Career Development

The 2026 Data Engineering Strategy Nobody's Writing (But Everyone Needs)

What if I told you the biggest threat to your data platform isn’t technology—it’s that we’ve stopped building the next generation of engineers who’ll run it? Not the latest database that promises to solve everything. Not whether you picked the right orchestrator. The real crisis is that we’ve systematically broken our talent pipeline. And in 2026, that decision is going to start costing us in ways that no amount of tooling can fix.

Thursday, January 15, 2026 Read

The Guerrilla Guide to Data Engineering Interviews

The Scenario That Changes Everything Picture this: You’re sitting in an interview room—or more likely these days, staring at a Zoom window with your carefully curated bookshelf background—and the interviewer asks you about data quality. “Tell me about your experience with data quality,” they say. You have two choices. Choice A: “Data quality is really important in data engineering. It involves ensuring data is accurate, complete, consistent, and timely. I believe strongly in implementing data quality checks throughout the pipeline.”

Sunday, January 11, 2026 Read

Why Your Ideas Die in Planning Meetings

The silence that kills good ideas One morning, I sat in yet another meeting where we just spent two weeks backfilling a table then we found it was riddled with issues with the data. Even if we resolve the issue, it would then be another 2 weeks to backfill the data, there has to be a better way. “So, what do we think? Give me your best ideas for tackling this.”

Wednesday, January 7, 2026 Read

The Science of Conversation for people who hate small talk

One morning, I watched a data engineer struggle with using AI for thirty minutes, trying to debug a DBT job. The problem wasn’t the LLM’s capabilities—it was how the engineer framed the question. No context about what they’d already tried. No explanation of the expected versus actual output. Just “fix this code” followed by a massive code dump. This same engineer had similar struggles with stakeholders. Presentations that assumed too much context. Emails that buried the ask. Meetings where they answered questions nobody asked.

Sunday, January 4, 2026 Read

Financial Independence: Your Shield Against Job Loss Fear

The Fear That Follows You Home One evening, after pushing another commit past midnight, I couldn’t bring myself to sit up. Not because I was tired—though I was. Not because the commit had issues—it went smoothly, and tested all fine. I couldn’t get up because I’d spent the entire day with a knot in my stomach, wondering if our team would survive the next round of “organizational restructuring.” Here’s what made it worse: I had no idea if my fear was rational. Were we really at risk? Or was I just catastrophizing? The uncertainty was eating me alive.

Sunday, November 2, 2025 Read

Mastering One-on-One Meetings: Building Trust and Driving Growth

Introduction Have you ever felt that slight relief when your manager cancels your 1:1 meeting? Early in my career as a data professional, I viewed 1:1s as just another checkbox on my calendar—often treating them like mini-standups where I’d rattle off project updates before awkwardly waiting for the meeting to end. Looking back, I realize how much potential growth I left on the table. As I progressed from an individual contributor to leading a team, I’ve learned that 1:1 meetings aren’t administrative burdens—they’re golden opportunities for trust-building, relationship development, and strategic alignment that many of us simply don’t know how to leverage.

Saturday, March 22, 2025 Read

From Senior to Staff: Navigating the Data Engineering Leadership Path

Introduction: The Critical Inflection Point The transition from Senior to Staff Engineer represents a pivotal moment in any technical career path. It’s the point where your impact extends beyond your code and transforms into something much more profound – true technical leadership. While this shift can feel daunting, it also opens doors to some of the most rewarding work of your career. The beautiful thing about the engineering career ladder is that it uniquely allows for advancement without stepping away from the technical work that many of us love.

Sunday, March 2, 2025 Read

Your First 90 Days as a Data Engineer: A Strategic Guide

Introduction Landing your first data engineering role—or starting at a new company—is both exhilarating and daunting. After navigating multiple interviews and accepting an offer, you’ve finally arrived at your desk with a new laptop and company swag (if your lucky). Even now, after solving countless problems ranging from minor bugs to enterprise-scale data challenges, I still occasionally feel that flutter of uncertainty in my stomach, when starting a new role. What if I don’t know what I’m doing? What if I make a mistake?

Sunday, February 23, 2025 Read

Mastering Data Interviews: A Comprehensive Guide

Introduction After nearly two decades in the data engineering field, I’ve sat on both sides of the interview table countless times. Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking to change roles or a newcomer trying to break into the field, the interview process for data engineering positions can be both challenging and mysterious. There’s often uncertainty about what questions you’ll face, what skills you need to demonstrate, and what interviewers are really looking for beneath the surface.

Saturday, February 22, 2025 Read

Mastering Data Engineering: Insights and Best Practices

Introduction I have been working with Data for a bit over 17 years now, I have seen it evolve from its nascent stages to a cornerstone of the tech industry. The journey has been nothing short of revolutionary, impacting businesses and society at large. The evolution and the role of a data engineer have expanded, requiring not just technical skills, but a deep understanding of business, security, and the human element within technology.

Saturday, March 30, 2024 Read