Algorithms Specialist

There was once a Persian mathematician named Abdullah Muhammad bin Musa al-Khwarizmi founded the word “Algorithm” in 9^th century.

But what is an algorithm you may ask?

In a layman term it means using a set of rules to absolutely characterize an arrangement of activities.

What actually is Algorithm Specialist?

As human develop mountains of information and data are continuously being collected and interpret. To become efficient and more productive, people starts to implement the concept of algorithms in to daily life tasks. An algorithms specialist work not only with algorithms but also mathematics and computers especially with machines and robots are all around us.

Algorithms that is created by specialists onto robots or computers is basically equivalent to logic for them to understand and solve problems more effectively.

A simple real-life example would be a calculator, when you input 2+2 the answer will be 4. It is one of the simple and straight forward algorithms.

Of course, there are much more complex ones, those have to carry out multiple calculations, with more steps and affected by different variables to perform a forecast or calculation. Some of it need to have multiple algorithms may co-exist to perform its full function.

Most of the companies these days require an Algorithm Specialist to develop algorithms for both internal and external use in order to stay competitive in the market and be advantageous. Some of them deal with software or both hardware and software depending on the task. They are usually well-paid because of the high complexity work tasks and high demand for this particular role. In fact, algorithms appeared in most of the devices that are used daily that you might not even notice.

Working in Industries

As algorithm are being used in various industries, these specialists could eventually choose which industry they want to focus.

For examples automobile industry, manufacture, entertainment industry and so forth. Companies and entrepreneurs start to digitalize their operations and provide services without needing actual contact to reduce cost, time and most definitely trend following.

However, algorithm specialist should have sufficient understanding of the task as it will differ from industry. If you are developing algorithm for a business management purpose you have to understand each procedure and process that needed to go through in order to create an error-free algorithm and vice versa depending on the purpose of creating the algorithm.

Algorithm specialists usually work in office or lab depending on the projects. Since most of the time they will have to cooperate with other department of the company to develop the algorithm that they needed. For example, cooperate with marketing department to create algorithms that could help the company identify their customers’ purchase behaviour and so forth.

Moreover, they have to go through few basic steps to create algorithms. Such as coming out with a reliable model and designs to have an idea of what their final product should look like. Then carry out research and analysis that are needed for the particular algorithm. Lastly, experimenting the algorithm to ensure its functions and reliability before the implementation.

Interested to Join the Profession?

Just like other professional, you will need a degree in computer science, mathematics or other degrees that are in the similar field as you have to be knowledgeable to perform most of the tasks. Of course those with master degree or higher will be in advantage. You could also attend software development related classes or courses.

Since it is heavily related to software developing, learning and having knowledge of programming is one of the must. Examples of programming language such as:

MATLAB
C/C++/C#
PYTHONS
JAVA

Besides than these requirements, there are other tools or system that an algorithm specialist has to comprehend depending on the projects and employer. For an instance, data collection specialists that Amazon is hiring require their candidates to be experience in Mac OS, Microsoft Excel and Office. It will differ from industry and field.

Last but not least, an algorithm specialist should have certain level of interest in physics, mathematics and data, considering they will be facing them in and out of their work.

How Will They Contribute?

These specialists have contributed in various aspects to the society. For an instance, ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning) is a kind of business management system that is widely used by companies from small to large scales.

The system itself contained accounting, inventory, manufacture, point of sales, human resource and consumer relationship management. Each of these function are written by specialist to enhance those tedious daily tasks that carried out by white collars. Such as the function of human resource could track down employees’ attendance and performance accurately then analyse and create a summary for the manager. These are possible because of the algorithms that are written for the particular function and to perform in such way.

In addition, the Google search results and some of the social media function are also run by algorithms. Algorithms helped to rank the best search results for you via popularity, reliability and so forth in order to provide the best user experience possible.

Also, they have to run, design experiment through trial and error to come out the products that we are currently using which provide the best user experience with minimized defective and bug. Thus it will eventually increase the productivity.

In the Future

If you are worried of how difficult for an algorithm specialist to get a job, you should not be. Because this particular role are currently in high demand as people are emerging rapidly into the digital world. Furthermore, the industry are a facing the shortage of software developers which means there more job opportunities than the qualified candidates.

It is expected to have a growth of 21 percent or higher for overall software developer for the next 8 years. This will be increasing from time to time and in a faster rate when contrasted with the normal occupation. In point of fact, interest for program is expanding quickly. Innovation advances rapidly, and as new gadgets are grown, new programming must be created. For most of the part it will be those small sized and easy to carry technologies.

Besides, it could be efficiently used on other fields such as construction, medical, operation, businesses and so on. Nevertheless, there are still areas that yet to be discovered and develop, it should be exploiting in the near future.