What is a Computer Scientist, Job Description and Salary?
New technologies have been consistently overhauling our experiences in daily life, from how we communicate to how we work to how we shop and interact with products and services. Computers, as the staple of digital technology, have played the biggest role of that over the past near-century, and only continue to play a large role as time goes on. The ones who understand how this technology really works, whether they work for theoretical or practical applications, are computer scientists.
What is a Computer Scientist?
Computer scientists typically work with a wide range of computing technology concepts and tools, either finding ways to innovate how we use existing technologies to develop entirely new computing technology breakthroughs. Examples of the kind of breakthroughs they have been working on lately can include things like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things.
Aside from working to create practical digital tools that later go on to be patented and sold, or used in a variety of different computer solutions, there are also computer scientists who work academically on hypothetical solutions and innovations as well, devising algorithms that can later be applied to computer software. As such, the computer scientist job description can change from place to place
How to Become a Computer Scientist?
Computer scientists need an extensive degree of information technology education. This can include IT and computer science courses in high school, which can then lead to computer science degrees, which a Master’s degree typically needed to enjoy a career as a computer scientist. Computer scientist requirements can also be fulfilled by other relevant degrees like robotics or artificial intelligence, especially for those who work in those specific fields. In order to qualify for a master’s degree course, you typically need to earn a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field after 2-3 years of studying.
What does a Computer Scientist do?
The roles and responsibilities of computer scientist jobs, including those found on Field Engineer, can change on a case-by-case basis. However, they often involve things like exploring a range of issues and challenges in computing in order to develop theories and tools to solve them. They often work with scientists on complex problems requiring a lot of computing power, or to create new computing languages, algorithms, and tools to make digital technology systems more efficient. A lot of computer scientists work on the hypothetical, creating, and running experiments to test operations of new solutions and then analyzing and reporting on the results of those experiments.
How to think like a Computer Scientist?
In order to think like a computer scientist, one has to first get a thorough understanding of computer systems and how they work. As such, you need to learn about how computer programs operate, including how algorithms are used to tell them what to do. They also need to know about things such as coding languages, object-oriented programming, and recursion. From the baseline understanding of existing systems, a computer scientist needs an understanding of how to scientifically apply creative theories, in order to test new solutions and innovations for the field.
Computer Scientist skills
From the description of how a computer scientist thinks, as mentioned above, you may think that technical skills with digital technology are the most crucial skill. They are, but analytical skills and a good understanding of the scientific method are just as crucial. This naturally includes an aptitude for math and logical thinking. However, skills such as critical thinking and communication skills are needed to best understand the results of computer science experiments and to communicate them to other people in a way that non-computer scientists would be able to understand.
How Much do Computer Scientists Make?
According to PayScale, the average yearly computer scientist salary is around $78,756 at the time of writing or an average hourly rate of $31 per hour. With an average bonus of around $3,060 and average profit-sharing incomes of $4k, this makes a total pay average for whole year of $85,816. However, existing data suggest that this can rise to around $137k for those at the top of the profession.
Computer scientists bring a highly technical skillset that can effectively ensure their employment with any range of companies, as well as being able to command high salaries as independent contractors. Hopefully, this guide helps you understand more about what computer scientist jobs are really like, as many of them can be found on Field Engineer.
