What does a Facebook data engineer do on a day-to-day basis?
A facebook data engineer’s day-to-day duties can be varied and will usually depend on what team they are working with. These engineers have to know how to deal with, extract, clean and store large volumes of data. They also have to know how to visualize that data through statistical analyses. In order to get all these done, they need to be able to work in conjunction with the product managers and analysts. They also have to work with the UI and front-end developers, as well as with data scientists and statisticians, as well as marketing teams and mobile teams. These engineers have to build the relational database structure and connect it to the data science teams. They also need to be able to build the tools and architecture that will be used by their team or teams so they can do their tasks.
How did you get interested in this career field, and what type of education and experience is necessary to become a Facebook data engineer?
I first got interested in this field from what my friends were doing and from talking to my dad who used to work in the financial industry. I strongly believe that coding skills are always necessary, but you also need to be able to understand the purpose of a project and how it fits with the business. University will never teach you that. Therefore, the more practical experience you have, the better.
The best preparation for the kind of work I do at Facebook is to get a full-time summer internship where you can learn the latest technologies, such as machine learning, deep learning and distributed systems. Not only that, but also taking part in real-world projects and interviews. Getting practical experience makes me feel more confident.
According to my professor, if you want to work in a big company like Facebook, then you must have bachelor’s degree with a strong computer science background. Otherwise, you will have a hard time to get hired as a data engineer.
Everyone knows that Facebook is one of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley, and they have been very generous with the number of interns they give every year. Data scientists are one of the most in-demand skills right now because it is such a unique and interesting field to work in. Everyone wants to work for Facebook or Google, and so you can think about how many people apply for these companies each year.
However, being a data scientist is much more than just working on problems with large amounts of data, although that’s one of the most important parts. You also have to understand how to write good software, work as a team member, and be able to communicate with people from other departments within the company.
What are some of the challenges and rewards of this profession?
Getting a job as a data engineer usually requires some deep thinking, and a lot of drive. You have to make sure that you know how to write code and interpret data, but you also have to interact with the business people. Your attitude is very important, too. They’ll always be asking you for information and advice, which can be easy or hard depending on how you handle things. People who cannot make a decision under pressure are not good data engineers.
The first thing that you have to think about after deciding that you want to be a data engineer is if it’s right for you. If you don’t like writing code, it’s not going to be very rewarding because that’s the main part of your job. You do have other duties though, such as understanding the business problem, translating what they’re saying into an algorithm and then figuring out how much time it will take to program that.
