Data Science Job Market Shrinking as Data Engineering Grows Exponentially, New Study by Interview Query

Data science interviews dropped by 15% in 2020 while data engineering interviews increased by 40%

Data science used to be the sexiest job of the 21st century. Now, the pandemic has cooled it down dramatically. The growth slowed down in 2020 after previously growing by 80% year over year in a new study by Interview Query. 

Interview Query analyzed over 10,000 related interview experiences from over 450+ companies to investigate how COVID-19 affected data science growth, tech company hiring, and interview processes.

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The data shows that while the total number of data-related interviews is still growing, data science interviews dropped by 15% overall in 2020. However, FAANG companies (Facebook, Google, etc.) did not feel the economic squeeze and interviewed 25% more candidates in 2020 versus 2019. This hiring was led by Amazon, which increased its interviews for roles by 40% over the last year.

Another notable shift has been the increase in data engineering and data analyst roles. Data engineering interviews increased by 40% in the past year and business and data analyst interviews increased by 20%. Companies are likely cutting down on costs by hiring more data analysts rather than data scientists. Data science roles are also becoming more ambiguous and command a higher premium in salary versus data analyst and business analyst roles.

More interesting facts from the study:

• Take-home challenges were given in 25% of interviews.
• In FAANG interviews, take-home challenges were only given 8% of the time.
• The top interview questions asked in 2020 were on machine learning, coding and algorithms, and statistics.

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