There has been a slight transition in social science teaching since I have been a student and professor over the past ~15+ years. In the aughts, it was still common to teach students in legacy, closed source statistical software (SPSS, SAS, and Stata). When I was a PhD student in criminal justice at SUNY Albany, we had a specific class to learn SPSS, although most of the rest of the quantitative courses used Stata.

The R programming language has likely usurped the use of the closed source languages in social science education after the aughts though. (I do not have hard data, but that is my impression seeing what colleagues are using and what they teach in classes.)

I am familiar with all of the major statistical programs (I have written an R package, and you can see this blog for many examples of SPSS and a few for Stata). If the goal in coursework is to teach your students skills relevant to help them get a job, academics in social science institutions should teach their students Python. The current job market for quantitative work is dominated by Python positions.

To be clear, I am not fundamentally opposed to closed source programming languages (there are scenarios where SPSS/SAS make more sense than Hadoop systems I have seen, also if you are a GIS analyst you should learn ESRI tools). This is purely just an observation given the current private sector job market – focusing primarily on Python makes the most sense for social science students.

As an experiment, I went onto LinkedIn and did a search for “data scientist”. Your results will differ (mine are tailored to the Raleigh area, and also includes more senior positions), but here is a table of the positions that came up on the first page, and a quick summary of the tech stacks they require. While this is not a systematic sample, it gives a reasonable snapshot of current expectations.

| Company             | Job Title                           | Tech Stack                                           | URL                                            |
|---------------------|-------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------- |
| Google              | Data Scientist (Google Voice 2)     | Python, R, SQL                                       | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4387751995/ |
| Deloitte            | AI Specialist                       | None specified                                       | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4376183670/ |
| Ascensus            | Principal Analytics                 | R, Python, SQL, GenAI/LLM                            | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4380164400/ |
| EY                  | AI Lead Engineer                    | Python, C#, R, GenAI/LLM                             | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4385954762/ |
| PwC                 | GenAI Python Systems Engineer (2)   | Python, SQL, Cloud Platforms, GenAI/LLM              | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4373604638/ |
| Affirm              | Senior Machine Learning Engineer    | Python, Spark/Ray                                    | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4326673670/ |
| Lexis Nexis         | Lead Data Scientist                 | Cloud Platforms, GenAI/LLM                           | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4316327742/ |
| EY                  | AI Finance                          | SQL, Python, Azure, GenAI/LLM                        | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4385085950/ |
| Korn Ferry          | Sr. Data Scientist                  | Python, R, Spark, AWS, GenAI/LLM                     | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4387433496/ |
| Deloitte            | Data Science Manager                | Python, Cloud                                        | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4304674642/ |
| First Citizens Bank | Senior Quant Model Developer        | Python, SAS, SQL                                     | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4365378242/ |
| First Citizens Bank | Senior Manager Quant Analysis       | Python, SAS, Tableau                                 | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4388131284/ |
| Jobot               | ML Solution Architect               | Python, Scala, Spark, AWS, Snowflake                 | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4384023540/ |
| Affirm              | Analyst II                          | SQL, Python, R, CPLEX/Gurobi, Databricks/Snowflake   | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4373303038/ |
| Red Hat             | Sr Machine Learning Engineer (vLLM) | Python, GenAI/LLM                                    | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4354827922/ |
| Alliance Health     | Director AI                         | Python (TensorFlow/PyTorch), Office Products, GenAI  | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4383011480/ |
| Nubank              | ML Data Engineer                    | Python, Ray/Spark                                    | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4376815752/ |
| Target RWE          | Senior Quant Data Scientist         | R                                                    | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4385293724/ |
| Siemens             | Senior Data Analytics               | SQL, Python, R, Tableau/PowerBI                      | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4377969531/ |
| Red Hat             | Sr Machine Learning Engineer        | Python, GenAI/LLM                                    | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4302769773/ |
| Lexis Nexis         | Director Data Sciences              | Python, R, GenAI/LLM                                 | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4387335028/ |
| Cigna               | Data Science Senior Advisor         | Python, SQL                                          | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4381766145/ |
| Thermo Fisher       | Senior Manager Data Engineering     | Fabric, PowerBI, Python, Databricks, Tableau, SAS    | https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4372684009/ |

Of the positions:

• 9/25 roles included R, but only one required R exclusively. The other 8 were Python/SQL/R
• 22/25 included Python
• 11/25 had a focus on Generative AI or LLMs

Python dominates R in the current job market for data science positions. Professors are doing their students a disservice teaching R, the same way they would be doing a disservice teaching their students to code in Fortran.

Another aspect I noticed for this – analyst type jobs not all that long ago really only expected Excel (and maybe SQL). Now even the majority of the analyst jobs expect Python (even more so than dashboard tools like PowerBI in this sample).

For individuals on the job market, I suggest going and doing your own experiment job search like this on LinkedIn to see the tech skills you need to be able to at least get your foot in the door for an interview. I expected GenAI to be slightly more popular (only 11/25), but there were a few other technologies sprinkled in enough it may be good to become familiar with to widen your potential pool (Cloud and Spark – I am surprised Databricks was not listed more often).

If you’re looking to build Python skills from scratch, I cover this in my book: Data Science for Crime Analysis with Python (can purchase in paperback or epub at my store).

If also interested in learning about generative AI, see my book Large Language Models for Mortals: A Practical Guide for Analysts with Python.

You can use the coupon TWOFOR1 to get $30 off when purchasing multiple books from my store.