Always wanted to tell the story of my career path. Some time ago, I came across a difficult decision that this article might help someone in the same situation. Someone that needs that push in the right direction.
The Indecision
I’ve studied computer science, this is my great passion, my hobby. Yes, I am one of the few lucky ones that can call my job, my hobby. For some, it might look boring, but for me, passing hours and hours looking at code and thinking, “It must be a better and more efficient way of doing this” is my thing. I’ve started my career as a full-stack Software Engineer in a Software House in Lisbon. The company was great, with excellent principles and liberty, however, I knew that was not the right direction I wanted my career to take.
I was always curious about 3 topics: Big Data, Machine Learning and Cyber-Security. There is a lot to learn in each of these fields, and I truly believe that in order to be the best in what you do, you should decide on a specific field and focus on only one and do that your entire life. All of us only have 24 hours a day, and there is so much to learn, and the time is scarce. In order to make my decision, I bought all the technical books that I could and took some certifications. This would allow me to have an idea of what the job was in each topic. After taking the certifications, read all the books the indecision remained between Big Data and Machine Learning.
Moving to Microsoft
At that time, I found a position opened for Microsoft: Big Data Support Engineer. “I’ve nothing to lose”, I thought. So I send my resume. To be honest, I was not expecting a return. Let’s face it, Microsoft is Microsoft, one of the biggest players in the tech world. After some weeks, I received by e-mail a notification that I passed the first phase of elimination and that I was going to be contacted for a phone interview. After this phone call, I went through the technical interview that involved different exercises and a final interview with 2 managers so that they could know me. After all this process, I accepted their offer and started working as a Support Engineer for Azure Databricks at Microsoft. I am not going to lie, I was at the top of the world and wore that badge with so much pride. I was an Engineer at Microsoft.
Microsoft is just a great place to work. You have all the conditions to pursue a career path. Health and Life Insurance, company shares, great salary, car, everything you need to start an unworried and stable financial life. Never have I thought that I was going to leave.
Like in any job change, I had to face some challenges when I joined Microsoft. I had to learn a lot about the process of solving the tickets opened by customers, how you should speak with them, how to contact with Databricks production team, etc. I needed to do some overtime to pick up the pace, but that overtime would compensate later, and you always learn something when you push a little further. After some months doing this, I felt I was at home, already knew the office from one end to the other. I made some friend inside the team, I was already helping with the integration of new elements and was completely acquainted with the process of supporting the customers. However, I was not happy with the kind of work I was doing there. I am a technical guy and like to get my “hands dirty”.
Sometimes I was basically jealous of my own customers because they were doing exactly what I wanted to do: Data Engineering. At this time, all my indecisions about my career path went away. I wanted to become a Data Engineer.
The Big Decision
Some time, after making my decision, BILD entered the scene. I was contacted by the Human Resources team. They let me know that they were following my path for quite some time and were interested on having a conversation with me. I accepted, and they proposed me a new international project where I would be a Data Engineer working mostly with Databricks and Azure, exactly what I wanted to pursue. I was happy and scared at the same time. I was just offered a new position in a career that I loved, but on the other hand, I had to leave Microsoft. I mean, who wouldn’t be ?! BILD at that time was a company with one year of existence, and we were facing the first lockdown due to COVID. Everyone was being fired due to the pandemic, and I had the idea to leave the stability and security of working for Microsoft?! I talked with close friends, family, and every single soul told me that I was crazy to even think about it.
After some sleepless nights, arguing with friends and with myself, some conversations with the co-founder and the HR team, I decided to join and see where this would take me. I never played the safe and comfort move in my life. To be honest, starting on day one, I was completely surprised. I encountered a very well structured and organized company with many projects, nationally and internationally, and I could choose which one to join. I faced some challenges, of course. At Microsoft, I had daily-based routine tasks. At BILD, because it was such a small company, I had more tasks, and these tasks were much more multidisciplinary. I had to adapt my way of work so that I could face these challenges. This was always an opportunity for me. I was able to develop a part of me that was sleeping, such as leadership, team management and level up my problem-solving skills.
Some things that I really love about BILD is that all of the team is around my age. They offer all kind of paid certificationsand have personalized my career path. They showed a lot of knowledge, and since then, I am learning and growing every day, technically and personally. All my worries about being a new company and a small team just went away. It was the best decision I could make, and if I could turn back time, I would do it again and again. I don’t regret it. Besides, I feel really accomplished, and the secret to that is to work non stop. If you love what you do, you will not get tired, and if you do, remember, this a long term run, a marathon. Each step you take will take you closer to the finish line.
Today I work with Databricks and the Azure environment, as a Data engineer, creating and maintaining complex but exciting cloud-based architectures. This was my dream, it was hard to reach this level, but hard work pays off. What I can say to everyone that is in the same position than myself, is: just work hard, take the risk and remember, “It is a shot in the dark, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.”. My dream of becoming a Data Engineer just became true, and today, I am proud to call this company my second family.
