sex, tech, and mergers: 2021-06-20

2021-06-23 at 5:10 am

Statistics in the Workplace

Last week my boss updated me about some roles he is looking to hire for in 2021, and I didn't hear the word "statistician", so I brought it up.

The function of statistics is the set of reasoning tools which under-gird [ scientific inquiry in general ].

- : "business analysts" may use some statistical tools, but are not always specialised as statisticians
- : "data science" is a trendy business term, but it is not well-defined as a discipline ... it tends to involve software engineering + machine learning models
- : "machine learning" (ML) is also a trendy business term, but fundamentally is composed of statistical methods which are then automated to run faster than manual operation will allow
- : "risk managers" (a super-set of fraud analysts) basically use statistics to assign a probability of loss to any asset + conditioning circumstances

So all "business analysts", "data scientists", "machine learning", and "risk management" staff in a company will use statistics. But currently we don't have a Chief Statistics Officer, for guidance.

- : In the short-term it is possible to work with consultants, or senior temps.
- : In the long-term, I would recommend that someone lead and internalise this discipline throughout any company.

While this discussion continues, I am starting to read up on stats where I left off after highschool, myself. Here are some links which seem like a good summary introduction to the tools that will be needed here. I would encourage everyone to look through this briefly in their spare time.