If you were mentoring someone coming out of school today and looking to work in the data platform space, what would you tell them to learn?
I’m a bit curious – I was talking with some of the editorial team here this evening and we were talking through the fact that there is a lot of breadth to platform selections – let alone technologies. Once you’ve decided you want to work with databases in general… what technologies on those database do you work with to get ahead?
I think it’s really helpful to have a good baseline understanding of a few language elements, particularly since that’ll be the foundation for a lot of what you may be doing. But technology and platform-wise, when I talk with companies hiring data folks, the laundry list of technologies they are expecting to find is getting extensive.
The odd thing too is that many of the people that we’ve talked to that are hiring have a lot of “AND” requirements. This AND that type of thing. Back in the day (said in an old man, creaky voice), it would be that you should know and understand SQL Server and if you have other technology experience working with SQL Server, that’s great and a huge bonus.
But now it’s a core requirement that you need to know SQL Server AND some language elements (.NET languages, even other databases) AND be able to create solutions that not only use them, but understand the hows and whys of using them for different tasks.
To me, this suggests that if you’re getting into this data platform space, you need to have a solid practical knowledge (time for some volunteer or apprenticeship work) and find out how all of the pieces come together. I’d be recommending a good working knowledge of many things, rather than a deep expert knowledge of one or two things.
That’s not an easy thing to do fresh out of college looking for work. You’re also looking for food on the table, so there will need to be some stepping stones to get you there. But I would suggest that broad working knowledge of the big players will serve you well.
How do you get that exposure and knowledge without having the job that requires it? I think that’s where you show off your creativity and drive. Make positions. Do consulting where you have time to breath and find answers, but can get that exposure. Create new learning positions at companies by working with key managers – then excel, excel, excel at those positions so you can grow into the company.
What do you think? What’s your counsel to budding new data professionals?