Big Data's Big Problem: Little Talent
I'm not sure that the kinds of employees that this article describes will ever be a large number. There could be more of them in the future, but someone who is top-notch at all of statistics, programming, and data-presentation has long been less common than someone who's good at one or two of those. Companies might consider looking at better ways to build teams that combine talent that exists, instead of pining for more superstars.I'm reminded indirectly of an acquaintance of mine who works on repairing industrial machinery, where companies complain of a big skills shortage. They either fail to realize or are in denial about what that means in the 21st century, though. It might've been a one-person job in the 1950s, a skilled-labor type of repairman job. But today they want to find one person who can do the physical work (welding, etc.), EE type work, embedded-systems programming (and possibly reverse engineering), application-level programming to hook things up to their network, etc. Some of these people exist, but it's more common to find boutique consulting firms with 3-person teams of EE/CE/machinist or some such permutation. But companies balk at paying consulting fees equivalent to three professional salaries for something they think "should" be doable by one person with a magical combination of skills, who will work for maybe $80k. So they complain that there is a shortage of people who can repair truck scales (for example).