In a previous blog, we’ve compiled all the answers from our guest “Data Engineers in our Careers and Skills in Data Engineering: What you need to know” webinar. Some of the questions asked were about what skills and courses you need to have in becoming a data engineer.
There are a lot of results when you search the internet, but to give you something concrete, here’s a list of different learning resources you can start with.
Free Online Courses
Data engineering zoomcamp is a 9-week long course which includes video tutorials and real-life projects. It was prepared by DataTalksClub and can be accessed through GitHub.
All project files and materials are available and accessible. It's considered one of the best and most complete courses for data engineering.
Here’s a quick look at what the 9-week course covers:
- Week 1: Introduction & Prerequisites
- Week 2: Data ingestion
- Week 3: Data Warehouse
- Week 4: Analytics Engineering
- Week 5: Batch processing
- Week 6: Streaming
- Week 7, 8 & 9: Project
2. Data Engineering for Everyone Course
This 2-hour course was prepared by DataCamp. It is a no-code visual introduction to data engineering, meaning, it teaches the course without coding which can be helpful to anyone who wants to understand how data engineering works.
Simple topics like why data engineers are in demand and what they do can be learned in this course.
A brief introduction to SQL databases, data warehousing, and other skills needed to kick-start your data engineering career can also be found here.
If you’re not in a rush, this 5-month long course from Dataquest is definitely IT for you.
For a beginner, this course is highly recommended. Most of their lessons run around using SQL and Python, which are both essential programming languages in learning Data Engineering.
4. The Data Engineering Podcast
This podcast has over 300 episodes where they discuss data engineering, data science, machine learning, and python, just to name a few. One episode is released every week.
The Data Engineering Podcast is hosted by Tobias Macey, an engineer who owns Boundless Notions LLC, and currently leads the technical operations team at MIT Open Learning.
He also hosts The Python Podcast which also has over 300 episodes and can also be accessed through their website.
You can listen to their podcast on Apple podcasts, Patreon, and their website.
Offline Resources
Do you prefer books? Worry not! There are also books that can help you in your data engineering career.
Here's a list of books that you can check out:
- Data Crunching: Solve Everyday Problems using Java, Python, and More, Greg Wilson, 2005
- SQL Antipatterns – Avoiding the Pitfalls of Database Programming, Bill Karwin, 2010
- DESIGNING DATA INTENSIVE APPLICATIONS: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems, Martin Kleppmann
You can see more book recommendations here and find which one suits your need best.
Conclusion
There are several learning resources available online and offline for aspiring Data Engineers like you.
You can also acquire certifications from Microsoft Azure, Google, and AWS by taking up their courses. Check them out here.
We hope this compilation of some of the best and highly recommended resources help you out in your journey in becoming a data engineer!
You can always check out our FAQS on Careers and Skills in Data Engineering Webinar blog to get the best insights from our notable guest data engineers.
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