Beyond Python and SQL: Career-Boosting Books for Data Engineers

In the world of software and data engineering, there are hours upon days of free video content to help you get started with your career.

You’ve got endless Python and SQL tutorials to choose from.

Not to mention entire sections of books at your local book store.

Eventually, you’ll likely want to look into materials and books that can help you elevate your career to the next level; whether that means becoming a staff engineer or manager. 

I believe a great place to start that journey is books.

Personally, I am not going to pretend I read fifty books a year. Perhaps a dozen or so. I honestly re-read a few a year as well.

So what books do I believe you should read to take your career to the next level?

That’s what this article is focused on!

First My Thoughts On Reading

Ok, quick pause.

Before diving in, I wanted to discuss a tweet I saw that discussed an interesting perspective on reading books which you can view below.

The line that stuck out was “You have to live it yourself to accumulate the wisdom”.

They do have a point; I think reading books for the sake of reading can quickly lead to nowhere.

Also, much of what you read won’t be as useful until you apply/experience the lessons yourself. On the part that I disagree with, I do believe that reading books can help crystallize lessons and ideas even before you experience said lesson. Because your future self will recall something you read in the past.

So, if the book you’re reading can provide actionable takeaways, I will always say go ahead and read them.

But there isn’t much value in collecting books like Pokemon.

That’s why, for this list, it’s not ten books you should read to be a better engineer, or twenty, or fifty. I have four.

Let’s be real, many of us don’t have time to pour over dozens of books a year. You should be out there doing and getting things done if you’re really looking to learn.

Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity

Whether you’re planning to manage teams or not, “Radical Candor” is a great book to read to help you learn how to convey feedback, help elevate people around you, and grow a team if that's what you want to do. 

Kim Scott, the Author, also does a great job interweaving her real-life experiences and where her various lessons come from. I really appreciate her ability to self-reflect and tie these stories to the points she is trying to make. 

For example as someone who talks a lot in public and on Youtube the story she references about using the word “um” too much and how Sheryl Sandberg called her out for it, but in a manner that helped her grow really hit home.

If all you’re looking for are a few quick takeaways, then here they are:

• Superstars vs. Rockstars - Realize where people are at; some people want to be superstars, other rock stars, and both are good. To explain this further rockstars are the individuals who aren’t necessarily looking to constantly take on new challenges but they love doing their job well, they are consistent. Whereas superstars are looking to grow, and grow fast. They want to take on new problems and elevate the team.

• Feedback is a gift -  I bet you’ve heard this said by someone you know. But sometimes we are so focused on not insulting people that we actually hinder them from growing, or worse from realizing they are going the wrong way. Well structured feedback can help amplify a someones personal and work life. 

Team Topologies Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow

Image Credit: Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais

One of the topics that fascinate me is how teams interact with each other and how they can be better organized. For example, with data teams, we don’t pull data or create data pipelines in a vacuum. We need to communicate and understand what the business needs in order to create valuable data assets.

Thats where Matthew Skelton’s and Manuel Pais’s Team Topologies comes in. The authors do a great job discussing how business and technical teams interact. They outline several types of teams which are outlined below in the snippet of the cheat sheet(you can find the full cheat sheet here).

They also reference how various teams collaborate and help each other get work done.

I actually recently wrote an article based on one of the other main topics from this book known as Conway’s Law, which I’ll cover in the takeaways section below. But this book really does a great job of describing the impact of how teams interact with each other.

See the full picture above here - Yoan Thirion

If all you’re looking for are a few quick takeaways, then here they are:

• The impact of Conway's Law - This law suggests that “Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure.” The example often provided is monolithic vs. micro-services.

• Reducing cognitive load - By limiting the scope of what a team needs to focus on, organizations can prevent burnout and ensure that teams remain productive and innovative. This is especially relevant in data teams, where the complexity of data pipelines and tools can easily overwhelm individuals. Not to mention the fact that it’s easy for data teams to become merely task takers. Where every new ad-hoc requests gets answers. In turn, not allowing said data team to ever truly provide much value beyond that.

Staff Engineer: Leadership Beyond The Management Track

The more a book intertwines real-stories with lessons and ideas the more I tend to enjoy it. Will Larson does a great job of bringing in other staff level engineers and having them share their experiences in this book.

So you’re not just learning from Will but several others who have grown to the level of staff level engineer. What’s even better is I’d say many of these lessons aren’t just for those who want to be staff level engineers. There are plenty of lessons that anyone can benefit from.

For example, he talks about the different types of staff-level engineers, how to influence without authority, and how to be a technical leader.

If all you’re looking for are a few quick takeaways, then here they are:

• Scale yourself - A quote I really like from the book is “a good piece of written communication is the most effective means of broadcasting ideas and scaling yourself.” Personally, I didn’t start writing because of this reality but I did continue because of it. Writing ideas down is a great way to scale yourself as well as helps you further improve your own thinking.

• Be intentional about what and where you work - You need to prioritize for impact. At a certain level, you need to be able to highlight in interviews what impact you have driven in the past. If you’re not careful, and don’t own your career you might end up doing work you dislike.

• When you notice problems, act on them - This is something that many directors and staff engineers I have talked to point out. You need to be a problem solver, not a problem bringer.

Unleash the Power of Storytelling: Win Hearts, Change Minds

The more you interact with a diverse set of individuals, the more you realize you need to improve how you communicate.

You’ll need to get buy-in from your VPs or CEOs.

You’ll need to work with external partners that might not be as familiar with your technical stack.

And so on.

Tying many of the books above together, there is a need to influence, educate and change people’s perspectives, and that all starts with how you converse with others.

That’s why I have really enjoyed not just this book but also reading

Wes Kao

a lot recently, who has articles such as Playing Defense: How To Control the Narrative If Your Work is Being Questioned or How to be More Concise.

The more you can actually take your ideas out of your head, share them, and have people not only understand but emotionally become involved and attached, the more you can drive the change you believe should happen.

If all you’re looking for are a few quick takeaways, then here they are:

• Storytelling in belongs in business - In a business context, storytelling can be a powerful tool. Whether you’re trying to motivate a team, get buy-in for a project, sell a product, or build a brand, stories can help you communicate your vision and values more effectively.

• Make it personal - Personal stories are often the most powerful because they build trust and credibility. When you share your own experiences, you make yourself more relatable and human. That’s why I’ve already referenced the power of story several times in this article.

• Appeal to emotion not just logic - As humans, we are not purely driven by logic. No matter how much we try to sell the idea of data driven. Emotions plays a large part in why we do things. That’s why stories that resonate emotionally are more likely to persuade and influence. So if you’re looking to drive some point home, you need to identify the emotional core of your story and make sure it’s highlighted.

On to the Next Book

I find that books are a great way to learn from other people’s perspectives. They can help provide tactical changes that you might benefit from applying.

I always use the example of “Never Eat Alone” for me going from being very introverted to trying to fight against some of those tendencies to help improve my relationships.

And if you’re curious, currently I am reading The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy and I do have a few other books I’d like to read. I don’t really set goals for how many books I should complete in a year.

I think you should read books you find interesting. Read fiction, read biographies, read technical books, and if you need to get some motivation to get your hustle on(cringe), read a business book. 

But I will say this: don’t expect a book to solve your problems. That generally only happens through your actions.

Speaking of reading, as always, thanks for reading!

---

Bridging AI, Vector Embeddings and the Data Lakehouse - Live Webinar

Join NielsenIQ and Onehouse to explore the crucial role of vector embeddings in AI. Discover how Onehouse makes it more cost-efficient, simple, and scalable to generate and manage vector embeddings directly from your data lake, amidst rising vector database costs.

Live webinar. Aug 27, 2024 | 10 am PT

Can't make it? Register anyway to receive the recording!

Thank you Onehouse for sponsoring this newsletter!

---

Join My Data Engineering And Data Science Discord

If you’re looking to talk more about data engineering, data science, breaking into your first job, and finding other like minded data specialists. Then you should join the Seattle Data Guy discord!

We are now well over 7000 members!

---

Join My Technical Consultants Community

If you’re a data consultant or considering becoming one then you should join the Technical Freelancer Community! We have nearly 700 members!

You’ll find plenty of free resources you can access to expedite your journey as a technical consultant as well as be able to talk to other consultants about questions you may have!

---

Articles Worth Reading

There are 20,000 new articles posted on Medium daily and that’s just Medium! I have spent a lot of time sifting through some of these articles as well as TechCrunch and companies tech blog and wanted to share some of my favorites!

---

Enhancing Netflix Reliability with Service-Level Prioritized Load Shedding

At Netflix, ensuring a seamless viewing experience for millions of users simultaneously is paramount. Our initial approach for prioritized load shedding was implemented at the Zuul API gateway layer. This system effectively manages different types of network traffic, ensuring that critical playback requests receive priority over less critical telemetry traffic.

Building on this foundation, we recognized the need to apply a similar prioritization logic deeper within our architecture, specifically at the service layer where different types of requests within the same service could be prioritized differently.

Read More Here

---

End Of Day 139

Thanks for checking out our community. We put out 3-4 Newsletters a week discussing data, tech, and start-ups.