Brad Carlin on Medium.com: Three Characteristics of a Good Statistical Consultant

Statistical consulting can be a very rewarding and lucrative career path for those interested in data and statistics. However, this field of work requires a skill set that often isn’t taught in most undergraduate and graduate statistics programs.

When considering a career in statistical consulting, it’s important to acknowledge that having a solid understanding of statistical methods and theories is the bare minimum — and that a great statistician does not necessarily make a great statistical consultant. Consulting requires a separate non-technical skill set that needs to be developed and honed over time.

Checkout the full Medium Article below:

https://medium.com/@brad_carlin/brad-carlin-three-characteristics-of-a-good-statistical-consultant-53e5151445b2

Brad Carlin: Three Tips for Filling Out a Winning March Madness Bracket

Brad Carlin March Madness

With March just around the corner, there’s a good chance that someday soon one of your coworkers will be making the rounds, trying to get participants for your office’s March Madness pool. Even if you haven’t watched a NCAA game all season, there are a few tips that can help you fill out your bracket like a pro.

Use the free online Poologic calculator

Poologic.com offers a free online program that helps you construct a bracket with a higher probability of winning. It uses point spreads, team rankings, and other metrics to determine your bracket’s best inputs.  The program handles a fairly wide range of office pool designs, including those with fairly complex upset bonuses and other incentives.

Know your competition

It’s important to know any local biases of the competition in your particular pool. If you’re playing in an office pool in Kentucky, chances are many of your colleagues will be picking Kentucky to go all the way. Staying away from the local favorite will help increase your odds of ending up in the money.

It’s also important to know how many people are participating in your pool. For smaller pools of, say, 20 to 30 entries, you can feel more confident in sticking with the higher seeded teams knowing that they have the highest likelihood of winning and tied entries are unlikely. Yet, if you were to employ this strategy in a large office or national pool, you’re likely going to come up against a significant number of entries that have nearly the same picks you do.  This would mean lower average payoff since, even if you win, your earnings are more likely to be shared across the multiple winners.

Being overly conservative is not necessarily your friend

Choosing the number one seeds across the board in the Final Four may seem like a safe strategy.  However, it’s also a strategy that a lot of other people are likely to use, particularly casual players who don’t typically follow college basketball.  And in any case, it’s unlikely the Final Four will be comprised of only number one seeds: it has only happened once in the history of the tournament.

Optimal selection in NCAA bracket pools requires tools from both probability and game theory, making them a fun and challenging pastime for the sports nerd.  If you want to know more, I heartily recommend the brand new CRC book by my good friend Tom Adams, Improving Your NCAA Bracket With Statistics.  Tom is a systems analyst, mathematician, and long-time March Madness guru who created and maintains the poologic.com page.  His book is an easy and engaging read about both the history and optimal solution of bracket pools. It includes plenty of pragmatic strategies, including the “contrarian” approach of being somewhat skeptical of the very top teams since they tend to be overbet by other players.  Good luck and enjoy the 2019 NCAA mens’ and womens’ tournaments!

Statistician to be one of the fastest growing jobs across the next 10 years

According to a recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Statisticians will find themselves among the fastest growing job categories in the U.S. between 2016 and 2026.

According to the report, the number of jobs for Statisticians will grow 33% from 2016 to 2026, which is 26% greater than the average job growth rate of 7%. This ranks statisticians as the fifth-fastest growing job category in the nationally over the next 10 years. In 4 U.S. states in particular – Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, and Massachusetts – statisticians will be the fastest growing jobs segment.

Given the increasing availability of data, the demand for professionals who can apply mathematical and statistical techniques in order to analyze data and provide real-world business solutions will continue to rise.

To read the full report or for more information on the Statistician career track visit https://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/mathematicians-and-statisticians.htm