Think Piece

Radoslav is a Bachelor of Science from the University of Mannheim, Germany. In 2017 he decided to join INDEAVR team as a Data Analyst. His strong motivation helped him quickly climbing to the position of Data Engineer, and today in his role as Senior Data Engineer he is one of the most experienced in his team. Recently, for some projects he also is in the role of Solutions Architect. He has helped with the realization of many projects and has solved many difficult tasks.

Enjoy reading the answers of his five questions!

1.  Who can become a data engineer?  

Data Engineering isn’t something that a lot of people aspire to. As a kid you don’t dream of one day becoming a data engineer. Rather, you find yourself invariably working with data to some capacity and you start to enjoy it. Maybe you love seeking out patterns and love seeing these patterns automated. Perhaps you hate repeating yourself and prefer to reuse what you’ve already achieved elsewhere. Maybe you are fascinated with the latest and latest technologies and would love to use them in your own work. If these situations resonate with you, then you already have the right mindset to be a data engineer. What’s left is to get to know what technology we use and to start tackling the problems we face.

2. How long have you worked at INDEAVR?

I started working at INDEAVR almost five years ago analyzing basic data using SQL and R. Gradually the work shifted to implementing, improving and finally designing ever more complex data manipulation pipelines, while Python became the de-facto language of choice due to its simplicity combined with the massive open-source ecosystem surrounding it. We have deployed projects both in clients’ on-premises infrastructure and in the cloud. As my experience has grown, I have taken up the effort to gather, combine and document our department’s collective knowledge and make it accessible to colleagues both junior and senior.

3. What attracted you towards INDEAVR?

What initially drew me to INDEAVR was the fact that we work with multiple clients on projects rather than having an array of our own products the way many other tech companies do. Because of this the work itself is immensely diverse, and I can experience totally different technologies and challenges. The more I worked at INDEAVR though, the more I realized that what makes the company unique is the great level of autonomy and freedom that each employee has – the teams are small and organize their work themselves. Additionally, the company is always open to new ideas, technologies and workflows.

4. In your opinion what do you think it takes for somebody to be a success at INDEAVR?

In order to really excel at INDEAVR you must make full use of the autonomy and opportunities that the company provides – strive to always do better, to improve any deficiencies in yourself, your work, or your team. You should never be content with just completing tasks, but rather always seek out new ways, better ways to solve your clients’ problems and provide value above and beyond what anyone expects from you.

5.  What advice would you give to somebody who wanted to join INDEAVR?

Never be afraid to ask questions, to turn to your colleagues or mentors — no matter if you think it’s trivial, or if you assume it’s already answered somewhere, and you just don’t know where to look. Often, small questions or contributions lead us to discover problems in our process, gaps in our knowledge or simple steps that improve our products and the whole team’s workflow that would easily have remain unnoticed. Be open and challenge everything.