Statistical analysis and data mining were the top skills that got people hired in 2014 based on LinkedIn analysis of 330 million LinkedIn member profiles. We live in an increasingly data-driven world, and businesses are aggressively hiring experts in data storage, retrieval, and analysis. Across the globe, statistics and data analysis skills were highly valued. In the US, India, and France, those skills are in particularly high demand.

What is data science?

Data scientist performs research and analysis on data and helps companies to improve business by predicting growth, trends and business insights based on huge amounts of data. Armed with data and analytical results, a top-tier data scientist will then communicate informed conclusions and recommendations across an organizations leadership structure. Successful big data scientists will be in high demand and will be able to earn very nice salaries. But to be successful, big data scientists need to have a wide range of skills that until now did not even fit into one department. Learning how to become data scientist can be quite costly, with an average cost of $9,600 (according to extension.harvard.edu). But if you know which skills employers are looking for you can find many free resources online. That is exactly what we did for you! Below is the required skills set for becoming a data scientist with top 3 free resources to learn each skill online. Here are the most required skills for a data scientist position based on ReSkill's analyses of thousands of job posts and free resources to learn each skill:

1. Python

• Learn Python Programming From Scratch by Udemy
• Learn to program in Python by CodeCademy
• LearnPython.org interactive Python tutorial  

2. Machine Learning

• Machine learning online
• Operational Intelligence and Machine Data with Splunk  

3. R Language

• R Basics - R Programming Language Introduction by Udemy
• Introduction to R at DataCamp
• Learn R at Code school  

4. Big Data

• Big Data University
• Big Data and Hadoop Essentials by Udemy
• Basic overview of Big Data Hadoopby- Udemy  

5. Statistics

• Statistics One by Coursera
• Statistics and Probability
• Probability & Statistics  

6. Data Mining

• Data Mining and Web Scraping: How to Convert Sites into Data by Udemy
• Data Mining by Coursera  

7. SQL- Test your SQL skills

• Interactive Online SQL Training for Beginners
• Sachin Quickly Learns (SQL) - Structured Query Language by Udemy
• SQL Tutorial by w3schools

8. Java

• Learn Java: The Java Programming Tutorial For Beginners by Udemy
• Learn Java - Free Interactive Java Tutorial 
• Learn Java Programming From Scratch - Udemy  

Originally posted at blog.reskill.me.