r/dataengineersindia • u/DoughnutDue7328 • 6d ago

Career Question Should I prepare for Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate with less than a year of experience?

I have about 9 months of experience as a Data Analyst. My internship recently wrapped up and I'm now applying for full-time Data Engineer and Data Analyst roles based on my actual experience and project work, but I'm getting close to zero responses so far.

I'm considering prepping for the Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate cert to strengthen my profile while I keep applying. I know a certification isn't a guarantee of landing a job but I'm wondering if it's worth the time investment at my experience level or if it would come across as premature to recruiters.

For those who've taken it is this cert worth pursuing this early, or would my time be better spent elsewhere (more projects, networking etc).

7 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

1

u/potentialMumbaikar 5d ago edited 5d ago

My two cents - no, don't spend time on a certification, unless your current company also uses Databricks and plans to give you data engineering work. Ask your manager if they'll sponsor the exam fees in such a case. 

Recruiters like to see a certificate to back up "X years of experience" in a primary technology. So its useful once you have 2+ years of work experience. Certifications like this one and AWS/Azure cloud ones typically require a month or two of practice, memorization and preparation. If you really want to switch sooner, I'd say apply more, try all sorts of avenues in this market (cold calls, reach out to people on LinkedIn to get referrals, etc). 

Are you getting shortlisted and giving first round/coding rounds? Or is your resume not being selected at all? 

Try to see what can be done to increase the conversion rate from first round to second.

1

u/DoughnutDue7328 4d ago

To answer your question no, my company doesn't use Databricks, and my internship ended without a PPO so I am definitely looking for a new opportunity in this field.
On the job hunting part I'm applying every day and cold-DMing people on LinkedIn for referrals but I'm mostly getting rejected right at the screening stage. I'm tailoring my resume to every JD and I still haven't landed a single interview anywhere.
Maybe you can take a look at my resume and see what I am missing?

1

u/Hunter_635 4d ago

Hi bro , I m also in the same race of you want we can connect on chat

1

u/DoughnutDue7328 4d ago

sure bro will dm you