I am seeing quite a bit of post on here with people asking for advice on their resumes or expressing their difficulties in landing a Data Engineering position or even getting an interview at all.
I want to share some tips that helped me as someone who is also fairly new to the Data Engineering world. My previous work experience ranged from doing basic SQL/Excel stuff for the first two years of my career and then advancing into more of a Database Developer position for another two years. Once of the things that was discouraging me to most is that I had a pretty bad 3 year gap in employment for anything tech related, I was laid off in 2019 and decided to finish a degree I was working on in Data Science which seemed to be the hottest job title back in 2018-2019. Not saying it isn't hot anymore but it seems like Data Engineering is an even hotter and in demand title at the moment. I got caught up with collecting unemployment , working odd jobs off the books, door dashing etc for a few years but this past summer I decided it was time to get back in the tech world before it was too late.
So in July I made it my mission to get a job by the end of the summer so I could start when my two kids went back to school.
First off the only platform I used to apply for jobs was LinkedIN. It seemed like the most professional and provided the most information about the types of jobs I was applying for. I never used LinkedIn Premium before but because there was a 1 month free trial I went and enabled that too which then started to give you better insights on which jobs you would be a top candidate for.
Here are the main tips I have for navigating the application process on LinkedIN :
Get your easy apply set up so you can one click apply or click your way through the simple questions they have on the job postings
Skill Assessments : This is a big one. Anytime I applied for a job on LinkedIN it would offer for me to take a skill assessment test where you would receive a badge if you scored over a certain percentage. Many of them also came with videos and mini courses to take to help you pass them. Any skill assessment I felt I had a shot at passing I would take, and even if you fail the first time it lets you retry it twice I believe and you get an idea of how the questions are. So I took every single one I could (SQL, Excel, Python , Azure, PowerBI, R, a few more I can't remember off the top of my head. The only ones I didn't take were the ones I had no chance of passing because I had no prior experience with such as Java Development, JavaScript libraries I've never used, C++. But because all the jobs I was applying for were data related I didn't encounter those to much.
I know for a fact this helped considerably because when I would receive responses from the recruiters it would show a copy of what my application looked like on their end and it would say so and so has 3/3 of the required skills. So they know you aren't just making up stuff on your resume you are showing them that you know at least the basics.
3) Become familiar with a cloud platform. This was the biggest change I have seen since 2019 is the massive shift towards cloud based platforms, software as a service and all that good stuff. I went with Azure just because my previous experience was mostly in Microsoft SQL Server. Azure offers a 1 month free trial and with it you get $200 credit. I signed up for this and began using a bunch of different tools related to data engineering, mostly Azure Data Factory but I also spinned up an Azure SQL Server Instance, an Azure Cosmos Database which is free for a year and a Linux VM. Made some basic pipelines in Data Factory to ETL data from one source to another and learned quite a bit about using the command line interfaces PowerShell and Bash. When people asked me about this stuff in interviews I was able to answer basic questions about it and it showed them I was interested in learning new things on my own.
4) Check the number of applicants for the LinkedIN Jobs. Alot of people only spam the easy apply button, which of course I did too. But for many of the jobs that don't offer this option and require a full application on their HR platform I noticed the number of applicants were much lower. The job I currently have now was one of the ones I couldn't easy apply for and I saw it only had a 20 or so applicants as opposed to the hundreds you would see for the easy apply ones. Don't skip over these jobs just because the application process will take a few more minutes especially if it's one you really want.
5) Apply for any job you feel you can do. The job says 5 years of experience required but you only have 3 ? Apply anyway. Shoot as high as you can. Those are the ideal candidate requirements they are looking for but they know they aren't always going to find someone with that much experience. Don't get discouraged if you don't meet the minimum requirements. This is a numbers game and you want to apply for as many jobs as you possibly can especially since things have gone remote for a large part.
6) During the interviews if you don't know something just be honest with them. Don't try to BS your way around it because this will only make you look worse if they find out you are being dishonest. Showing that you are willing to learn new things looks alot better than getting caught in a lie.
7) Ask for criticism on your resume. This sub reddit seems to be a great source for that as well as the SQL one, Data Science, or just programming subs in general. Ask someone to do a mock interview too if you can.
8) Most important one - Don't give up! There are so many jobs available out there. Don't get discouraged. Keep learning new things. Learn from your previous mistakes. You will get one eventually.
I started applying for jobs in mid July and I got so many offers for interviews that I had to start rejecting them. Out of the 10 interviews I did , 8 of them made it to the second round, 5 to the third. The one I ended up getting involved 5 separate interviews actually. And the day I started that job I got an offer for one of the other ones I had applied for that actually paid slightly more but it was a contract/hourly job for 9 months and it didn't seem as interesting as the one I already started so I had to turn it down. A few of the other ones I made it to the third round either went with a different candidate or just ghosted me which seems very common these days. Don't take it to you personally if this happens to you some people just don't have the common courtesy to get back to you.
Anyway I hope this is helpful or encouraging to anyone who reads it and if you have any questions for me please feel free to ask.
