Data Engineer Career Path for 2021

Today, job portals are flooded with Data Engineering job openings across the globe, with a huge number of companies looking for Data engineers.

Did You Know?

The global big data and data engineering market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR or Compound Annual Growth Rate of 18.2%, that is from USD 32.45 billion in 2017 to USD 123.89 billion by 2025. 

The estimated data roles in 2021 data engineering courses, according to Glassdoor, is going to reach 2.7 million. 

The average annual salary of a Data Engineer is around INR 1374k at mid-career.

That’s huge!

The Dice 2020 Tech Job Report marked data engineer as the fastest-growing job role in IT in 2019, with a growth of over 50% year-over-year in the job openings. 

When you go through this article, you will conclude that becoming a data engineer can be rewarding, and taking up data engineering courses can make your career skyrocket. Let us now explore this ever-growing field of data engineering. 

What is a Data Engineer?

A data engineer is an IT pro who builds data storage architectures and interfaces to gather massive amounts of data from various sources and transform it into a user-readable format so that it can be forwarded to data analysts for performing analysis. So, as a data engineer, you need to develop, build, test, and manage databases and large-scale data processing systems. Simply put, a data engineer is required to oversee the delivery, storage, and processing of the data. 

A data engineer works behind the scenes to make data analytics credible. This silent army renders 7.5 septillion gigabytes of data generated across the world, meaningful. This is the reason why data engineer is one of the most rewarding job roles today. As a data engineer, you are required to develop the structures that generate the clean datasets to fuel the research that drives modern business strategies, national security, finance sectors, medical research, and many more endeavors.

As a data engineer, your tasks include:

• Extract data from different sources.
• Assemble the data for Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) processes.
• Evaluate, define, and clean datasets.
• Developing complex data pipelines.
• Writing logic for ETL processes.
• Defining data together.
• Putting code into production.
• Working in collaboration with database administrators to create data stores.
• Revealing those stores to analytical applications.
• Leveraging frameworks so as to serve data.
• Deploy machine learning and statistical models.

How to Become a Data Engineer?

To become a successful data engineer, you need to follow some steps mentioned below:

* Get a bachelor’s degree and initiate working on projects

A degree in Computer Science, software, or computer engineering is essential, along with the knowledge of physics, statistics, applied math, or some related areas. For most entry-level positions, along with a bachelor’s degree, you will require hands-on experience and internships.

* Brush up your analysis, computer engineering, and big data skills.

Most importantly, you need to hone your skills in using SQL, which is one of the basic programming languages used by data engineers. Since most of the data is stored in relational database systems, learning SQL becomes crucial. You need expertise in SQL for querying data and SQL engines, like Apache Hive. Then the data is ready for analysis. 

To help you with statistical analysis and modeling, a good knowledge of programming languages, such as Python and R, can be rewarding. In-depth knowledge of Spark, Kafka, and Hadoop serves as an additional advantage.

You are also required to master the concepts of using database architectures, identifying data warehousing solutions, understanding machine learning, expressing how to construct data pipelines, data mining, and utilizing cloud platforms like Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services.

* Acquire expertise in Data Warehousing and ETL tools.

In-depth knowledge of ETL tools like Talen and Informatica is crucial because, as a data engineer, you are required to perform ETL operations most of the time. In addition, data warehousing is important for handling massive amounts of data, so knowledge in data warehousing tools such as Panoply or Redshift can be highly beneficial.

* Acquaintance with Operating Systems

You are required to know well about the ins and outs of components of infrastructure such as networks, application services, and eventually the knowledge of Unix, Solaris, and Linux is important.

* Data Visualization Tools

Data visualization refers to the process of presenting the data into the user-readable format as in graphs, charts, pie charts, tables, etc. 

As a data engineer, you need to acquire knowledge of data visualization tools like Tableau or PowerBI.

* Get trained

Getting the right training is the main step towards success. There are a plethora of training providers that provide you with top-class training, guiding you through the recruitment process.

* Land your first entry-level data engineering job

Getting an entry-level IT job may help you gain knowledge on how to approach data organization challenges.

* Go with additional professional engineering or Big Data Certifications

Earning certifications can help you significantly in advancing your career. You can discuss with your mentors about what certification to acquire and start your way of learning for the same. 

So, the career path you need to follow to become a Data Engineer is as follows: 

Get a Bachelor’s Degree→Brush up your analytics and big data skills→Data Warehouse and ETL Tools→Learn Operating Systems→Learn Data Visualization→Get Trained→Get Your First Job→Pursue more Certifications.

Conclusion

Everything goes well when you get yourself enrolled in an online training course. You don’t need to worry about do’s and don’ts regarding the learning process. Furthermore, no worries about the study material, no worries about learning hours, and also the mode of learning is also entirely your choice.

If you wish to learn from scratch, or you have a little experience, or you want to focus on some specific areas, they cover you in any way.

Also, industry experts are there to help you with your doubts and other queries to ensure that you are prepared well for the certification exam.

So get yourself enrolled now.