#patterns in data

Yes. I do believe that “Data Miner” is the best job on Earth. I will give you five reasons why I think so. Of course, I’m a data miner. I’m thus not objective, but who cares? Here is why everybody should be jealous about data miners:

1. We can predict the future Yes, we can. Of course, this is not 100% sure, but still we predict the future. As long as we have enough data with some patterns inside (the famous gold nuggets), we can predict the future. What product will this customer buy next? What will be the pollen concentration in the air tomorrow? How will the stock market evolve in the following week? Yes, to some extend, and with some errors, we can predict the future. Isn’t that cool?

2. We can change our job without changing it Sounds strange? Let me explain this. Data mining is a field where we apply machine learning and statistical techniques to some concrete problems in a certain field. Every new project may cover a different field. This gives you the opportunity to discover and learn new domains without changing your job. While working as a data miner, I have – in six years – discovered fields such as meteorology, civil engineering, finance and telco. Isn’t this great?

3. We can easily impress friends and family This is not the case in every job. Being a data miner, it is. Of course, we could use simple terms such as “data, analysis and results” to explain what we do. However, we prefer to use terms such as “random set of points, support vector machines and score probabilities” instead. It is much more impressive, so why not use them? Yes, we are like this. Aren’t we awesome?

4. We can spy on anybody Who has never dreamed of being a spy like James Bond? Being a data miner, we are kind of spies, at least according to the non-technical news. We steal data and we mine them to discover very personal information. We break the privacy of every human being on Earth by spying on them. Yes, we do that in our everyday job, and to be honest we love that. Of course, we could stop, but it is too much fun to play the spy. Isn’t it?

5. We never fail Sounds impossible? It isn’t: we are data miners. Which means that if we find patterns in your data, we are good. If we don’t – it’s not our fault – it means there are some data quality issues (missing values, not enough data, etc.). But it’s not our fault. And if you insist, we can still find something for you. You bet? Give us any data (even random!) and we will find some patterns using clustering, for example. This is like finding patterns in clouds. If you look long enough, you will always see an image appear. Isn’t it beautiful?