Statistical Programmer

Statistics. Either you love them or you don’t. But, as a Statistical Programmer, it’s imperative that you deal with them.

Statistics are the numbers that researchers and Scientists strive to accurately gather so that the rest of us can understand complicated information. You hear them all the time: “Four out of five Dentists recommend….” or “69% of patients reported….”

So how does one organize this kind of information? Statistical Programmers create computer programs to do the job. As a Statistical Programmer, you work from a database of information. A few examples would be a hospital database, a catalogue of insurance claims, a national survey, or clinical medication trials.

First, you identify the needs of the program. Does the client need a pie chart or other graphical depiction? What will the end program be used for? This information allows you to design a program that will be user-friendly, but still produce the desired outcome.

Once you’ve hammered out a basic design, you begin writing the code (or computer language) to make it function. Then you move on to testing the software and making adjustments as needed. At the final stages, you put the program through a variety of tests to check for any bugs that might cause it to freeze or crash.

Your newly designed program is beta tested before its final release, just to make sure you’ve caught any glitches. Through your hard work and determination, your client now has a program that will transform all that statistical data into usable, pertinent information.