Job Search & Hiring

How To Become a Data Engineer

Glassdoor Team

Glassdoor Team

Glassdoor Team | Author & Career Expert at Glassdoor | Jan 1, 2024

Are you thinking of becoming a Data Engineer or already started your career and planning the next step? Learn how to become a Data Engineer, what skills you need to succeed, how to advance your career and get promoted, and what levels of pay to expect at each step on your career path. Explore new Data Engineer job openings and options for career transitions into related roles.

Steps to Become a Data Engineer

Companies of all sizes are competing to hire qualified data engineers. These superstars manage businesses' ever-growing infrastructure needs. Dive into your future career as a data engineer when you follow these steps:
  1. Get job-ready with an industry-driven curriculum.

    • Database systems (SQL and NoSQL).
    • Data warehousing solutions.
    • Extract, Transfer, Load (ETL) tools.
    • Machine learning.
    • Data APIs.
    • Understanding the basics of distributed systems.
    • Knowledge of algorithms and data structures.
  2. Develop a strong portfolio to attract top employers.

    The industry's top employers, like Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo, want you to stun them with your portfolio. So, in addition to small projects designed to demonstrate your grasp of specific technical concepts, your capstone project should showcase your outstanding ability to develop solutions that solve real-world data engineering problems using complex datasets.
  3. Participate in a fellowship program.

    • Designing more sophisticated data models.
    • Building data infrastructures.
    • Automating data pipelines.
    • Maintaining data architecture.
    • Working with massive datasets effortlessly.
  4. Become a certified data engineer.

    • Arcitura Certified Big Data Architect.
    • AWS Certified Data Analytics.
    • Cloudera Certified Associate: Spark and Hardtop Developer.
    • Cloudera Data Platform Generalist Certification.
    • Cloudera Certified Professional: Data Engineer.
    • Data Science Council of America: Associate Big Data Engineer.
    • Data Science Council of America: Senior Big Data Engineer.
    • Google Professional Data Engineer.
    • IBM Certified Data Engineer.
    • IBM Certified Solution Architect.
    • Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate.
    • SAS Certified Big Data Professional.
Glassdoor Team

Glassdoor Team

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