In the days of yore parents pushed their children to pursue noble lucrative professions – doctor, lawyer, banker – but as times change they may soon encourage another career path: data scientist.

Big data is being billed as the next big thing – the key to gaining a competitive advantage and increasing profitability for companies both big and small. The increasing importance of data analysis in decision making has boosted demand for employees with analytical skill sets, popularizing career paths that lead to big data jobs. "As the demand for employees with quantitative and analytical skills increases you're seeing more quants (data professionals) being placed in key decision-making roles," said Linda Burtch, founder and managing director of Burtch Works, a U.S.-based executive recruitment agency for quantitative business professionals.

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"They're being hired to drive the core profitability of the business," she told CNBC. Show me the money It comes as no surprise then that big data pays well. According to Burtch Works' 2014 study of salaries for data scientists - typically those with university degrees in a quantitative field of study that are comfortable with programming languages and statistical methods - the median salary for employees not working as part of a team was $80,000 for those with 0-3 years' experience and $150,000 for those with 9 or more years' experience. Read MoreForget big brother - big sister's arrived

At the managerial level the median salaries were higher, with those responsible for a team of 1-3 earning $140,000 and those responsible for a team of 10 or more earning $232,500. By contrast, the mean average annual income for a lawyer in America was $131,990 in 2013, while doctors earned $183,940, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A job seeker's market Employees with big data skillsets are in demand. In a 2011 report, McKinsey Global Institute estimated that by 2018 there will be 4 million big data related positions in the U.S. that require quantitative and analytical skills. However, there will be a potential shortfall of 1.5 million data-savvy managers and analysts to fill these positions, it said.