Career Switch as Data Engineer

Jul 12, 2021 7 Comments

Hello, I have 3y experience as an SDET( Software Development Engineer in Test). I am planning to make a career Switch as Data Engineer and move to California. I have been working towards this goal for a while and have a bunch of online projects to show off in my Git. Most of the projects are Data Engineer and ML related from Udacity and Coursera.

The question I have is what's the base compensation I should expect ( assuming non-FAANG companies) ? I see from Glassdoor that the salary for the position has a wide range from 100k to 168k depending on the location in California. I don't want to be an underpaid engineer after making the switch. So trying to get your opinion :)

Current TC: 110k
YOE: 3
Current location: San Antonio, TX

19 PARTICIPANTS SELECT ONLY ONE ANSWER
VOTE VIEW RESULT

comments

Want to comment? LOG IN or SIGN UP
TOP 7 Comments
  • Netflix
    oxdeadbe

    Go to company page Netflix

    oxdeadbe
    I don’t recommend Data engineer. Massive automation will happen in data engineering soon and many jobs will be replaced with automated tools. At some point, you may just feel you are nothing but the admin of tools
    Jul 12, 2021 2
    • Amazon
      goatmessi1

      Go to company page Amazon

      goatmessi1
      Netflix employs data engineers. Do you expect that number to go down as well. I understand the automation coming but isn't the automation being done by those data engineers?
      Jul 12, 2021
    • Chime
      nodiffrent

      Go to company page Chime

      nodiffrent
      I hear you on automation. AWS has really worked wonders in the paas advancements in this field. But the actual big data job logic can't be automated, which is an important part of DE. Plus, not to mention understanding the domain and architecting suitable solutions.
      Dec 20, 2021
  • Resy / Admin
    chemero

    Go to company page Resy Admin

    chemero
    SDET is a much better profile than Data Engineers just saying! Career and growth wise
    Jul 12, 2021 0
  • Thanks for the heads up. Will eventually move to model building with ML if I can. But for now will stick to Data Engineer.
    Jul 12, 2021 1
    • Chime
      nodiffrent

      Go to company page Chime

      nodiffrent
      ML engineer or data scientist is very different from data engineer. They are related, but use different skills and do different things. Worth reading up and making up your mind before making a switch.
      Dec 20, 2021
  • Twilio
    WMvP37

    Go to company page Twilio

    WMvP37
    Don’t be a data engineer, try to be a software eng.
    Apr 28 0