Kickstart Your Data Engineering Career: 9 Resources and Templates You Need
Kickstart Your Data Engineering Career: 9 Resources and Templates You Need
đ Plus an Additional 4 More For Future Data Consultants!
Back in 2019, I put together one of the first resources Iâd share with the data engineering community, an interview guide for data engineers.
Since then, I have shared over a dozen guides, templates, and resources to help data leaders, engineers, new consultants, and people just getting started in the industry.
I wanted to compile those resources and templates all in one place. So that way, whether youâre just looking to break into data engineering or you just got hired, youâve got a reliable list of resources you can turn to!
So, letâs dive in!
Just Getting Started
If youâre just getting started in your data career, or perhaps youâre about to go out and start interviewing again, then the next four templates and resources are for you.
1) 100 Day Data Engineering Crash Course
There isnât any easy path to becoming a data engineer. I still always am learning new things. However, I did put together a 100-day crash course with free content that you can use to kick-start your journey. It covers everything from the basics like SQL and programming to topics like the Cloud and Docker.
So, if youâre looking to start your journey, you can check it out below!
100-Day Data Engineering Crash Course
If you go far enough back, youâll find my original data engineering roadmap. Actually, someone just tweeted at me about it. And I agree, it was a little haptic! Thatâs why when I went back and did the 100-day crash course I put it in a google sheet so itâd be far easier to follow.
2) Data Engineering Side-Project Idea Template
There are a few videos and articles that cover data engineering projects.
For example you can look into Joseph Machadoâs End-to-end data engineering project - batch edition or Darshil Parmarâs Uber Data Analytics | End-To-End Data Engineering Project.
But at a certain point, you need to come up with your own project. You donât want to be the 500,000th person to build a project and put it on your resume. You want to come up with your own projects.
Thatâs why I put together a guide to help you plan it out.
Data Engineering Side Project Idea Template
Also, if you want a little more depth to this guide, then you can check out this article.
3) Data Engineer Interview Study Guide
So, itâs time to start interviewing. It can be hard to know what to study.
Here's a quick bit of advice before we get to the actual resource. Make sure you ask the recruiter what to expect, and donât start studying after you get the interview. I have plenty of people reach out and tell me they have two weeks before an interview, and they arenât sure what to study. Honestly, youâre cutting it too close to not know.
Thatâs one reason I put together the guide below. To help people prepare for various interviews, whether on Amazon or Facebook.
But again, always ask your recruiter before diving into this guide!
Data Engineering Interview Study Guide
4) Resume Template
Resumes donât have to be put together by a graphic designer to get you hired, but you do want to have some formatting and organization. Here is the resume I used that got me interviews at Facebook, Amazon, and several other companies.
That being said, I would always recommend you find a friend to review your resume after you put write it out. Specifically, I would have a friend who has a good sense for resumes(I have found most people know someone like this). If you're like me, you sometimes forget to include some of our own accomplishments or make our bullets too generic, and having a second pair of eyes helps.
Onboarding
Now once you do get hired, you want to make sure to put your best foot forward. Thatâs why I put together guides to help you, a new hire, onboard fast whether youâre an IC or a data leader.
5) Onboarding Guide
In my experience most companies like asking questions like, what do you plan to get up to speed in the first 90-days. So why not put together your own plan and make sure you track what you got done in those 90-days, because you will forget!
6) Onboarding Guide For Managers
Now letâs say youâre a new director a manager and you just got hired to lead a data analytics team, where should you start? I also created an onboarding guide for new leaders below.
30-60-90 Day Checklist For Data Leaders
Also, I have recently written several articles for data leaders that you should check out!
Project Templates
Knowing a lot of data and technical skills is great. But if you can find projects that are worth doing and more importantly, get them done, those skills arenât as useful. So here are a few templates to help you find projects as well as provide updates to your leadership so they feel in the loop.
7) Project Request Tracking Template
Earlier in this article, you saw the guide for side-projects, but now letâs talk about picking actual projects. Projects that can actually deliver value. Truthfully, this resource is leaking a future article. I am currently writing an article that will cover the topic of picking valuable projects. But here is a resource Iâll be putting with it.
Project Request Tracking Template
8) Project Kick Off Template
Once you have picked the project, a lot of data teams fail to actually let all interested parties, and perhaps even those who might not be in the know, well, know that the project has started. I recommend pushing off some sort of kick-off email, slack message, etc, in the correct channel or email group.
Youâve got to call your shots! You can use this template here.
9) Project Update Template
Guess what? After you write the kick-off email or Slack message, you shouldnât cease all communication. Itâs far better to keep people in the loop even if the updates arenât perfect. If you donât, people will eventually start to ask, why arenât we getting updates? Are things not going well?
So you might as well tell them what is going on, what has been completed, and if something is blocked, what you plan to do about it using the template below.
Consulting Templates
Now for those that are interested in starting their own consulting company. I actually have several templates and guides. I wonât put a long explanation with each of these, but here are a few you can use if you decide to go down the route of consulting!
What Resources Are Missing?
I hope youâll find this list of resources and templates helpful! But also, if you feel like there are more that should be put together, do feel free to let me know. Iâd love to have this as my standing list of resources that I can send to anyone in the future who might need some help.
As always, thanks for reading!
Video Of The Week: Building Your Own Data Pipeline Tool From Scratch - Should You Do It?
Join My Data Engineering And Data Science Discord
If youâre 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 over 8000 members!
Join My Technical Consultants Community
If youâre a data consultant or considering becoming one then you should join the Technical Freelancer Community! We have over 700 members!
Youâll 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 thatâs 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!
How to Solve Data Engineering Problems
By
One thing I find myself doing these days (I am unsure how I feel about this), is teaching others to solve problems ⌠Data Engineering problems to be specific. Itâs not a hard stretch for most to imagine that what a person does at Senior+ software-type levels is just write good code all day.
I assure you, this is not the case typically.
I mean, if you are at the Senior+ level of anything itâs kinda expected that you will be able to write good code as needed. You will learn you donât need to be the best, but you need to be above average to be effective. So, if it isnât about good code all day ⌠what it is all about?
Why Data Teams Need to Understand Metrics: A Look at Starbucksâ Comparable Store Sales
A key responsibility for any data team is to understand the core metrics driving their business. Starting from the top, these metrics often include figures like gross revenue and expenses. However, these high-level metrics can feel too far removed and abstracted from the actual business.Â
Many companies, therefore, break down these top-line metrics into more specific, easy to understand(in terms of how they impact the business) ones that collectively build up to key business goals. These metric trees reveal deeper layers of context, connecting individual data points to overarching metrics. The further you dive, the more insight you gain into the underlying factors that shape each metric.Â
In this article, weâll explore a real-world example of one of a real companyâs key metrics, and how data teams could approach better understanding how to be strategic.Â
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Hi, thanks for sharing your insights and templates. While going through them, I realized that multiple templates have access denied. Could you please review them?