A data specialist's job is to convert raw data into easily accessible formats for clients. This might include designing databases and training clients on the use of data storage systems and databases. It is your job to firstly analyze and verify the authenticity of data, convert the data into a simpler format like a database, generate reports, and provide technical support to your clients.
Your job revolves around data processing and analysis. You might be called upon to manage high-priority projects and resolve data discrepancies and errors. Pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, and IT firms are a few of the places you can find employment either as full-time staff or consultants.
A data specialist is expected to be great at math and to be excellent at coding. Good listening skills, attention to detail, and problem-solving skills are a few of the traits required from a data specialist. You can become a data specialist with a high school diploma as long as you can prove that you know what you're doing. The average salary is $78,000 yearly.
Data Specialist Overview
Data Specialist Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a data specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $35.64 an hour? That's $74,135 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 10,500 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Data Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many data specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed detail oriented, problem-solving skills and customer-service skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a data specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 10.4% of data specialists included procedures, while 9.4% of resumes included data analysis, and 7.6% of resumes included data entry. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the data specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most data specialists actually find jobs in the technology and health care industries.
How To Become a Data Specialist
If you're interested in becoming a data specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 44.3% of data specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 15.2% of data specialists have master's degrees. Even though most data specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a data specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a data specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on data specialist resumes include master's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a data specialist. In fact, many data specialist jobs require experience in a role such as administrative assistant. Meanwhile, many data specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as customer service representative or cashier.
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Data Specialist Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of office manager you might progress to a role such as operations manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title program manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Data Specialist
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Aerotek Legal Admin/Data Entry (Asap) Legal Admin/Data Entry (Asap) | Aerotek Aerotek | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $31,30501/29/2021 $31,305 |
Aerotek Administrative/Data Entry-Remote After Training Administrative/Data Entry-Remote After Training | Aerotek Aerotek | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $39,40301/28/2021 $39,403 |
Colorado State Data Specialist Data Specialist | Colorado State Colorado State | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $37,35601/28/2021 $37,356 |
Randstad Office Admin/Data Entry Office Admin/Data Entry | Randstad Randstad | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $27,13101/28/2021 $27,131 |
Commonspirit Health Regulatory Data Specialist Regulatory Data Specialist | Commonspirit Health Commonspirit Health | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $32,32801/27/2021 $32,328 |
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Data Specialist Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Data Specialist. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Data Specialist Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Data Specialist resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Skills For a Data Specialist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 10.4% of data specialists listed procedures on their resume, but soft skills such as detail oriented and problem-solving skills are important as well.
- Procedures, 10.4%
- Data Analysis, 9.4%
- Data Entry, 7.6%
- Customer Service, 6.3%
- Data Collection, 6.3%
- Other Skills, 60.0% See All Data Specialist Skills
Best States For a Data Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a data specialist. The best states for people in this position are Connecticut, California, New Jersey, and New York. Data specialists make the most in Connecticut with an average salary of $96,770. Whereas in California and New Jersey, they would average $83,422 and $81,327, respectively. While data specialists would only make an average of $77,884 in New York, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Connecticut
$96,770
Avg. Salary
2. New Jersey
$81,327
Avg. Salary
3. New York
$77,884
Avg. Salary
How Do Data Specialist Rate Their Jobs?
Top Data Specialist Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ data specialists and discovered their number of data specialist opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that IBM was the best, especially with an average salary of $76,945. Google follows up with an average salary of $119,269, and then comes Charter Communications with an average of $80,955. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a data specialist. The employers include Waters, GXS Inc., and Adventist Health System
Data Specialist Videos
