As someone deeply entrenched in the data-driven world, I often ponder: Can a commerce student do Data Science? The answer is a resounding yes. In today’s data-centric landscape, individuals from diverse academic backgrounds, including commerce, can excel in Data Science. The field’s interdisciplinary nature welcomes professionals with various skill sets and perspectives. 

From my own experience, I’ve witnessed the immense potential commerce graduates bring to the table. Their analytical prowess, coupled with a solid foundation in business principles, perfectly aligns with the requirements of the data industry. As the demand for data professionals continues to soar, opportunities abound for those willing to embrace this dynamic field. 

Exploring our Data Science Courses is a great starting point for commerce students interested in transitioning to Data Science. With the proper training and dedication, they can achieve successful careers in this rapidly growing and rewarding industry. 

With such data predominating every facet of our lives, those handling data become crucial to the economic and social progress of the world. It is no surprise therefore that a career in data science has emerged as one of the most lucrative graduate destinations for students from a wide array of disciplines. 

As the famous saying goes, “data is the new oil.” The data is all around us and the market requires professionals who know how to make sense of the given data. The market for the data is growing with each passing day and it is expected to reach USD 297.28 billion by 2030 (Source).

Due to the growing market, demand for data professionals is also increasing, the trend is being reflected in the high salary packages and growth given to the data professionals. This is one of the reasons to choose data science after BCom is spiking. The commerce graduates find the background to be overlapping with skills demanded in the data industry and want to make the most of this opportunity to make a good career in the data science field.

There are lot many roles that are present in the data field. Professionals coming from non-tech backgrounds can make a successful career without losing out on opportunities. The industry is known to be one of the highest paying industries both globally and nationally. The companies make sure to acquire and retain good talent by giving them competitive salaries and employee benefits.

The people coming from management and commerce backgrounds should acquire the skills of data science to get better opportunities to grow. They can get into leadership roles if they are investing their time into upskilling.

What is Data Science?

In order to conducive understand what data science is let’s take a walk down memory lane. Remember the days before google docs and hard drives when we’d have to “burn” the files into CDs and floppy disks to share content? From that to the ubiquitous USB drives or even software tools like WeShare, sharing data has evolved immensely over the years. This is basically technology adapting to the larger volumes of data that come to be produced on a regular basis in today’s day and age.

If we go back to the memory spaces of the floppy era or even the microdisks for the initial generation of smartphones, we’d not be able to adequately measure up to the enormous quantity of data that floats around today. Better management, calibration, and application of data is the need of the hour and simply, put the science behind handling data is data science. 

Data science is the field of study which cleans, segregates, and manipulates the data to get actionable insights. The data professionals have a research proposition given to them based on which they carry out the analysis. After making use of the algorithms and tools, they are able to work on the data that allows them to reach the end result that the data professionals were trying to achieve.  Once the working on the data has been done, the data professionals create a report and present it to the stakeholders to act upon the findings.

The question of ”Can BCom student do data science?” seems to be fazing out because the obvious answer remains, “Yes, they can.” The field of data science is so diverse that it has a place for people coming from non-tech backgrounds as well. The commerce graduates should invest their time into understanding the field and getting appropriate knowledge of the skillsets. There are algorithms, and tools that are used. The commerce graduates can also very well enter into the field of business analytics. This way they can utilise their existing knowledge of business in analytics. 

The application of data science in today’s time is vast. Data is used in every industry and with the advent of technology it is all around us. From the watch, and electronics, to the metro cards that we use. Everywhere is the usage of data science. And all of this data needs to be understood and made sense of.  

With the digital revolution in today’s times, the competition is growing steeply and the companies want to be the first ones to act on the customer’s demand, in order to act they should be first aware of what the customers need and they get all of this from data and all of this they get to understand from the analysis they perform. With this, there are many more applications of data science in various different industries such as e-commerce, healthcare, transport, banking, manufacturing, etc.

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Who handles data?

The scope of data has not only increased in terms of quantity but also in its varied usage and complicated applications. Every walk of life calls for use of data, which more appropriately is referred to as “Big Data”. Data science stands at the interception of related fields like statistics, software development, computer science, and math. Therefore, it takes a specialized set of skills to appropriately manage data science.

Data science entails analytics and applications in order to develop tangible business solutions. Hence, in order to be a data scientist, one is expected to do more than one hat. Indeed, those belonging to a technological background, especially computer science or software development have a stronger footing in the field. But, as demonstrated earlier, data science also involves making mathematical decisions, analyzing the market statistics, and managing them all for business development. Learn more about the importance of data science.

Thus, there is a huge demand for those with degrees in commerce and management as well. In sum, while there is no prerequisite to qualify as a data scientist, it helps to have a strong knowledge base of either computer science or management, commerce, and related disciplines.

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The data science industry has space for everyone also people coming from management or commerce backgrounds. So the question “Can a BCom graduate become data analyst?” is answered.  The data is handled by professionals who have the expertise to make some logic out of the given data. There are various roles that are available in data science for non-tech backgrounds people. Such as data analyst, business analyst, data administrator, data manager, etc. The professionals only need to be aware of the tools or algorithms used to work with the data.

The commerce and management graduates can make logic out of the data by running certain algorithms and tools to understand the trend in the data to make a better analysis. 

What are the different roles in Data Science?

Data science is not a monolithic field. Data Science has a diverse career path. It involves different specializations and has numerous sub-categories. Since the very nature of data and its potential applications are so diverse, expertise from different disciplines is necessary to handle different aspects of data science. 

It ranges from the software side of things which includes data visualization, machine learning, and full-stack development to the optimum storage of data, big data management, and the analytical side which encompasses market insights and business intelligence. Data science is the confluence of a variety of field expertise. So you may be from a tech background or have a degree in management or commerce, data science holds some highly interesting prospects for you. 

The data professionals in the industry have to work very closely with the business stakeholders to identify the point of pain and carry out the research accordingly. They create a problem statement and jot the research methodologies to be used in order to carry out the analysis. They create a pool of resources to be used while conducting the research as well. 

There are various roles that are available in the field of data science, such as statistician, data analyst, data engineer, business analyst, ML engineer, data administrator, data architect, data science manager, etc.  The data professionals who are involved in the data analysis can predict based on the trend. The scope data provides has moved so much that it has space for various skills to be utilised.  So the question “Can I do data science after BCom?” is answered. 

Learn about: Data Scientists Salary in India

Is there a demand for Data Science in modern markets?

One often comes across the question, why a career in data science? The answer is simple. Data is the future. Businesses today heavily rely on data-driven facts and statistics to make business decisions. In today’s highly competitive world, there is no longer scope for assumptions. So businesses base their decisions on the data that is engineered and analyzed by market experts.

These are then fit into programming structures to enhance the performance of the business with the help of technology. So be it the analytical side of things or the programming side of the execution angle, experts from management, commerce and software domains play a predominant role in making data science integral to almost every industry in contemporary times. You name an industry or an enterprise, you’ll have the application of data science. 

Have you ever wondered, why big conglomerates like Facebook and Whatsapp allow us, users, to avail of their services for free and yet make such stupendous profits? The answer lies in data science. Social media platforms have emerged as robust repositories of data about customer behavior. This provides insights to companies about their target audience and here again, data scientists ingeniously manipulate the data into end to end solutions which in turn help the businesses in making profitable business decisions. 

What role does a professional from a commerce background play in Data Science?

Data science depends on quantitatively converting the information deduced from the market data to implementable reports and solutions, there is a crucial role that numbers play in data science. Since the mainstay of most commerce degrees combines business and mathematics, the skills of a commerce graduate are precious to data science.

One has to make accurate calculations from the available data to inform one or the other business decisions. Accordingly, a knowledge of algebra, probability, and statistics juxtaposed against a thorough understanding of the markets and profits that a professional with a degree in commerce brings to data science is of vital importance. 

The commerce graduates in the industry can really well utilise their background and use the knowledge gained in graduation for practical use. The commerce students have a really good knack for numbers. They can work easily with numbers, they can also interpret the data very efficiently. This allows the commerce graduates to use these various skillsets to their advantage in the data science field. They only need to upskill themselves and build a solid foundation in data science in order to keep accelerating their graph. There are various options available to learn data science courses after 12th commerce, where the students can choose to upskill themselves.

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What role does a professional from a management background play in Data Science?

Once the necessary calculations are made, the data is fit into machine learning using different algorithms. The ultimate aim of data science is to apply the data insights to usable business solutions. This is where the relevance of a management professional comes in. In order to implement the outputs of data science, you need to have an understanding of the target.

Data analytics and data storage play a crucial role in this regard. Analyzing the huge datasets into predictive and comprehensive formats that are likely to create opportunities for businesses is what management professionals are good at and this can prove to be an asset for data science. 

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What are the career prospects for management and commerce students in Data Science?

As data keeps getting bigger, the demand for professionals with statistical and analytical skills keeps increasing. Currently, data science lacks both. According to a Mckinsey report, the U.S.A faced a shortage of approximately 190000 professionals from a management or commerce background to handle big data. So be it a data architect or a business analyst role, those with a management or commerce degree are likely to lead the pay packages in data science.

Data science is seeing fast growth in today’s times where there are many employers who are providing a good environment for growth to the employees. The commerce and management graduates in the start should very dedicatedly focus on building their skillsets, they should understand the requirement of the industry. Along with that, they should equally introspect the reason for what qualities they have and their strengths.

The professionals coming from management backgrounds have a huge role to play in business decision-making. These professionals have a knack for business and know strategies to improve the growth of the business.

The management professionals see growth in the company by showing their skillsets. And with data science as one more skill set in their resume, they can set themselves apart from the crowd and can be given more opportunities to grow within the role. 

For example, the management students can utlise data science in the e-commerce industry to analyse customer satisfaction reviews. Based on that, they devise strategies to create more ways to increase customer satisfaction. We can say that a person from a management background brings an extra dimension to the role.

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Wrapping up

If you’re still wondering why a career in data science suits those with commerce or management degrees, consider the significant presence of data science in top companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, Airbnb, and PayPal. These companies allocate a substantial portion of their workforce to data science, demonstrating the vast opportunities available in this field. To learn more about the top companies hiring data scientists, explore further. 

For those interested in delving into data science, IIIT-B & upGrad’s Executive PG Programme in Data Science is tailored for working professionals. This program offers 10+ case studies & projects, practical hands-on workshops, mentorship with industry experts, 1-on-1 sessions with mentors, and over 400 hours of learning. Additionally, it provides job assistance with top firms, making it an ideal choice for advancing your career in data science.