already working in this role.
At a glance
- Titles vary; some "data scientist" roles are mostly analytics.
- Next roles: senior data scientist, ML engineer, analytics lead.
- Generative AI tools are changing parts of the work.
Stay safe
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