Uncommon Traits For Up and Coming Data Engineers
The Untapped Qualities of Next-Gen Data Engineers
AI has leveled the playing field, or it will in a few years – that's for sure.
If you think AI is going to make your life easier, guess again. You're going to have to work twice as hard to stay on top of your game, and even harder to stay ahead of the copy-and-paste lemmings of the world.
You need something special about you. Something that makes you different. Any fool can ask ChatGPT to write a piece of code and then copy and paste it, but you need to be different. You cannot be an average Joe. Average Joe is lazy!
You need to work on the other parts of your arsenal—on understanding a problem deeply, on developing your approach to solving it, and you need to do the work. No getting around that part – sorry.
I've given this subject a lot of thought. When AI first came onto the scene, I was worried. Will I lose my job? I admit, seeing ChatGPT spit out code in seconds, code that took me years to learn, felt depressing. It's still depressing. What I do know is this: no one can take away your character or your work ethic. AI won't take your job away, but someone using it probably will.
You need to stop that from happening. Do everything you can to make sure you are a solid, all-around Data Engineer.
Here are a few ways you can do that:
Critical Thinking
This is key. This is paramount. If you take anything from this article, let it be this: your ability to look at a problem, project, or task, connect the dots, or take an idea and make it happen, is what will set you apart from the rest. It's about seeing the bigger picture (when no one else can) and weaving those insights into something real and useful. If you can get good at critical thinking and solving problems, like really good, you have nothing to worry about.
Adaptable
Things change, that’s inevitable – in life and when you work with data. You need to be open to change, to thinking differently, to trying new things. Humans hate change. Humans also like being lazy, and that, dear reader, is your secret weapon. Be the one that takes up new tooling, ideas, and projects. Don’t shy away from what's different or new – step up, push yourself, and get outside of your comfort zone. It’s normally the folks complaining and moaning about change who sit still and do nothing, rather than accepting things and doing the work.
Consistency
When people talk about you, what would you like them to think? For me, it's, "If Tim does something, he's going to do it well and get the job done." I want them to know that anything I produce is going to be good. I want people to depend on me to find answers and figure things out. You need to be consistent in everything you deliver, especially as a data engineer. This means ensuring you’ve researched, tested, planned, spoken to the right people, connected the dots, crossed the t's, and dotted the i's (as best as you could). Every project should be carried out with reliability and efficiency – no excuses and little to no f*** ups (yes, I still mess up for anyone wondering).
Be the go-to expert who gets things done.
Value
Do what the label says, bring value. There are tons of ways to bring value to a team (and it’s not just sitting in the corner coding away all day). Do the work no one wants to do. Write the documentation, run team meetings, lift team members up, or find areas in your processes or pipelines that need improving and improve them. Bringing value to the team and business is what will set you up for the long term AND keep you around. I’ve found that bringing value, for me, is working on the right things. The things that NEED to be done, not the things that bring zero to little value. I’ve seen teams sink months into projects for little to no value. Get good at working out which tasks will bring huge value for all involved. If you can do that, you are golden.
Conclusion
I don’t envy people coming up in the data industry nowadays. It’s not an easy ride; it’s brutal, if I’m honest. It’s a total mind game now, with too many wrong turns lurking to trip you up.
Most of the junior Data Engineers I’ve chatted with or worked with are their own worst enemies. They're always out looking for shortcuts or hacks that will somehow make them stand out. They seem so distracted that they miss all the things they should be focusing on to get good. It’s not a world I’d like to have to come up in.
All I see is laziness, with too many people trying to find the easy way out rather than sucking it up and doing what needs to be done. Like, actually doing the work, building up experience, working on those soft skills, and ultimately working hard. It really is that simple; the rest will all fall into place. Be the uncommon data engineer in a sea of copy-paste lemmings.
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