Anonymous
Post 07/30/2025 21:41     Subject: Re:Statisticians in the private sector
Anonymous wrote:OP, I am a traditional statistician and have a Ph.D. from a prestigious university. I'm in my 40s and work in federal contracting analyzing healthcare data, a lot of regression modeling, observational studies, etc. I fear my time is limited. I have experienced the same frustrations with all of the "data science" and "data analytics" jobs. There is no doubt in my mind that, given my strong foundations, I can read about machine learning and apply it to customer data better than the 25 year old with a business degree who got a Google Analytics certificate. I'm also very frustrated by all of the jobs that require years of experience with the content (e.g., banking, insurance, credit cards, etc.). Also, in my current industries, roles such as programming to extract and process data, conceptualizing and conducting analysis, and creating the visualizations are more separate whereas in private industry they seem to be looking for someone who can do it all, and I'm not sure how well any person can do all of those things.


You're choosing to be unemployable instead of just putting the work in to learn.
Anonymous
Post 07/30/2025 20:51     Subject: Re:Statisticians in the private sector
Anonymous wrote:OP, I am a traditional statistician and have a Ph.D. from a prestigious university. I'm in my 40s and work in federal contracting analyzing healthcare data, a lot of regression modeling, observational studies, etc. I fear my time is limited. I have experienced the same frustrations with all of the "data science" and "data analytics" jobs. There is no doubt in my mind that, given my strong foundations, I can read about machine learning and apply it to customer data better than the 25 year old with a business degree who got a Google Analytics certificate. I'm also very frustrated by all of the jobs that require years of experience with the content (e.g., banking, insurance, credit cards, etc.). Also, in my current industries, roles such as programming to extract and process data, conceptualizing and conducting analysis, and creating the visualizations are more separate whereas in private industry they seem to be looking for someone who can do it all, and I'm not sure how well any person can do all of those things.


Yes welcome to private industry where people are required to constantly level up their skills and when people leave folks take on the task of 2-3 jobs. People do niche down but they also maintain some generalized knowledge of the roles adjacent.

Statisticians you should look for research firms like Gartner or the like. Otherwise you need to rebrand to Data Science or Actuarial Science and upskill accordingly.

Data Science work on Analytics team or within/alongside marketing.
Anonymous
Post 07/30/2025 08:53     Subject: Re:Statisticians in the private sector
OP, I am a traditional statistician and have a Ph.D. from a prestigious university. I'm in my 40s and work in federal contracting analyzing healthcare data, a lot of regression modeling, observational studies, etc. I fear my time is limited. I have experienced the same frustrations with all of the "data science" and "data analytics" jobs. There is no doubt in my mind that, given my strong foundations, I can read about machine learning and apply it to customer data better than the 25 year old with a business degree who got a Google Analytics certificate. I'm also very frustrated by all of the jobs that require years of experience with the content (e.g., banking, insurance, credit cards, etc.). Also, in my current industries, roles such as programming to extract and process data, conceptualizing and conducting analysis, and creating the visualizations are more separate whereas in private industry they seem to be looking for someone who can do it all, and I'm not sure how well any person can do all of those things.
Anonymous
Post 07/29/2025 21:23     Subject: Statisticians in the private sector
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How much are you willing to accept? If you want $160k, you will easily find a job. It's not hard for a former statiician from the UN to find someone to hire them for $160k.

We hired a 23 years old business analyst and handed her $125k. And she doesn't absolutely nothing NOTHING.

Listen it will come down to luck. I hope you are lucky like the inexperienced 23 years old we have $125k too just for editing PowerPoints and clicking cells in an excel spreadsheet.


I wish was the case. The US government is letting go of so many statisticians and they, including myself, are not finding much.


Yes, it has been absolutely brutal for statistical agencies and chief data officers’ staff. I wonder why they want to get rid of anyone who works with data.


I thought data jobs were all over the place and easy to find.


That may be in the private sector. But govt is getting rid of many many such people. I believe to make it harder to figure out the impact of policy changes in the future. (Not trying to make this political but that’s the only reason I can think of, since entire agencies and offices were/are being wiped out, not just downsizing for efficiency.)

OP, you need to rebrand as a data scientist and take some courses to do that. Also, make sure you’re comfortable with how to use AI effectively in this space.
Anonymous
Post 07/29/2025 17:41     Subject: Statisticians in the private sector
Knowledge about how to use R effectively is important for many openings.
Anonymous
Post 07/29/2025 17:13     Subject: Statisticians in the private sector
Do not say "Statistician". Instead say, "Data Scientist". Its all about branding.