Ability to Size Up Problems and See the ‘Big Picture’

Ability to Size Up Problems and See the ‘Big Picture’

Statisticians are often assigned projects or challenged with long term contracts. This means that individuals in this field must be open to investigating projects that are of little interest to anybody other than the person posing the question. This requires the statistician to size up the problem which requires the researcher to be able to gain an understanding of the underlying politics. This might sound a little cheesy but a researcher must have enthusiasm and appropriate self-confidence in their project in order to commit. Once on a project, a proactive mindset will influence the statistician to seek out important aspects of problems and useful and novel ways of addressing them. 

According to the bureau of labor statistics, the highest contract employment of statisticians is in Scientific Research and Development Services. This poses the adaptive nature that these researchers need to have, to contract into new projects proposed by industry.
Statistics is an excellent way to draw the attention of the audience. “Your chancing of survival is XX%” has a better illustration than “your chances of survival is high/low.” The process of collecting and interpreting data can often be unpleasant, odd, or conclude in unexpected results. Its safe to say that analysis doesn't always yield perfect results but more importantly, the results should always represent the truth. Statistically speaking there is an almost-certain probability at least one person in this world thinks “JAWS: THE REVENGE” is the greatest film ever made.