International Institute for Analytics

If you want to hire students from universities with strong analytical skills, you need to know the landscape of available programs and skills. For companies hiring graduates of analytics master’s degrees in business schools, it’s important to be aware of the differences among programs. This blog discusses the skills you should consider when hiring analytics graduates.

Studies show that only 26% of data-related jobs are held by women. I attended the Women in Technology International meeting featuring a panel discussion with Rehgan Avon, Katie Sasso and Kristen Stovell on the “Future of Data Analytics”. This blog covers insights from the event across a wide range of topics including machine learning, educational resources, responsibilities of data scientists, and managing big data

How the Evolution of Data Science is Changing the Knowledge Needs of its Practitioners

Dr. Jennifer Lewis Priestley, director of one of the country’s first Ph.D. programs in Data Science, talks about how the relationship between universities and private sector companies has been impacted by the evolution of data science in the business world.

Competing on Analytics is a “Team Sport,” but Which Sport?

Alex Barclay, SVP at Optum (part of United Health Group, a Fortune 10 company), outlines the capabilities required to compete on analytics and describe how the company is boosting these capabilities among executives, managers and analytics professionals.

How the Evolution of Data Science is Changing the Knowledge Needs of its Practitioners

Dr. Jennifer Lewis Priestley, director of one of the country’s first Ph.D. programs in Data Science, talks about how the relationship between universities and private sector companies has been impacted by the evolution of data science in the business world.

Competing on Analytics is a “Team Sport,” but Which Sport?

Alex Barclay, SVP at Optum (part of United Health Group, a Fortune 10 company), outlines the capabilities required to compete on analytics and describe how the company is boosting these capabilities among executives, managers and analytics professionals.

It goes without saying that the analytics and data science space is undergoing change at an unprecedented pace. At the same time, many organizations have a lot of people who are still working in the same way using the same skills they have had for years. Organizations certainly need to move beyond those legacy skillsets and the need for a skills update is real. However, I see many organizations assuming that those with legacy skillsets are no longer valuable and must be replaced. This is a mistake. There is a huge difference between a legacy skillset and a legacy mindset. The two are not the same!

As a hiring manager or analytics leader, writing job descriptions to fill key analytics positions can be challenging. The data science and analytics environment changes at lightning speed and high demand for analytics professionals has created a highly competitive marketplace for attracting and retaining them.

Inquiry:

I’m leading the effort to embed analytics teams into other business functions, but I want their allegiance to be to analytics rather than the function they support. How do you create enough autonomy to ensure integration with the business units, while at the same time ensuring the teams don’t go native?

Given the potential benefits of data science and analytics to any organization and the limited talent pool of skilled resources, it’s critical to examine your interviewing process and determine whether it’s truly designed to source a top-tier data team. With the recent demand for data analytics and data scientist skills, it has become an increasingly daunting task for managers to adequately test and qualify candidates. This research brief includes a simple data exercise that can be completed by any candidate for a data-related role, regardless of experience or education levels. This test has been administered to dozens of candidates across a variety of industries.