Why I Chose Data Engineering Over Data Science

Despite holding an M.S. in data science, I have found the data engineering path more organizationally impactful, professionally fulfilling and personally lucrative than data science.

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In spring of 2021 I graduated with a degree in data science; after a two-month job search I landed my current role as a data engineer in the media industry. Initially I intended to pursue data analyst and data science roles. However, job interviews with my current leadership, support from my team and my personal experiences have led me to embrace the role, necessity and financial potential of the data engineering professional landscape.

Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

Before I outline my reasons for pursuing data engineering over data science it must be noted that, like data science, the scope and responsibilities of data engineer roles vary from organization to organization. Obviously, your experience may be different.

Organizational Impact

There is a misconception, I think, that data engineers only do the janitorial work involved with data preprocessing…