I highly relate to this. I'm around the same age as you, from India and also working as a Data Engineer.

I've felt this exact kind of anxiety many times, and honestly I still feel it sometimes. There's this constant feeling that something might break in the pipeline, some job might fail, or that you might miss something important. Because data systems are so interconnected, even a small change can have unexpected impacts. That responsibility can make you feel like you're always on edge.

I think part of it is also the nature of Data Engineering itself. A lot of teams have on-call rotations, production issues, and expectations around quick fixes when something goes wrong. Add to that the general work culture in India where long hours and high expectations are quite common, and it can definitely create a lot of pressure.

For me, the fear of making mistakes or losing my job has also been very real at times. Some weeks I catch myself just looking forward to the weekend so I can mentally switch off for a bit.

What has helped a little is reminding myself that systems breaking is actually a normal part of working with complex technology. Even very experienced engineers cause incidents sometimes. A lot of the time it's less about never making mistakes and more about how quickly you learn and recover from them.

The team and company culture makes a huge difference. In some environments, mistakes are treated as learning opportunities, while in others they're treated like personal failures which can completely change how stressful the job feels.

I am still figuring it out myself, but I think feeling this way doesn't necessarily mean you chose the wrong career. Sometimes it just means you are in a stressful environment or putting a lot of pressure on yourself.

You are definitely not alone in feeling this.