To me, this looks like a fad. Let me explain. Five years ago, talk of Business Intelligence was all the rage. It was the 'hot' new thing that companies were po

To me, this looks like a fad. Let me explain. Five years ago, talk of Business Intelligence was all the rage. It was the 'hot' new thing that companies were pouring millions into. You needed the Analytical and statistics skills required to interpret large data-sets efficiently whilst having enough vision to clearly cut through the noise to deliver meaningful metrics. Technical knowledge of manipulating data using multi-dimensional cubes and datasets is also required. Now it seems that 'Data Science' is set to pick up where BI left off. The fields appear very similar. To avoid it being an oxymoron, I would clearly define the boundrys and goals relative to similar fields... BI / Data Warehousing / Data Analyst / Database Architecture Disclosure: I've made a VERY good living since graduating working for Investment Banks in BI/Data analytics. I know from experience that money in these fields is more down to the industry you apply it to. Number crunching payroll or scientific data, low salary. Number crunching bank regulatory or trading data, massive money (regardless of what you call yourself).