I have had a number of professional acquaintances and former coworkers leave product/full-stack/back end roles and move into roles more concerned with data pipelines, data infra, dashboard development, and so on. I have trouble seeing good reasons to.
- Data roles heavily focus on particular enterprise products (Kafka, Redshift, Snowflake) at the expense of engineering fundamentals.
- Data roles are typically support roles, not the value center of an org (which would be the analysts and decision-makers who consume the dashboards).
- I personally find these roles more rote, less engaging, and less creative than SWE roles.
What are some good reasons to move into a data-focused role, other than incidental details like better pay or promotion opportunities?
- Data roles heavily focus on particular enterprise products (Kafka, Redshift, Snowflake) at the expense of engineering fundamentals.
- Data roles are typically support roles, not the value center of an org (which would be the analysts and decision-makers who consume the dashboards).
- I personally find these roles more rote, less engaging, and less creative than SWE roles.
What are some good reasons to move into a data-focused role, other than incidental details like better pay or promotion opportunities?