A new survey from Money magazine finds that employees who learn how to use statistical analysis, data mining, data warehousing and data modeling – some of the key skills offered by Cary-based SAS – will earn pay boosts of 5 percent or more. At 6.1 percent, statistical analysis is tops for pay bumps.

SAS skills already are in big demand. SAS points out that graduates of the big data program it sponsors at NC State leads to graduates receiving:

  • Average salary of $93, 250, with a $10,500 signing bonus
  • 99% had one or more job offers by graduation
  • Median number of 10 job interviews before graduation

Money worked with compensation data firm PayScale.com to discover what skills employers are really looking for – and willing to pay employees more money if they acquire those skills.

Beyond big data skills, also needed are:

  • Managing the bottom line
  • Wrangling new tech
  • Strategic thinking

“You can’t remain stagnant,” says Lydia Frank, PayScale’s editorial director, in the Money report. “You always want to be learning something new; you always want to be advancing.”

The study’s findings are based on analysis of 54 million employee profiles from 350 industries and includes 15,000 job titles. Data from new workers to top executives was included.

“We compared people with the same title, age, location, and experience, isolating the specific skills (from a universe of about 2,300) correlated with higher pay, advancement, and career opportunity,” Money reports.

“The result: an authoritative list of the skills with the best payoff in the workforce today. In general, we found that employers are willing to pay up for these four types of talents.”

SAS issued a detailed press release about the study, noting that it is working with universities to provide more SAS skills training.

“As analytics has become part of the fabric of business, government and academia, we’ve launched a range of programs to meet growing talent deficits,” said SAS CEO Jim Goodnight. “At the same time, these programs are opening rewarding career opportunities to people around the world.”

The most needed skills followed by subsets within those and related pay boosts:

Making Sense of Big Data

  • SAS (Statistical Analysis System): +6.1%
  • Data Mining/Data Warehousing: +5.1%
  • Data Modeling: +5%

Managing the Bottom Line

  • Contract Negotiation: +5%
  • Financial Analysis: +4%

Wrangling New Tech

  • Search Engine Marketing: +5%
  • Customer Service Metrics: +4.3%
  • SAP Material Management: +3.9%

Strategic Thinking

  • Strategic Planning: +4.3%
  • Business Analysis: +3.8%

Read more at:

http://time.com/money/4328180/most-valuable-career-skills/?xid=homepage