How did you hear about WeCloudData?
Through my friend, Amin who completed the bootcamp (data science program).
What made you decide to choose WeCloudData’s Data Engineering program over other companies? Was there something that stood out to you about our program that solidified your decision?
2 of my friends went through WeCloudData BootCamp and had a positive experience.
What was your career background before enrolling in our Data Engineering program?
Mechanical Engineer and Application Sales Engineer.
What made you want to pursue a career in Data Engineering?
Passionate about programming and working with large dataset to create meaningful insight.
Can you tell us a bit more about yourself and your journey to where you are today?
My background is in mechanical engineering. I worked as a Sales/Mechanical Engineer for the last 6 years. During my last year as mechanical engineer, I started working with large data sets to create meaningful insight using Data visualization tool and optimized the processes in the office; Which piqued my interest in Data engineering. After going through the months of self-study in Python and SQL. I decided to join WeCloudData boot camp. upon graduation, I was provided with support from the WeCloudData community to assist in my job search. After numerous interviews rounds. I finally landed on 3 job offers and picked the one that interested me the most, DE at Nasdaq.
What did you find most enjoyable or interesting about the Data Engineering program at WeCloudData while being a student? Was there any aspect of our course curriculum or teaching style that stood out to you?
The most interesting part of the bootcamps were the projects.
Useful course material and midterm/final projects which was very helpful during the interviews.
Based on your previous education experience, how did online classes compare to learning in-person?
I prefer online classes. It gives me the ease to study at the comfort of my home and also I am able to replay the lectures in the event, I miss a critical point during the lecture.
Do you have any tips for current students on how to be successful in online classes?
Stay up to date with the lectures. It can get over-whelming if you start falling behind and at the time of mid-term or final project.
How do you feel the real client projects helped you when it came time to find a job?
It definitely helped during technical interviews, since my background was in mechanical Engineering, I didn’t have any experience except for real client projects and personal data engineering projects. I would say it played a big role in landing me a job.
How long did it take you to find a job after graduating from WeCloudData?
~ 2 months but my first job offer came in after 1 month and 15 days.
How did your mentor support you during the career mentorship? (e.g. Services provided, advice given)
My Mentor supported me by giving advise prior to interviews, the dos and dont’s. it was helpful and gave me confidence during my interviews.
Also would like to point out, it was not only the mentor but WeCloudData team was helpful in my job search, Eric assisted me during technical interviews which I credit him for giving me confidence during my technical round.
Finding a job during the pandemic has been a challenge for most, what aspects of your resume and portfolio do you believe helped you secure a job so quickly?
I started getting a lot of interviews after working on my resume countless times. I spent at least an hour daily since I graduated from the bootcamp, going through my resume and improving the points, and try to align it with my storytelling.
Having Real-life client project and personal Data engineering, played a big part in getting interviews and eventually landing on a job.
Can you give us some insight into what the Data Engineering interview process is like?
Typically there are 4 interviews rounds
- 1st – talent acquisition team, the would typically ask general questions regarding my experience, why im leaving the current company and salary expectation
- 2nd – typicall this is with either the director / manager to just get a general overview of your experience, they may ask technical questions but not too indepth
- 3rd– This is typically the technical round, depending on company, they may give you a home assessment and ask you to present your finding’s in an 1 hour interview. Or they will send website like hackerrank and codingame to test your coding.
- 4th – Last round are typically with either Head of the Data engineering/data science team or with CTO or CEO, this more of behavioral style interview typically 1 hour long.
What sort of impact do you feel your Data Engineer diploma from WeCloudData made on potential employers?
Most employers focused on my experience. out of 10 interviews only 1 asked about the bootcamp. The questions was, what technology did you learn from the bootcamp.
Do you have any words of advice for current or future students planning on pursuing a career in Data Engineering?
Be confident, make sure you have good story-telling, especially for people with no experience in programming or software. Confidence is key.
How has your life changed since you graduated from WeCloudData and gotten a job in the industry?
The days leading to my my first job offer, has been a tough ride. With daily grinds at Leet-code and resume updates and rounds and rounds of interview. I happy to see all the hard work has come to fruition. Excited to Join the data team at Nasdaq next month.
