Data Engineering to SWE
Hi All,
I have 6 YOE. Initial 2.5 years I worked as Backend developer in Python, Django, AWS and Little bit JS. After that all of my experience is in Data Engineering mostly in GCP (have few certifications as well.) Currently I am working at Walmart.
Most of the work I do in Data side is adhoc and projects are also not upto the expectations lot of manual work is also there. I am not really enjoying my career as data engineer. Pay is good.
I am thinking to move back to Software Engineering,
- is it a good idea for long term?
- What skill should I focus on if I have to move back?
- Is it just the projects that I am working on making data engineer look less interesting to work ?
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions
What data engineering project are you working on currently and why is it boring?
It’s mostly batch ETL job where source is csv files most of the time and in some case it’s SQL Sever to BQ job. Tools team is using are internal platform like Element and Dataiku.
Understandable! See if you can move to any realtime projects. Moving back to swe might not be that easy, considering your yoe, as you're expected to have strong dsa, design skills. I feel DE is good as it's a specialization in swe. Use your swe skills here and be outstanding!
- Move into software engineering - wider scope of work and more satisfaction.
- You need to be strong in coding fundamentals. Rest is to brush up for SWE interviews(leetcode and system design)
- Large scale Data Engineering work in product based companies is done by folks with the title SWE-Data.
Considering the tech stack most of the big companies uses Java and Spring and my experience is mostly in python I do have knowledge of Java. So should I also consider brushing my skill in Java?
Isn't the data scientist role also paid as par with sdes?
In some companies SDE are paid more than Data Scientist. But the Pay is not the main concern here.
Work satisfaction is. Most of the projects that I have worked in data engineering are not interesting. May be it’s just projects that I am getting and overall Data Engineering world work is more interesting and challenging.
How did you switched from normal sde role to data scientist role
Switching back to Software Engineering? Great! Your Python, Django, AWS skills will be your superpowers. Focus on algorithms and data structures. "Manzil mil hi jayegi bhatak kar hi sahi".
