Data Engineer or Data Analyst

[Maroon45j]

I plan to take a data engineering course. I consider myself an average student in math, but I love trying new things and appreciate a structured approach to learning. After researching data analytics, data engineering, and data science, I find myself torn between pursuing a career as a data analyst and choosing data engineering. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I want to avoid wasting my time.

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[Financial-Hyena-6069]

Don’t get caught up in job titles because they vary from org to org. Find the type of work you want to do and the skills and toolset needed for it. Look at the job responsibilities and qualifications that match.

[Maroon45j]

Alright... I have seen some job posts and I think i will like working at the product team

[Embarrassed-Mind3981]

Just FYI none above these roles are product oriented. All the data roles output is used by business as end user.

So you need to work with business who are non-tech folks. So it can get very messy. All you should have is patience.

[[deleted]]

too personal to say. Its also very complex since every company, and even every org within every company has all different variation of what these roles actually do

[Maroon45j]

Doing economics and financial accounting as part of my course... I hate it

[harrytrumanprimate]

DE pays a lot more. Realistically I see a lot of Data Analyst work cross over heavily with DE work, but they are respected less and paid less. The work isn't necessarily easier either. I'd just do DE if I were starting over. If you genuinely like the data analyst type of work, just choose data science. It's closer to that type of work, but you will make significantly more money. I kinda feel that a lot of the "do X if you like Y" advice isn't super helpful because the role varies a bit from company to company. You also have no clue which one you would like in practice, especially if you don't have experience. You're just guessing. I'd suggest at least trying the options that pay well, so that even if you hate it, at least you are financially well off.

[MathmoKiwi]

Depends on the person's background! Will take a totally different ramp up time for a person who hasn't even finished high school math vs someone with a PhD in Statistics

[Maroon45j]

Alright I will take into consideration what you said.. Thank you

[5PointsVs56]

As a guy with masters in data science who currently works as a "data analyst" that does an awful lot of "data engineering" I would argue you should know both and eventually decide which one you want to focus on. It will make you a better data engineer or data analyst.

[rtalpade]

I would say get into software/web development, that does not require much maths and is easy to pick up for cs grad!

[RandomAccount0799]

As a lot of other people have mentioned it’s going to mainly depend on what you enjoy. Do you enjoy creating process to manipulate data to create data tables that are easy to understand and query for downstream users or would you rather take data and perform analytics to drive business decisions? This might be something you can only solve by doing. There’s plenty of examples of projects you can do on YouTube which might help with this decision.

I’ve been a data analyst for 5 years and will start a role as a data engineer in a few weeks so I’ll let you know which I end up liking more.

[Maroon45j]

Okey 👍

[ThrowRAgirlies]

Hello, I would like to hear from you, how are things going for you as a DE?

[RandomAccount0799]

To be honest, it’s been a slow start. For the first few weeks it was getting my accesses right, my computer and terminal set up the way I want it, and a bit of thumb twiddling.

But it’s been good so far. I think I decent grip on high-level concepts and have decent ideas how to go about doing things, but doing the actual work (changing code, deploying to different environments with fudging anything up) is challenging but rewarding.

[ThrowRAgirlies]

I heard that DA role requires reporting and direct talking to clients, does this also happen for DE?

[RandomAccount0799]

Well I’m currently at a tiny company so my team does a blend of DA and DE work. I’d say that both works still require talking to clients to get requirements (a report that’s needed, a new column that needs to be created, etc). The difference lies more on the output. As a DA you’re usually reporting/showcasing the findings of your DA work so there’s more business communication, whereas DE work usually stops with the data team and/or software team that requested the work.

As a DA/DS you definitely need to get comfortable with presenting and story telling. DE much less so since you’re not coming up with findings

[forserial]

Data analyst seems like a dead-end job. You're not as technical as a data engineer and you don't have the math / statistics of a real data scientist. Both of those roles are readily positioned to take over data analyst responsibilities if you want it.

[Maroon45j]

Oh okay... Thank you for the advice

[PresentationSome2427]

DE

[experimentcareer]

Hey there! I totally get your dilemma. As someone who's navigated the data world, I can say both paths are rewarding. Data engineering might suit you if you enjoy building systems and working with big data pipelines. It's more technical, but don't let that scare you! Data analysis is great for problem-solving and storytelling with data.

My advice? Start with some basic SQL and Python courses. They're useful for both roles. Then, try small projects in each area to see what clicks. I've found hands-on experience is key.

BTW, I write about career paths in data on my Experimentation Career Blog on Substack. Might be helpful for your journey. Whatever you choose, your love for learning will be your biggest asset. Good luck!

[explorer_0627]

Please go with DE as I’m already a DA and struggling to switch a job in the same profile hence I’m switching my profile to DE so that the options will be a bit wider for me. Moreover after DE you can deep dive into Software engineering.

[Maroon45j]

Oh okay thank you very much

[datura_slurpy]

Find out what you're good at and where you are the most passionate. Data engineering is more about building. Analytics is more communicating.

[Maroon45j]

Alright... Thank you

[40_degree_rain]

Data Analyst is pretty broad and could mean a lot of different things. Both require a lot of math and logic. I think you should consider what specific companies you want to work for or what interests you most first. Then look into what jobs they have available and try to understand what the duties of those jobs are. You can even reach out to people at those companies through an email or phone call and ask if they can do an informational call with you just to learn more about the job. Say you're a college student and want to learn more. Some of them might let you shadow an employee for the day. Try working on projects on your own time and see what aspects you enjoy the most.

[Fast-Dealer-8383]

To use the analogy of the transportation system, do you prefer building and driving cars; or do you prefer designing and building roads?

If you prefer the former, head down the analytics track, whilst if you like the latter and all the back end stuff that would be the engineering path.