3 ms·

Some senior engineers have been in the game long enough that they could have a reputable cs degree without classes in DB or distributed systems. Now it seems le

by alttab 7y ago

Some senior engineers have been in the game long enough that they could have a reputable cs degree without classes in DB or distributed systems. Now it seems less likely, but after teaching Java, C++, C, the other topics were electives.

kevstev 7y ago
Indeed- I am out of school almost 20 years now, distributed systems were an advanced research topic and no class on them existed. My database course was an elective and focused entirely on RDBMS'es and SQL. I have kept up to date on these technologies, I participated in undergrad research on distributed systems and my career has revolved around them. Many devs never really get a say in where their data goes, they might read a blog post or two about new systems, but it leaves a very light imprint. Its been rather spotty as to whether I had any say in where my data is stored throughout my career.
triplee 7y ago
This. Data engineering has ramped up significantly and if you want senior people you'll quickly run out of people who've been exclusively doing "big data" for 5+ years. So your options are either senior software engineers who have done some data work (that's how I got to be a Data Engineer) or people who've been doing analytical data work (either in the traditional warehousing space or via science/insurance/finance type spaces) that are semi-technical but have no formal engineering background. The former are people who went to college in the late 90s/early 2000s (like myself) when things were different. The latter need to hyperfocus on coming up to speed in engineering. I reviewed this guide a couple months ago for my employer to consider as the basis of an internal bootcamp, and I'd note that it's perfect for the audiences I mentioned. Also, even for people with more up to date academic experience, note that the transactional database schemas that software normally deals with often look wildly different than analytical structures.

by alttab 7y ago

kevstev 7y ago

Indeed- I am out of school almost 20 years now, distributed systems were an advanced research topic and no class on them existed. My database course was an elective and focused entirely on RDBMS'es and SQL. I have kept up to date on these technologies, I participated in undergrad research on distributed systems and my career has revolved around them. Many devs never really get a say in where their data goes, they might read a blog post or two about new systems, but it leaves a very light imprint. Its been rather spotty as to whether I had any say in where my data is stored throughout my career.

triplee 7y ago

This. Data engineering has ramped up significantly and if you want senior people you'll quickly run out of people who've been exclusively doing "big data" for 5+ years. So your options are either senior software engineers who have done some data work (that's how I got to be a Data Engineer) or people who've been doing analytical data work (either in the traditional warehousing space or via science/insurance/finance type spaces) that are semi-technical but have no formal engineering background. The former are people who went to college in the late 90s/early 2000s (like myself) when things were different. The latter need to hyperfocus on coming up to speed in engineering. I reviewed this guide a couple months ago for my employer to consider as the basis of an internal bootcamp, and I'd note that it's perfect for the audiences I mentioned. Also, even for people with more up to date academic experience, note that the transactional database schemas that software normally deals with often look wildly different than analytical structures.