5 Exclusive Soft Skill Lessons You Can Learn From Senior Data Engineers
Lesson #2 is my favourite
Are you early in your career and looking to gain the skills to climb the ladder?
Let me tell you a secret: It’s not all about technical expertise. You need to combine coding wizardry with soft skills mastery.
In this article, I will share 5 exceptional lessons I have learned throughout my career. These lessons helped me grow as a senior engineer in a few years.
By applying these lessons in your daily work, you will get the needed expertise and increase your chance for promotion. You and I will discuss the importance of shipping early, user experience, teamwork, compromises, and deep technical understanding.
And the best part?
You can find 5 related deep-dive articles.
Do I have your attention?
Read time: 6 minutes
🚢 Lesson #1: Good Over Perfect
Are you a perfectionist?
I have been one for the longest time until Rangel, one of my ex-managers a few years ago, said to me:
If you constantly work but never ship, you are not productive. You are just busy.
Rangel’s words reminded me of one of the fundamental books I read before breaking into the industry—The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master. One of the first chapters in the book is about good-enough software. I didn’t understand that chapter, but my conversation with Rangel made me realise what the authors meant.
Nowadays, I prioritise buggy but early MVPs before complete but delayed products. Here are 3 reasons:
🚀 You provide value early
🎯 You learn what to improve sooner
🥳 Your stakeholders are more likely to use what you build
🦾 Lesson #2: People Over Tech
As a young developer, I thought my code was the pinnacle of my work. I didn’t care what people thought. I used to say, “The truth is in the code.”
Now, I see a similar trait in mid-level and even more so in junior data engineers. At that level, you strive to implement things “the right way.” You think your stakeholders are ignorant, and you know better.
But after a while, you start observing a pattern. People don’t use your products. They are too complex and don’t fit into your stakeholder's vision.
Without people to use them daily, your products are useless.
While tools and processes are essential, senior data engineers put people on a pedestal. Yes, you might sometimes need to use Excel instead of Looker. But as long as your stakeholders are happy, you are doing a great job.
To become a senior professional one day, you must build our DataOps strategy around people.
🧐 Lesson #3: Concepts Over Tools
I received a formal education in Informatics in high school and University. I wondered why we learned ancient concepts instead of the newest tools. But then, I started working, and everything became clear.
A massive chunk of people in the industry hype over specific frameworks. They praise processing engines because large organisations use those tools. And when a newer tool arises, they immediately switch. Those people are on a constant hype train!
If you excite over tools because others do, you lack a deep understanding of your craft. You don’t try to understand what happens under the hood and never use your tools' full potential.
Senior data engineers do not jump from one tech to another as a bee jumps from flower to flower. Their understanding of concepts helps them learn faster, evaluate tools, and stay relevant longer.
To become a true senior professional, you must know what happens behind the scenes. You need to take your time and be proficient at tools on a much deeper level.
🦸 Lesson #4: Team Play Over Skills
Strong technical understanding is everything you need to achieve greatness. I believed in this until I hit a wall.
I used to know every single line in our gigantic project. I was in control of every feature or bugfix the team produced. That was one of the biggest mistakes I have made in my career.
No matter how advanced your technical skills, you are a single person. And one person can’t produce more than an entire team. You may become a stumbling block for your organisation, even more so if you have unique skills.
If you strive to be seen as a senior data engineer, you must act like one. Seasoned engineers know how to work in a team. You must learn to share knowledge, make compromises, and give credit.
The truth is your manager won’t promote you unless you learn to share your knowledge and collaborate with stakeholders. As a senior data engineer, a large part of your leverage comes from your ability to collaborate.
💡 Lesson #5: Learning Over Blaming
Let’s be clear: everybody makes mistakes.
How you handle mistakes defines you as a true professional or a mediocre data practitioner.
Finding someone to blame gives you nothing. It might boost your ego, but you would make the same mistake later. Not to mention, you would look like a jerk!
I’ve had people in my team who never learned how to learn. When a failure occurs, these people don’t focus on finding the root cause and extracting lessons. Instead, they concentrate on git blame and point their finger. These people can never go higher on the career ladder.
Senior data engineers know that mistakes provide a great learning opportunity. The best you can do after a failure is to learn, improve and become a better professional. As a bonus, you look so much more mature in your manager’s eyes.
💭 Summary
In this article, you and I discussed five of the most important lessons you can learn from senior data engineers. The main lesson is that the more senior you become, the more important soft skills become.
Experienced professionals work well in a team and prioritise UX. Senior data engineers learn from failure and know what good enough means. On the technical side, senior data engineers care about underlying concepts.
Did I miss anything? What would you add? Post in the comments.
📚 Picks of the Week
Yet another shout-out for
. This week, we are talking about logging and error handling. I love how genius the subtitle is! (link)- shares why he writes a weekly newsletter (and you should, too) as a full-time software engineer. Also, check the links at the end of Jordan’s article. (link)
I can’t recommend
enough. Benjamin’s last article is about finding joy in your engineering career. This article is full of precious advice. (link)
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