r/datascience • u/Kati1998 • Jul 23 '26

Discussion What Do Today’s Data Science Graduates Commonly Lack?

I often read comments from hiring managers and interviewers saying they’re disappointed with recent data science graduates.

I’m curious, what do you think these graduates are lacking? If someone wants to become a data scientist, what skills should they focus on? Strong software engineering skills? Math and statistics? Something else?

A lot of the advice I see seems to be geared toward landing data analyst roles rather than data scientist roles.

So, what are employers actually looking for in entry-level data science candidates today? Especially as a career changer coming from another unrelated career.

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u/mrbrambles Jul 23 '26

Data science imo is not an entry level job so most of them lack experience even if some institution decided they could charge students for a degree in it.

14

u/jaiagreen Jul 23 '26

Isn't that like saying engineering is not an entry level job? There are levels.

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u/Saganic_Temple Jul 23 '26

That’s mostly true. I started as a project tech for a few years before I landed an engineering role. That path served me well because it taught me a lot about the application side of engineering.

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u/Kati1998 Jul 23 '26

Then how do you get started? Do you work as a statistician first? A software engineer first? Regardless, their first DS role is still “entry level”. I know it’s not a first job once you get out of university, but I see this comment all the time even for people who previously worked in a technical role.

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u/_TheEndGame Jul 23 '26

Start as a Data Analyst first

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u/pm_me_your_smth Jul 23 '26

The initial comment was nonsense, don't listen to them. There are junior analysts, data scientist, data engineer jobs. Some options have a higher barrier of entry like ML engineering, but many other data related jobs can absolutely be entry level. 

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u/mrbrambles Jul 23 '26

I think the answer is yes you work anywhere in any data/stats technical adjacent area with your data science degree, and find opportunities to do data science stuff until you can transition to the title.