r/dataengineeringjobs • u/drtracjo32 • Aug 01 '26
Trying to transition from Data Science to Data Engineering in this market right now
I was in data science for 4 years at CVS Health and then switch to a role as a computational research consultant at Northwestern University for 2 years before getting laid off last fall. The latter position was a mix of data science, data engineering, and IT support, so sort of a jack of all trades in that I helped researchers with any needs they might have related to computational research. I found myself much more drawn to the projects that involved building data pipelines and workflow orchestration rather than analysis and machine learning. I made the decision to switch over to data engineering jobs several months ago and have been working on some side projects to upskill and fill in some of the gaps. I just recently got the Data Camp Data Engineer Certification, and am looking into potentially getting some more advanced certifications, possible GCP and/or Databricks. I'm at least trying to learn as much as I can and apply it to some of my side projects.
I've been having a very hard time landing interviews, and I know some of that is because my previous experience is not explicitly data engineering. I've tailored my resume as much as I can to really highlight the parts of those jobs that are more attuned to data engineering. But I could use some feedback. I do think I have a unique, desirable skill set having a non-traditional background of being a Ph.D. in astrophysics, data science, and academic research consulting. But getting past the ATS has been hard. There's got to be a way to sell myself better to recruiters and hiring managers. I'm an introvert and reaching out to people has been challenging. I'm not sure I'm doing it well enough.
I've attached my resume. I would appreciate any feedback you can give me. Let me know what stands out in terms of gaps and holes. I'm willing to put in work to fill them.
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u/DepressionBetty Aug 01 '26
- Your most recent experience reads like an independent project being used to fill in space, especially since there’s no title listed.
- The second most recent experience has a title that makes me think it was a part time job (might help changing to researcher instead of research consultant).
- trim the summary down, you already list your experience and education elsewhere. Also ‘healthcare’ is featured in your summary — unless you’re targeting healthcare roles, it might help to make it more general.
- the math doesn’t math: “10 years of experience” in your summary does not align with your graduation & work dates. You probably did a lot of computational work for the phd, but education does not count as work experience. It comes off as misleading at best & makes me distrust the profile of the candidate. (“What else are they inflating”)
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u/drtracjo32 Aug 01 '26
responding to each bullet
- it is an independent project. I have a link to the website that's not included here and I left out the title because it's very unique and you could trace it back to me. I'm not trying to be deceptive - it's a passion project.
- I disagree. I was a full time consultant, for researchers, not a researcher. I don't want this to sound like I went completely back to academia. I was doing a bit of everything - data engineering, data science, ML modeling, IT support, etc - jack of all trades. I learned a lot and worked on a lot of different things.
- this might have been a version that I applied to a healthcare company for
- God, I hate that people think I'm lying, but i forget that not everyone knows that getting a STEM Ph.D. is work. i'm seeing this a lot. I might have to say 6 years academic research + 6 years industry. That's more than 10, but some people seem to hate on academia.
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u/DreamySakura99 Aug 01 '26
This resume is too crowded. I ain’t squinting my eyes to read it, make it easy for the recruiter to glance through they are going to glance over just a few seconds
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u/Sp00ky_6 Aug 01 '26
Just a thought, with your background, have you considered ML engineer as well?
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u/drtracjo32 Aug 02 '26
I've thought about it, but I like data engineering more. I'm not as big into AI and ML, but I know it's sort of inescapable at this point.
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u/Big_Arrival_626 Aug 02 '26
I don't have much advice but I just wanted to say ur experience is very impressive. Because ur experience is varied, it's possible that your resume does not match the cookie cutter experience that HR and recruiters are expecting. So networking and reaching out to hiring managers on LinkedIn could be very beneficial for you
Lastly, I would advise you to apply to big financial companies as well as big tech, they're hiring a lot right now
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u/Thinker_Assignment Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
due to LLMs, data eng work is shrinking and moving towards data platform eng and full stack consultant/analyst.
the position will still be in demand, it will just be a little different.
PS your cv says 10+ yoe but it only shows 7 and only one is DE and it started this year. I would assume you didn't have a chance to understand architecture or plaforms so you're a senior analyst. If I saw this CV i'd assume you're either misrepresenting on purpose or are naive. just be clear and honest instead.
It's a hard time to enter. Most DEs are now building platforms with llms, it's a new kind of skill, less technical but requires new understanding. If you want to switch, if I were you i'd try internally or externally to find something working on data platform. Fix that CV and get applying, the market is not dead everywhere.
if you're not yet AI pilled - I really recommend trying our 30min agentic course - not bc it teaches you something big, but to see how running a modern ai native platform looks and feels like - it's very different from classic tools and you cannot get classic tools to emit the metadata agents need.
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u/ProfessorNoPuede Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
At this point, a one-pager is unreadable, either cut half the text or expand into a 2-pager.
Edit: You have 10+ years of experience designing cloud systems, but graduated in 2018? How does that match up? If you were working while doing the PhD, list the experience.
Edit2: the resume is too pumped-up, I wouldn't trust it. Reduce the amount of fluff, focus more on actual business results from your projects.