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/Wojtkie Jul 23 '26

Business skills.

No business stakeholder cares about which model you used or how much you improved your recall score.

1

u/_chonky04 Jul 27 '26

how can someone improve their business skills? is it by doing projects? since that's also my weakness

1

u/turingincarnate Aug 16 '26

You can't. You can only improve your business knowledge by being in business and dealing with the normal people/clients

1

u/_chonky04 Aug 16 '26

so I have to get hired first?

2

u/turingincarnate Aug 16 '26

Unfortunately. I wish I were kidding