Is data scientist the hottest job in America?

Some articles say data scientist is the hottest job in America, because companies want them so badly they are willing to pay over $100K per year.1,2,3

However, I’m going to say that CEOs, hedge fund managers, and sports stars are actually the hottest jobs in America. Companies want them so badly they are willing to pay over $10M per year (equivalent to a century’s worth of data sciencing!).

Why do people choose to write articles proclaiming a shortage of data scientists but not a shortage of CEOs/hedge funders/sports stars?

Presumably it’s because you or I won’t bother to click a headline that says athletes get paid a lot, but we might click a headline that says that data scientists get paid a lot. And why is that?

Is it because data scientist feels achievable, so maybe we’d want to become one?

Is it because data scientist is in our social class and CEOs are not, so maybe we’d be more envious and status-conscious?

Is it because data scientist salaries are getting paid more than a cultural interpretation of what they “deserve” and we care about strangers getting what they deserve?

I wonder.

Footnotes

  1. This is America’s Hottest Job. Michael Sasso, Bloomberg, 2018. 

  2. Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century. Davenport and Patil, Harvard Business Review, 2012. 

  3. 50 Best Jobs in America for 2019. Data Scientist has topped Glassdoor’s best jobs list for four years straight (2016 - 2019).