Thoughts on Data Scientist vs SDE compensation?
After being called “The sexiest job of 21st century” I have not seen Data Scientist comp on par with SDE comp (at least in Amazon). Is this true in other companies too? In referring to Data Scientist, I am not counting those doing ML, AI, deep learning etc. What are Blind community’s thoughts on this disparity in comp, despite the fact that DS can create lot of immediate impact for the business?
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Facebook public Jan 21, 2018
Who called it the sexiest job?
Harvard Business Review
Facebook public Jan 21, 2018
Haha yep in 2012, but read it now, it doesn't describe what is left of ds: https://hbr.org/2012/10/data-scientist-the-sexiest-job-of-the-21st-century
Maybe we have different definitions of ML, but what do you think data scientists are doing then? I ask because a data scientist title can be given to many different types of jobs, even within Amazon. Some are basically SQL people that do basic analysis and others are building and deploying models. This might explain big variance in comp across the title. And for reference, data scientist isn't a job family, so it maps to anything from BIE, RS, or AS. I'm basically doing data science work, and had that title at my last company, but am RS at Amazon. I started at $142k at L4.
I am not including regression modeling, time series analysis, inferential statistics etc. in ML. By DS i am referring to people who are building such models. Is $142K your total comp or base? Do you have PhD or Research background?
In that case, I'm not sure why you're giving special status to ML. Is Random Forest considered ML? The line is fuzzy. I do all of the above. We're certainly not above simple regression. It's often the best tool for the job. But I'm building some deep learning stuff too. $142k is total comp. No PhD. All but dissertation. My research so far has been in physics, but currently working on DL research.