Freelance Hadoop Admin Roles
A lot of the world’s economy is shifting to freelance/contracting economy or what Seth Godin terms as a “gig” economy. For Data Engineers heavy on the development side of Hadoop projects that is an easy transition. Software development projects have a a natural flow of a starting and end point. How does that work for the data engineers who are Hadoop Admins? Traditionally Operations or OPs roles are full time with no end in sight. In fact most have on call hours where Administrators have to be available 24/7. How can these types of Data Engineers find Freelance Hadoop Admin Roles? Find my thoughts on what a Freelance Hadoop Admin role looks like and where to look in the video below.
Transcript – Freelance Hadoop Admins Roles
Hi, folks! Thomas Henson here with thomashenson.com. Today is another episode of Big Data Big Questions. In today’s episode, I’m going to tackle questions about, what are some of the projects freelance Hadoop engineers can do, or Hadoop administrators? What are some projects in the freelance world that are going to translate and be good targets if you’re looking to be able to grab some kind of freelance Hadoop administrative job?
Find out more, right after this.
Welcome back. Before we jump into today’s question, I just want to remind you. If you have any questions, submit them in the comments section here, below, and then also, make sure you subscribe to my channel, so that you never miss an episode. I will answer as many of these questions as I can get to. I just need you to keep coming in, and submitting the questions, and giving me feedback on the types of content that you’d like to see.
Thank you everyone for subscribing. I really appreciate it, and now let’s jump into today’s Big Data Big Question. My question comes in from a YouTube comment. What freelance projects can be done by Hadoop administrators?
This one’s a little bit tougher, I believe, than when we talk about data engineers and we talk about the development side. I feel like those projects are a little bit easier to find as far as being able to bid for them, but also new projects come in on the development side a lot. When you think about the administrative side, so think about continuous development, continuously holding up that operations side for Hadoop. You’ve got a Hadoop cluster. You’re continually adding new clusters. You’re patching it. You’re doing the day-to-day operations, so, those are more permanent roles.
It’s a little bit harder to find a freelance position for a couple months or something like that for a project on the development side versus in the administrative side. However, I will say, if you’re looking to fill those roles, I think you’re going to find more of a short-term contract with those, and so by those I don’t mean a development. You’ll have a project that comes in. It may take you two weeks, it may take you two months. I believe the Hadoop administrator roles, they’re going to be a little longer if you’re looking for a contract position. A lot of those are going to be more consultive type, so think of new emerging companies. They’re starting up their Hadoop environment, jumping into the Hadoop ecosystem. They don’t really have a basis for how they’re going to do it, and so they’re looking for people to really come in and be those knowledge experts to help them get off the ground.
That kind of engagement is probably going to be at least three months, probably six, maybe even a little bit longer. These are more long-term contracts in my opinion, that you’re going to be able to find. The cool thing about these roles is, if you have a background or you have a desire to be able to be a trainer, and be able to help lead and teach other people, that’s one of my passions, these are the kind of roles that you’re going to be able to do. Not only do you get to be hands-on and be technical, you get to help a team that is brand new to the Hadoop ecosystem, maybe has a ton of experience in other areas, but you get to draw on that experience and help them build out their first Hadoop cluster, start working on some of their first use cases, and it’s something that, it can be very rewarding.
If you’re looking for these roles, and that’s probably what the question is referring to, I would look for companies that are just starting to dive into the Hadoop ecosystem. This is probably going to be a little more, you’re looking for people that are just going into that role, so look to see who’s hiring Hadoop administrators and some of those other roles, and then just reach out and content those companies. Let them know. Give them your background, talk to them a little bit about some of the technologies that they’re working on. If you have anything that you’ve been contributing to or working with in the open source community, around HDFS, or Ambari, or any of the administrative things like Zookeeper, those are where you can really shine, and say, “Hey, look. I’m involved in this community, here. I’d love to come in, have a conversation, talk to you about how you’re setting up your Hadoop cluster, where some of the troubleshooting issues are going to come up. What are some of the things that I’ve seen with my experience, that I think you should look out for, and I can kind of help with?
Those are going to be amazing roles. Like I said, it’s going to be harder, probably, than the data engineer who focuses more on the development side, but it’s going to be, in my opinion, could be a lot more rewarding, because of the fact that, you’re probably going to be more of a consultant, and you’re going to be more running a team. You’re still hands on in the tech, but you’re actually being able to train and communicate to others how they’re going to have this system up and running long time after your engagement ends.
Thanks for the question, and make sure you subscribe to the channel, and then we will see you on the next episode of Big Data Big Questions.