Good paper, thank you for sharing. And sorry in advance folks, Tim just touched on so many important aspects, well, my 'comment' got kinda long.
Yes, there is no valid roadmap. But… For me, I would suggest to folks to consider what they need to and create their own roadmap.
Look at others’ roadmaps and see if what you have for what ‘you’ want looks okay.
Then, as Tim noted, do the urgency dial bit.
Me, I try to put in 10 – 12 hours a day on my urgency dial. This is because I took off from work last year to prep and move into a GCP Data Engineer role. That is, until the fall/winter tech layoffs started happening and COMPLETELY skewed my chances of easily obtaining that role.
That roadmap to success completely failed (and I ended up spending a lot of savings in the meantime......!!!).
Part of it was due to there being no roles close to home – I am sick to death of commuting in the traffic in this region and I do not wish to do full time remote yet.
But:
• I met my goals of: obtaining the GCP Pro Data Engineer cert, learning more SQL, Python and learning and doing more regarding Data Pipelines
By mid-January this year, I decided to switch back to AWS where I have years of Cloud Architect/Engineering (and certs) behind me.
Note, the AWS Data Engineer cert was MUCH more difficult to obtain than the GCP cert. AWS does state their cert is for folks with 2 – 3 years of Data Engineering behind them, which I did not have. However, the cert is DEFINITELY NOT at the associate level.
As Tim discusses, I am one of the ones who buckles down to complete difficult tasks.
In late April, I failed the AWS exam – backtracked and prepared again. Passed it in early June and afterwards, wrote up a paper on achieving this goal.
Went back to prepping for more SQL, Python and Data Engineering learning material as well as starting on my ML Engineering cert path.
At this point, I did have an offer which was retracted due to their fear that I might walk away from them again as I did in 2022 for a Cloud Architect role for that role at another company at a much higher salary.
Even though I told the company that this time I would not walk away again…
The following month, I received another offer from a company which I accepted as a Data Engineer, at a location 10 minutes away - but their process is SOOOOO BLOODY LONG. It does not start until late Sept (due to security clearances updates and whatnot).
So, before work starts, my goals are to continue STUDYING MY BUTT OFF EVERY SINGLE DAY:
• SQL & Python
• Data Engineering
• ML Engineering
Tim talks about backing yourself, YES.
I will guarantee in making myself valuable to any/every company who would want me. That is something you had best work on, trying to figure out things on your own as much as possible – research. Besides, doing that research pays off in you covering additional grounds at the same time for tangential areas…
Again, as Tim notes, you have to put in the time. And my doing 10 – 12 hours a day will guarantee that. Even if I do not get to 10 hours / day, I know I tried. Besides, I cannot just ignore my wife, have to spend time with her you know….
Self-sacrifice is HIGHLY important if you wish to succeed, that is the caveat Tim talks about as well as the long game he so eloquently talks about.
Hard to not repeat, being the role model, getting others to emulate you – that is satisfaction in and of itself, to me anyway… That is, as long as you are doing the right things...
