Q&A with Data Engineers

On the Road Again

The data team at Realtime have been busy attending events recently, something outside our control in the past few years. I can’t underestimate the importance of human interaction. We had some interesting take aways.

The Dublin Tech Summit was a great opportunity to meet industry leaders and decision makers. The message that resonated with me was that challenges for businesses remain year on year with lots of positions to fill but getting the right fit for their team is an uphill struggle.

Realtime was also a proud sponsor for the very successful Data Céilí (Ireland’s biggest Microsoft platform event), held last week at Trinity College. It was a fitting setting, where Microsoft quite conveniently announced the release of the analytics platform Fabric, which was a hot topic amongst attendees and speakers. Watch this space over the next 12 months.

For this blog, I thought it would be beneficial to hear from data professionals working within the industry to give a background to their data journey to date and hear their future trends/advice.

Massive shout out to Divya and Paul for their time, I'm sure you will find their stories insightful.

Divya: Senior Data Engineer - Cork

How did you get into IT?

I have been inclined towards technology and maths since childhood and wanted to build a career in the same field.

How long have you been with your current company?

It’s been more than 1.5 years.

What trends are you noticing in the industry?

Industry is now mostly working on the cloud-based applications and have a data-oriented decision-making approach.

What’s the next big thing in tech?

Data & AI.

What advice you can give candidates looking for their next role?

Be familiar with cloud, having certifications on your choice of role is an advantage. Be up to date on new emerging tech.

Paul: Data Architect - Dublin

How did you get into IT?

I graduated with a Computer Science degree & masters in systems analysis, before starting a graduate scheme with Capgemini.

How long have you been with your current company?

Just over 7 months.

What trends are you noticing in the industry?

In the data space, the big ones that standout for me are:

• Analytics Engineering, using tools such as dbt.
• Data Governance & Data Privacy.
• How to set up teams in the hybrid/remote working world, e.g., thinking about how to build a team culture for a remote team and how to establish good communication amongst the team without lots of meetings.
• A need for Data Ops professionals, but a lack of them.?
• Soft skills, such as influencing others and stakeholder management.

What’s the next big thing in tech?

Aside from AI, ChatGPT and similar, I personally think Data Ops’ type technologies. E.g., how to apply common DevOps practices to data professionals.

There’s also plenty of appetite and room for improvement in the data governance & data privacy space.

What advice you can give candidates looking for their next role?

Start hobby projects outside of work. You start to get an appreciation as to what would be required end-to-end to deploy your solution in the real world.

Write technical blog posts on platforms like medium.com. I find these helps consolidate your thinking/approach, and act as a quality assurance method. You don’t want to make a claim in a public forum for that gets quickly refuted, can make you feel like you have egg on your face.

Please feel free to reach out to me for market advice, when looking for your next role or looking to build out your team [email protected]

Written by Wayne Kinsella ?