How does DE transition into DS?
I’m an early career DE and thinking of transitioning into DS. I found out that DS work is more chill, and there seems to be more opportunities compared to DE. I’m hoping that with my DE knowledge, I can become a better DS but I lack the knowledge to become a DS (Statistic and ML knowledge). What do I need to study if I want to transition into DS and is there any good resources? TC:80k YOE: 1.5
DS is heavily saturated with highly educated people. Think every STEM MS or PhD who figured out that Biology/Chem/whatever jobs pay peanuts, so they do DS instead. Positions are pretty cutthroat, and there are fewer opportunities in DS than DE. A company can have DE without DS, but not generally the other way around. If you really want to stand out, pursue a PhD in CompSci or Stats and publish research. At the bare minimum most companies won’t accept anyone with less than an MS. Not saying you can’t do it, but not for the faint of heart.
You will need to learn AB testing and ML in terms of domains. For programming, SQL and Python is the standard.
You can leverage your skills in DE and focus on the delta to ramp up quickly and target DS roles. Feel free to DM
What do you mean by that? I’m hesitating now since everyone is against getting in DS lol.
Let me translate: you can use your current DE skills to work towards the DS track. Also focus on the DS skills that you lack to then be prepared to target DS roles. Side note. I have a finance degree and am in DA and just finally got access to DE ETL tools to start DE. It takes time to build in DE from my experience. Like many have mentioned most companies need DEs but rarely do companies ACTUALLY need DS. Uber and Uber freight definitely do though. The bigger tech do but they hire usually PHDs or Ivy (Ivy adjacent) master graduates.
If you completely bored of DE then only move over to DS. DE has better career prospects than DS. Easier transition to MLE/SWE roles that outnumber DS roles 9:1 easily plus making more $$ at the same time
SWE requires a lot of technical knowledge and programming languages. I only have SQL, Python and R knowledge at the moment, since I come from a non-CS background. Not to mention that SWE is a very different beast compared to DE lol, it’s so much easier to move to DS than SWE.
Hold up. How did you become a Data Engineer then?
You’re better off as DE believe me. You can position to become MLE or SWE if needed. Many more jobs
This is what I thought until I tried to look for my next opportunity in the past month. Most DE job requirements stated 5-8 YOE, which is stupid in my opinion. On the other hand, I see a lot of Senior DS roles with 3-5YOE requirements, and a lot more remote opportunities. And I believe DS can be a path to MLE as well?
They are asking for that because they want 3-5 years after a PHD. Breaking into DE is hard because there are less roles for inexperienced people but once you hit 5+ you’re good. And no, DS is not typically a path to MLE