Data Science with Python Training in Arlington, TX, United States

Living in Arlington has many advantages as it is home to many universities renowned for data science degrees, such as Southern Methodist University, Tarleton State University, Texas A & M University-College Station, Texas Tech University, etc. You can also opt for online courses and learn at your own pace. If you want to become a Data Scientist, you need to be skilled in the following:

1. Python Coding: In the field of Data Science, Python is one of the most commonly used programming languages. The simplicity and versatility that Python offers make it the best language for processing of data. It can also take various formats of data. With the help of Python, Data Scientists can create and perform operations on a dataset.
2. R Programming: If you want to become an expert Data Scientist, you need to have a thorough knowledge and understanding of an analytical tool. R programming makes the problem easy for the data scientists to solve.
3. Hadoop Platform: Though it is not a requirement, the Hadoop platform is used in several data science projects. So, it is better if you get acquainted with the platform. After doing a study on 3940 jobs on LinkedIn, it was concluded that Hadoop is a leading skill requirement for a Data Scientist.
4. SQL database and coding: Structured Query Language or SQL is a database language that can be helped in accessing, communicating, and working on the database. MySQL is another such language that uses concise commands and makes the operating process on a database easier by decreasing the technical skills requirement, and therefore saves time.
5. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence: If you want to pursue a career in Data Science, proficiency in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is a must. This requires being familiar with the following concepts:
• Neural Networks
• Decision trees
• Reinforcement learning
• Logistic regression
• Adversarial learning
• Machine learning algorithms, etc.
6. Apache Spark: Currently, Apache Spark is one of the most popular technologies in the world for data sharing. Like Hadoop, it is used for big data computation. The only major difference between the two is that Apache Spark is faster. This is because Spark uses the system memory to make a cache of its computation while Hadoop reads and writes to the disk. Apache Spark is used to run the data science algorithms faster. It helps prevent the loss of data and can handle complex unstructured datasets. While dealing with large datasets, Spark helps disseminate data processing. The speed with which it operates adds to its advantages. It helps the data scientist carry out the project with ease.
7. Data Visualization: A data scientist may be able to make sense of the raw data but not every other person shares that skill. It is the job of a data scientist to visualize the data in a format that could be understood by non-tech members of the organization. There are a number of visualization tools for that like Tableau, d3.js, matplotlib, and ggplot. After a number of processes are performed on a dataset, these tools help the data scientists convert the complex results obtained into a format that can be easily understood and comprehended. These tools even help the data scientist quickly grasp insights and provide the right outcome. The organization also gets the opportunity to work directly with the data.
8. Unstructured data: When it comes to data, most of it is in complex, unstructured form. It is neither labeled nor organized into database values. A data scientist must have the skill to work with this unstructured data. Some of the examples of this unstructured data include social media posts, videos, blog posts, audio samples, customer reviews, etc.

Being a successful data scientist involves incorporating the following behavioral traits:

• Curiosity – The field of data science involves dealing with a massive amount of data every day. A data scientist must be curious and have an undying hunger for knowledge. Otherwise, it can get too hard too soon. 
• Clarity – If you are constantly asking questions like ‘how’, ‘why’, and ‘so what’, Data Science might be the perfect field for you. Since the amount of data is so large, getting clarity is very important. During data cleaning or writing code, you must know exactly what you are doing and why you are doing it.
• Creativity – Creativity is a must in a Data Scientist. It is their job to develop new tools, create new modeling features, and find new ways for data visualization. You need to have the skills to know what is missing and what must be included to get the right insights and outcome.
• Skepticism – This is what draws the line between a data scientist and a creative mind. It is important for a Data Scientist to be skeptical and keep their creativity in check. This helps them to not get carried away with creativity and stay in the real world.

Arlington is home to many leading companies, such as Life Corp, DolEx Dollar Express, D R Horton, Double B Foods, The Pinnacle, etc. Also being the sexiest job of the 21st century, data scientists enjoy certain benefits over other professions. Here are the 5 proven benefits of being a Data Scientist:

1. High Pay: When it comes to looking for a job, high pay is expected. Data Science jobs are currently enjoying the boost as compared to other career options. With Data science, the expected remuneration is extremely high. The average salary for a Data Scientist is $68,020 in Arlington.
2. Good bonuses: When you join a company as a Data Scientist, you will enjoy several perks like signing bonus, equity shares, and impressive bonuses.
3. Education: Being a data scientist involves getting a Masters or a Ph.D. In this field, knowledge is in great demand. Also, with a degree, you can work as a researcher or lecturer in a government or a private institution.
4. Mobility: A data scientist job can get you a job in one of the developed countries. This comes with a hefty salary and help improves your living standard.
5. Network: A data scientist gets to network with other professionals in the tech world through conferences, tech talks, and other platforms. You can use this opportunity for referral purposes. You can also get a research paper published in an international journal.

If you are looking for a job as a Data Scientist in Arlington, here are the 5 best ways to brush up your data science skills:

• Boot camps: The number of Data Science bootcamps being offered is continuously increasing in Arlington. Attending bootcamps is the perfect way to brush up your programming skills, especially in Python. Lasting for about 4-5 days, these boot camps provide theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience.
• MOOC courses: MOOCs are the online courses that help you get acquainted with the latest industry trends. Taught by data science experts, these courses come with assignments that help you polish your implementation skills.
• Certifications: If you want to add an additional skill to your CV and improve it, you should try getting some certifications. Here are some of the data science certifications that you can go for:

• Cloudera Certified Associate - Data Analyst
• Cloudera Certified Professional: CCP Data Engineer
• Applied AI with Deep Learning, IBM Watson IoT Data Science Certificate

• Projects: Projects are very essential for the refinement of your thinking and skills. Depending on the project constraints, it will help you find new solutions to already solved problems. You might be able to come up with a more efficient solution.
• Competitions: Competitions help your problem-solving skills. During these, you have to find an optimum solution after following all the restraints and satisfying all the requirements. One such competition is Kaggle.

There are various leading companies headquartered in and around Arlington, TX, such as Life Corp, DolEx Dollar Express, D R Horton, Double B Foods, The Pinnacle, etc. Some companies collect data to sell to other companies while some collect it for their own benefit. Overall, this data is for improving the customer experience. Both types of companies have to hire a data scientist to do the job.

The best way to improve your data science skills is to keep practicing and working your way through Data Science problems. Here, we have categorized different problems according to their difficulty level and your expertise level:

• Beginner Level
  • Iris Data Set: It is one of the easiest, popular, and versatile data sets available. Used in the field of pattern recognition, the Iris dataset will help you incorporate different learning techniques. If you are a beginner in the field of data science, this dataset is the best for you to embark on your journey. This dataset has just 4 rows and 50 columns. Practice Problem: The problem is using these parameters to predict the class of the flowers. 
  • Loan Prediction Data Set: One of the biggest domains that use data science methodologies for data analysis is the banking domain. While working with this dataset, the learner will have to work with concepts applicable in banking and insurance including the variables that affect the outcome, the implemented strategies and the challenges faced. It is a classification problem dataset with 13 columns and 615 rows. Practice Problem: The problem is to predict if the loan will be approved or not. 
  • Bigmart Sales Data Set: Retail is another such industry that uses data analytics for their business optimization. Data Science and Business Analytics can efficiently handle operations like inventory management, customization, and product bundling, etc. This dataset is a regression problem with 12 columns and 8523 rows. Practice Problem: The problem is predicting the sales of the retail store. 
• Intermediate Level:
  • Black Friday Data Set: This is a dataset collected from a retail store. With this dataset, you will be able to gain an understanding of the daily shopping experience of millions of customers and also explore and expand your engineering skills. It is a regression problem with 12 columns and 550,069 rows. Practice Problem: The problem is predicting the total amount of purchase.
  • Human Activity Recognition Data Set: This dataset is collected using the recordings of smartphones collected using inertial sensors. It is a collection of 30 human subjects. The dataset consists of 561 columns and 10,299 rows.
    Practice Problem: The problem is the prediction of the category of human activity. 
  • Text Mining Data Set: Obtained by the Siam Text Mining competition held in 2007, the text mining data set consists of aviation safety reports describing the problems encountered on certain flights. It is a multi-classification, high dimension problem with 30,438 rows and 21,519 columns. 
    Practice Problem: The problem is the classification of documents based on their labels. 
• Advanced Level:
  • Urban Sound Classification: When you are a beginner in the field of Data Science, you try simple and basic machine learning problems like Titanic survival prediction, etc. These can help you get started but they don't provide a taste of the real world problems. The Urban Sound classification is the solution to this. It introduces and implements machine learning concepts to real-world problems. Consisting of 10 classes with 8,732 sound clippings of urban sounds, this problem introduces the developer to the audio processing in the real-world scenarios of classification. 
    Practice Problem: The problem is the classification of the sound obtained from specific audio. 
  • Identify the digits data set: Consisting of 7000 images of 31 MB and 28X28 dimensions, this data set helps you in studying, analyzing, and recognizing elements present in a particular image. 
    Practice Problem: The problem is identifying the digits present in an image.
  • Vox Celebrity Data Set: Audio processing is a developing and important field in deep learning. This dataset is used for large scale speaker identification. It uses YouTube videos to extract the words spoken by celebrities. It is a great example of using isolation and identifying speech recognition. It contains 100,000 words spoken by 1,251 celebrities.
    Practice Problem: The problem is the identification of the voice of a celebrity.

A job as a Data Scientist sounds very exciting. But the question is how do you become one? Here are some of the steps and key skills required to help you kickstart your career as a data scientist:

1. Degree/certificate: This is the first step to becoming a Data Scientist. It is not important if that is an online or an offline course as long as it covers the fundamentals. You will see a tremendous boost in your career as you will learn the application of cutting-edge tools used in Machine Learning. Data Scientists have more PhDs than any other job in the tech world due to the rapid advancements in the field. They also have to stay updated and continue learning. 
2. Unstructured data: The main job of a Data Scientist is the analysis of data. This data is usually in an unstructured format that cannot be fitted into the database. With so much data and the work required to structure this data, the job becomes more complex. It is the job of a data scientist to understand this unstructured data and manipulate it to get optimum results. 
3. Software and Frameworks: Another important step in becoming a data scientist is learning the usage of software and a framework. You also need to learn a programming language to go along with the framework. The most preferred language in Data Science is Python and R. 
• R is the most common language used in the field of Data Science for solving statistical problems. It has a steep learning curve. But it is very popular as about 43% of data scientists perform their analysis using the R language. 
• One of the most commonly used frameworks by Data Scientists is Hadoop. Whenever the amount of data is too much to handle when compared to the memory at hand, it comes into play. The framework is used to convey the data to different points on the machine. Apart from Hadoop, Spark is also becoming quite popular among data scientists. Used for computational purposes, Spark prevents the loss of data that can sometimes happen in Hadoop. It is also faster than Hadoop. 
• Once you have mastered the framework and the programming language, you can move to databases. A data scientist must be proficient in writing SQL queries. 
4. Machine learning and Deep Learning: Once you have collected and structured the data, you can start analyzing it by applying algorithms. We can train our model using deep learning techniques and analyze the data. 
5. Data visualization: Once the data has been visualized, it is the job of a data scientist to visualize this data and make informed decisions on the basis of the analysis. A data scientist converts this raw data into graphs and charts. There are several tools that can be used for visualization like ggplot2, matplotlib, etc.

Getting a degree in Data Science is very essential if you want to land a job as a Data Scientist. About 88% of data scientists have a Master's degree while about 46% have a Ph.D. degree. Also, there are many universities in Arlington offering Mater’s degree in Arlington, such as Southern Methodist University, Tarleton State University, Texas A & M University-College Station, Texas Tech University, etc.A degree is very important because of the following – 

• Networking – While you are in college pursuing your degree, you will get an opportunity to make acquaintances and friends. This networking will benefit you a lot in the long run as this industry works on referrals.

• Structured learning – When you are pursuing a degree, you will have to keep up with the curriculum and follow a particular schedule. This is more beneficial and effective than studying without any planning.
  

• Internships – This is very important as nothing beats the practical hands-on experience you get from an in-office internship.
  

• Recognized academic qualifications for your résumé – If you want a head start in the race for the data scientist jobs, a degree from a prestigious institution will do the trick.

There are many universities in Arlington offering Mater’s degree in Arlington, such as Southern Methodist University, Tarleton State University, Texas A & M University-College Station, Texas Tech University, etc. If you are having trouble in deciding whether you should go for a Master’s degree, you can try grading yourself on the basis of the below scorecard. If your score is more than 6 points, you should get a Master’s degree:

• A strong STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Management) background: 0 point
• A weak STEM background (biochemistry/biology/economics or another similar degree/diploma): 2 points
• A non-STEM background: 5 points
• Less than 1 year of experience in Python: 3 points
• No experience of a job that requires regular coding: 3 points
• Independent learning is not your cup of tea: 4 points
• Cannot understand that this scorecard is a regression algorithm: 1 point

When it comes to becoming a data scientist, the programming language is the most fundamental and important skill regardless of whether you live in Arlington or New York. Here are the reasons why a programming language is required to become a data scientist:

• Data sets: When it comes to data science, the involvement of large datasets is given. To analyze this large dataset, knowledge of a programming language is a must. 
• Statistics: A data scientist has to work with statistics. You need the ability to program to implement statistics. Without the knowledge of programming language, knowledge of statistics does not do much good.
• Framework: If, as a data scientist, you want to perform data analysis properly and efficiently, your programming ability will help you a lot. You will be able to build a system according to the needs of the organization. You would be able to create a framework that could not only automatically analyze experiments, but also manage the data visualization process and the data pipeline. This is done to make sure that the data can be accessed by the right person at the right time.

The 5 important steps to prepare for the job as a Data Scientist involves:

• Study: While you are preparing for the interview you need to cover all the basic and important topics like statistics, statistical models, probability, neural networks, machine learning, etc.
• Meetups and conferences: You need to expand your professional connections and start building your own network. You can meet other data science professionals in conferences, tech talks, meet-ups, etc.
• Competitions: You need to keep practicing, implementing, polishing, and testing your skills through online competitions like Kaggle.
• Referral: According to a survey, the primary source of interviews in companies is a referral. Keep your LinkedIn profile updated.
• Interview: Once you think that you are ready for the interview, go for it. It might take a couple of interviews before you land a job. Don't lose hope after a bad interview. Instead, study the questions you weren't able to answer.

The main aim of a data scientist is to search the raw data or patterns and inference information from it to meet the needs and goals of the business. This data can be present in the form of structured as well as unstructured data.

In the modern world, tons of data are generated every day. This has made the job of a data scientist all the more important. This data is a gold mine of ideas and patterns that can give the business a tremendous growth. It is the job of a data scientist to extract the relevant information from this vast amount of data and benefit the business.

Data Scientist Roles & Responsibilities:

• The first and the most important role of a data scientist is to get the data that is relevant to the business from the huge amount of data provided to them. This data can be in structured as well as unstructured form.
• Next, comes the organization and analysis of data from the piles of data.
• Once you have analyzed the data, you need to create machine learning techniques, tools and programs to identify patterns in the data and make sense out of it.
• Lastly, you need to perform statistical analysis on the data to predict future outcomes.

Being the sexiest job of the 21st century comes with its perks. High demand and less supply of data scientists have spiked their base salaries 36% higher than any other predictive analytics professional. The earning of a data scientist depends on the following things:

• Roles and responsibilities
  • Data scientist: $105,975/yr
  • Data analyst: $68,020/yr

• Type of company
  • Public: Medium pay
  • Startups: Highest pay

A Data Scientist has the skills of a computer scientist, a mathematician, and a trend spotter. The main part of a Data Scientist's job is to mine the huge volume of data to decipher patterns and find relationships. This is then used to make predictions for the future. The whole career path of a Data Scientist can be explained as follows:

Business Intelligence Analyst: It is the responsibility of a business intelligence analyst to figure out the business and keep a check on the latest market trends. This can be done by performing the analysis of the data provided by the organization. One needs to have to clear picture of where the organization stands in the business environment.

Data Mining Engineer: The job of a data mining engineer is to examine the data for the business. They often work as a third party. Apart from examining the data, they are also needed for the creation of algorithms that are required in the further data analysis.

Data Architect: Data Architects work alongside developers, system designers, and users. They create the blueprints that are used for the integration, protection, centralization, and maintenance of the data sources. These blueprints are used by data management systems.

Data Scientist: A Data Scientist has the responsibility of doing the analysis, pursuing a business case, developing hypotheses, understanding the data, and exploring patterns from the provided data. After this, comes the development of systems and algorithms that can find a way to use this data in a productive manner. This further improves the interest of the business.

Senior Data Scientist: A Senior Data Scientist is one who anticipates the future needs of the business and shapes the projects according to that. This includes modifying the data analysis process and systems to suit the needs of the future.

Below are the top professional organizations for data scientists in Arlington – 

• Data Science DC
• Data Science Dojo – Washington DC
• Data Education DC
• Full Stack Data Science

If you want to get hired fast in Arlington, referrals are the way to go. You can create your network with other Data Scientists through the following:

• Online platforms like LinkedIn
• Data Science conference
• Social gatherings like meetups

There are several career options for a data scientist in Arlington. These include – 

1. Data Scientist
2. DataAnalytics Manager
3. Data Analyst
4. Data Administrator
5. Data Architect
6. Business Analyst
7. Business Intelligence Manager
8. Marketing Analyst

Arlington is home to the University of Texas, a major urban research university and hence employers in Arlington generally prefer data scientists to have mastery over some software and tools. They generally look for:

• Education: Getting a degree in Data Science, like a Master's degree or a Ph.D., will benefit you a lot in the long run. You can also try getting some certifications.
• Programming: Programming is one of the most important skills required to be a data scientist. You can try Python or R programming language. Before you move on to any data science libraries, you must learn Python basics.
• Machine Learning: Once you have collected the data and converted it into a structured form, you will need deep learning and machine learning skills to find relationships and analyze patterns.
• Projects: You must try exploring old projects and creating new ones to build your portfolio. You need to try your hands on real-world projects to improve your skills and build your portfolio.

Here are the 5 most popular programming languages used in the Data Science field:

• R: Even though the language has a steep learning curve, it offers the following advantages:
  • There are many high-quality open source packages provided by the big, open source community of the language. 
  • The language is capable of handling complex matrix equation while dealing with loads of statistical functions smoothly.
  • R can be used with ggplot2 to provide data visualization. 
• Python: It is one of the most commonly used programming languages in the field of data science even though it has fewer packages than R. It is because of the following advantages that it offers:
  • It very easy to learn, understand and implement.
  • It has the support of a big open-source community as well.
  • It has most of the libraries that you might need for data science like scikit-learn, tensorflow, and Pandas.
• SQL: Required for working with relational databases, SQL is a structured query language that has the following benefits:
  • It has a pretty easy to write and read syntax.
  • It is very efficient in manipulating, updating, and querying relational databases. 
• Java: Java has fewer libraries and its verbosity is limited, but it has certain advantages:
  • There are several systems that are already coded in Java at the backend. This makes the integration of data science projects to these systems easy. 
  • It is a general purpose, high-performance, and a compiled language. 
• Scala: It is a preferred language in data science even though it has a complex syntax because of the following reasons:
  • The language runs on JVM that makes it compatible with Java as well.
  • If the language is used with Apache Spark, we can get high-performance cluster computing.

Here is how you can download and install Python 3 on Windows:

Download and setup: Visit the download page and use the GUI installer to setup Python on your windows. Make sure that while you are installing, you select the checkbox asking to add Python 3.x to PATH. This is your classpath that will allow you the usage of Python's functionalities from the terminal.

You can also use Anaconda to install Python. If you want to check if Python is installed, you can try using the following command that will show the current version of Python installed:

python --version

• Update and install setuptools and pip: If you want to install and update the crucial libraries, you can use the following command:

python -m pip install -U pip

Note: You can create isolated Python environments and pipenv using virtualenv. Pipenv is a Python dependency manager. 

For installing Python 3 on Mac OS X, you can either simply install the language from their official website using a .dg package or use Homebrew python or its dependencies. Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Install Xcode: First, you need to install Xcode. You will need the Xcode package of Apple/ Start using the following command: $ xcode-select --install
2. Install brew: Next, you have to install Homebrew which is a package manager for Apple. Start with the following command:/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" Confirm if it is installed by typing: brew doctor
3. Install python 3: Lastly, to install python, use the following command: brew install python

• If you want to confirm the version of python, use the command: python --version

You should install virtualenv that will create isolated places for you to run different projects and can even run different versions of Python on different projects.