Data Mining Specialist Responsibilities and Duties

Data Analysts: Transforming Data into Insights

Data analysts are people that collect, process, and even analyze statistical data. Every organization collects data, whether it is for transportation expenses, logistics, sales figures, or market research. It is the data analysts’ responsibility to take the obtained data and identify numerous trends, such as how to deal with many difficulties that cost organizations large sums of money, how to cut transportation costs, and how to price new materials (“Data Analyst job description template,” 2013). Data analysts transform data and figures into understandable language to assist businesses and organizations in making vital choices. The data analysts determine how information and data can be used to solve problems and answer specific questions. The data analysts study the exact thing that is happening to the business at present and make predictions of what is expected in the future. These professionals are like detectives by helping the business to figure out how the market is behaving by assisting the management in making sense of the figures. The data mining specialist can be a rewarding, challenging, and creative career.

The Importance of Data Calibration and Visualization

The data analysts usually use calculations applications and computer systems to figure out the trend in the data. The data must be calibrated, normalized, and regulated so that it can be put with other numbers, used alone or extracted and still keep its integrity. Numbers and facts are the starting points, but what is the most crucial is presenting the finding in the most interesting manner using graphics, tables, charts, and graphs to understand what they exactly mean.

Unraveling Trends and Enabling Decision-Making

The data mining specialists are all round professionals. They need to have the ability not only to explain what the difference that exists in numbers means but also to decipher data so that it makes sense and facilitate decision-making process (“Data Mining Career,” 2017). The data analysts are the only individuals with an idea what the differences that exist in numbers mean.

Utilizing Data Mining for Business Success

Every organization stores relevant information in paper files or computer systems. In many cases, the stored data is not often adequately utilized because it is in a form that doesn’t make sense. Companies that have a lot of data could greatly benefit from it if it’s stored in a database and employ a Data Mining Specialist to analyze the trend. Identifying the trend can cut costs and improve marketing. Through data mining, the information is collected from the numerous databases. The professionals are responsible for creating a report on the best practices a business can adopt if it aims at generating more profits.

Conversion and Accessible Information

The Data Mining Specialists are capable of transferring the information that is available on paper into the electronic system; they are responsible for overseeing for overseeing the entire conversion process to make sure it is free from error, and it is accessible. Data Mining Specialist must research to ascertain that the information is valid. This professional must also train the client on the how the data can be retrieved and stored.

Working in Various Industries

The data specialists are mainly employed by the information technology departments but might also work in the healthcare industries, government agencies, and consulting companies. The increasing use of the third party cloud computing and data processing services is believed to be the primary reason that has led to the growing demand for the Data Mining Specialist in the world today.

Data Mining Specialist Responsibilities and Duties

The data mining specialists are responsible for analyzing the business trends to identify the systematic relationship and the hidden pattern that can be utilized in predicting the forthcoming business behaviors. It is the entire process of turning the raw business data into meaningful that can aid the organization to make fact-based information. These professionals are responsible for turning the business data into valuable information, the information into comprehensions and comprehension into meaningful organizational decisions. Data Mining Specialist rely on software’s to assess, identify and analyses data attributes in order develop creative recommendations that support their organizations business objectives and improve operations.

Skills and Qualifications

The data analysts are taken to be experts in business intelligence. Not only are they in a position to translate the data into actionable ideas, but they also understand the data and can guide the decision-making process. The general duties of the data analysts include: performing data analysis and research, identifying the existing opportunities to increase productivity, looking at the user behavior to find common trend and patterns that might be used for improvement and communicating the recommendation to the clients and the stakeholders. The data analysts will at times analyze the clients existing data and create a program that is suitable for that particular organization. In many cases, they might design the software or the database needed to change the data into facts.

Qualities of a Data Specialist

To successfully perform all the required duties and tasks the data specialists should have strong written, problem-solving, and analytical skills. They must be detail oriented persons that can consistently work within the group and meet deadlines. Critical thinking, organizational and strong planning are the most important for those people working in this field (FirstOntario Credit Union, 2017). The data analyst professionals must be familiar with the project management process such as scheduling and budgeting. The data analysts should be able to prepare the customized software and databases to meet the client’s data storage needs. In a nutshell, the data specialists need to provide an actionable insight by leveraging the data for the business, which means understanding the data landscape to select the best tools that can be used to interrogate the data.

Application of Data Mining in Various Industries

From identifying the adverse impact of drugs in pharmaceutical tests to preventing drug- data mining can be applied in almost all sectors. For example: In telecommunication where data mining professionals are used to evaluate the customer’s tastes and determine the best promotion that can be used to lure customers. In healthcare, data analysts can help identify inefficiencies and best practices by detecting frauds and abuses (“Modern Analyst,” 2017). In the retail sector the data mining specialists are used to analyze the customers shopping trends, better understand the customer’s behaviors and preferences, locate products in the display area and evaluating the advertisement and direct mail campaigns. In the financial sector, data analysts are employed in the areas that include bond rating, portfolio management, stock price forecasting and so on. In the banking sector, the data mining specialists have used predict and analyses risk and model credit card fraud. These are just a few areas where the data mining specialist are used to help organizations and companies to help businesses to gain a competitive edge and solve the real problems. Other vital industries that employ data mining include utilities and energy, public service, criminal justice, transportation, and education.

Education Requirement

A bachelor’s degree is required for a job entry level, and a master’s degree will be required for an advanced level. Many of the data analysts possess a university degree in field’s computer science, statistics, math, and any other field that is closely related to this field. Strong analysis skills and math are required.

Job Requirements and Skills

For any individual to be successful in this field, they must possess math skills that are required to estimate the numerical data. The analysts must also pay attention to details; they must ensure that they remain vigilant in their analysis to come up with a reliable conclusion. The analysts must also possess the critical thinking skills; this involves looking at data, trends, and numbers and come up with a conclusion based on the findings. The analyst must also possess strong communication skills; they are often called to translate data or present their findings into an understandable document. The data experts must be in a position to communicate complex ideas, speak, and write clearly. Lastly, the data analysts must possess the strongest analytical skills; they should be capable of working with number crunching, figures, and facts.

The Salary

The salary will keep on varying from industry, and it will often depend on the type of data analysis. Based on the existing statistics the mining data analysts earned a median annual wage rate of $74,350 in 2010 (“How to Become a Data Analyst,” 2017). The amount of salary and the qualifications earned varies from industry to industry.

References

Data Analyst job description template. (2013, July 3). Retrieved from https://resources.workable.com/data-analyst-job-description

Data Mining Career. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.compucert.com/data-mining-career.html

FirstOntario Credit Union. (2017). FirstOntario Credit Union - Page Not Found. Retrieved from https://www.firstontariocu.com/SharedContent/documents/Careers/Data_Analytics_Specialist_April_2

How to Become a Data Analyst. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.snagajob.com/job-descriptions/data-analyst/

Modern Analyst. (2017). Retrieved from http://www.modernanalyst.com/TheProfession/Roles/DataAnalyst/tabid/189/Default.aspx