IT Careers: 8 Steps Toward New Business Roles
IT Careers: 8 Steps Toward New Business Roles
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Hey, college grad, ever heard of Hadoop? Know anything about statistics? In the coming years, big data skills might help you land a good job.

The U.S. Department of Labor predicts a 25% percent growth in the need for analytics-trained workers through 2018. And research firm Gartner estimates that more than 4.4 million big data-related jobs will be created by 2015, but only a third of those will be filled.
Data analysis is expected to play a greater role in day-to-day business operations, a development that will require many university graduates to attain at least a basic understanding of big data tools and technologies.
Of course, one can quibble with the accuracy or timeline of these projections. But there's no denying the fact that volume, variety and velocity of data -- big and small -- continue to grow, and that organizations increasingly need employees with some degree of data-analysis skills.
[ Do the three V's -- volume, variety and velocity -- really help you understand big data? See Big Data: A Practical Definition. ]
A partnership between academia and business can help accomplish that, according to Georgetown University professor Betsy Page Sigman.