Business
Path to Become a Professional Data Engineer
Data science is evolving daily, and the techniques and methodology of studying the data are changing rapidly. There was a time when data was available in a database, and data engineers only needed to build a simple script using R or Python to make it accessible to every department of the organization. But now, time has changed, and data is growing expeditiously.
As technology is evolving, more and more data sources inevitably get added. With the increase in the use of internet devices, terabytes and petabytes of data accumulate so quickly, which is not that easy to manage. Companies need data engineers to extract the needful information from the extensive data and give meaningful insights to help them make big decisions. Hence, there is a tremendous demand for data engineers in small and large-scale companies.
This article provides an easy and effective path to becoming a data engineer. Many of these resources are covered in the best data engineering courses Hero Vired offers.
What Do Data Engineers Do?
Data engineers are essential for data-driven companies such as data science certificate courses, entertainment, healthcare, etc. Data engineers are in charge of gathering data from diverse sources and creating data systems to clean, convert, and prepare the acquired data for data scientists and analysts to examine further. By creating complex queries, they make the data viable. These engineers ensure that data is transferred between servers and apps without interruption.
Data engineers are regularly employed after completing their technical education, and this occupation does not require a high level of academic or scientific understanding, in contrast to data scientists. For this profession, developers or engineers who love massive structures and architecture are ideal.
Steps to Become a Professional Data Engineer
- Become Proficient in Programming Language
Data engineering is an integrated term that lies between software engineering and data science. To become a professional data engineer, you must have a comprehensive knowledge of software engineering to start brushing up on the foundational programming skills required to become a data engineer.
Python and Scala are two central programming languages data engineers use to create a data structure.
Learn Python Programming
It’s crucial to grasp how to construct software in addition to writing Python scripts while using Python as a programming language. Effective software is well-tested, well-structured, and fast. Therefore, you need to employ the appropriate algorithm for the task.
Learn Basic Scala
Scala is the foundation of a lot of data engineering tools. Scala was developed using a static type system and solid functional programming principles. It is compatible with the numerous Java libraries offered in the open-source community since it operates on the Java Virtual Machine (or JVM).
- Learn Automation and Scripting
Data engineers must know how to automate most of the tasks. As a data engineer, you need to perform some tasks frequently, and knowing automating tools helps you automate the frequent tasks. For example, You need to clear the data every hour; doing it manually takes time. Here using automation tools will save you time, and you can focus on more critical tasks.
Shell and CRON are the two most popular automation tools exerted with a programming language to automate the task of data engineers.
- Understand Database
Start with Learning Basics of SQL
Structured Query Language (SQL) is a well-established language for understanding everything related to data. It is a self-explanatory language, meaning the code describes ‘what to do’ instead of ‘how to do.’
Learn how to model data
Data models are defined as a data structure that shows how systems interact with the entities and what they were built on. Data engineers are required to understand these data models to create the structure per the organizations’ needs.
Learn how to organize an unstructured data
Sometimes unstructured data is stored in a database. You must know how to organize this data more straightforwardly and put the numbers under the correct category.
- Master the Data Process Technique
While working with data, you need to gain mastery of data processing. Data processing is known as finding the data from several resources and further processing it to meet the organizational goals. Data has been processed in two different ways: in batches and streams, and you need to practice both to be ready for any situation.
- Schedule your workflows
Once you have successfully built the process, you need to learn how to schedule the workflow regularly to save time. Choose an automation tool that better suits your workflow. Data keeps evolving, and you may need to change your workflow accordingly. This is why it is suggested to choose the automation tool wisely.
- Study Cloud Computing
Once upon a time, the data was stored in the data center. Companies need to purchase several servers to store their data. The impossibility of each business operating its servers was the issue that led to the development of cloud platforms, which centralized processing power. The cloud platform may allocate processing power appropriately if one customer is inactive while another may be experiencing a high period. Today’s data engineers must be able to operate with various cloud systems.
- Keep Yourself Updated with the Trend
Last but not least, data engineering is a vast field that keeps changing. After equipping all the knowledge and skills to be a professional data engineer, you need to upgrade yourself with market trends. You can do so by joining Bootcamp, certificate courses, and watching videos related to market research on the internet.
Conclusion
Apply what you have learned during the journey of equipping yourself with the knowledge and skills to be a professional data engineer. Although to start your career, you don’t need to be an expert in all the above-stated tools. If you know about cloud computing, you can step into the junior-level data engineer role and, while doing your job, can become a multitask.
Hero Vired is a premium institute started by the Hero group to provide industry-oriented courses, including an integrated certificate program in Data Science, Machine Learning to interested people. Here you can start a data engineering career by joining online courses.