Hadoop Admin Archives - Thomas Henson

Certifications Required For Hadoop Administrators

Hadoop Certifications

Data Engineers looking to grow their careers are constantly learning and add new skills. What kind of impact do Hadoop Certifications have during the hiring process?

Data Engineers, Developers, and IT in general are known for their abundance of certifications. Everyone has an opinion as well about how much those certifications mean to real skills. On this episode of Big Data Big Questions find out what my thoughts are for Hadoop Admin Certifications and if Enterprises are requiring those for Data Engineers.

Transcript – Certifications Required For Hadoop Administrators

It’s the Big Data Big Questions show! Hi folks, Thomas Henson here with thomashenson.com. Today is another episode of… Come on, I just said it. Big Data Big Questions. Today’s question comes in from a user here on YouTube. If you have a question, make sure you put it in the comments section here below or reach out to me on thomashenson/big-questions. I’ll do my best to answer your questions here, live on one of our shows, or in one of our live YouTube sessions that we’re starting to do on Saturday mornings. Throw those questions in there. Let me know how are doing with this channel, and also if you have any questions around data engineering, machine learning. I’ll even take some of those data science questions, as well. Today’s question comes in around certifications in the Hadoop ecosystem. Are certifications required for Hadoop administrators/Hadoop developers? Absolutely, positively not. They’re not required, right?

Now, there may be some places where they’ll require you to. I did see that back in my day, in software engineering, but in general, they’re not going to be, not going to require you to have that before gaining entry. Now, they might be nice to have. Especially if you’re talking about going into an established team or an established group within your organization that, hey! We’re on the Horton Works stack, and we like to have everybody up to par from a certification perspective.

I haven’t seen that a lot specifically in the data engineering field, but it is something I’ve seen over the years in software engineering, but just not as much here lately. Now, does that mean that I’m saying that you shouldn’t go get a certification? That’s not what I’m saying at all. Especially if you’re learning and trying to get into the Hadoop ecosystem, and you’re like, hey, where do I really start?

First, you start with Big Data Big Questions.

Really, I can use the certifications. Whether it be from Azure, AWS, Cloudera, Horton Works, or Google GCP, Google’s Cloud Platform, you can take any of their certifications and really see, and build out your own learning path. That’s an opportunity there. Even if you’re not going to go down the path of trying to get that certification, if you’re trying to gain information and learn some of the things that you need to know as a good data engineer, whether it be on the developer side, whether it be on the administrative side, that’s definitely where I would start. That’s an opportunity there.

When we look at the question, it poses more of a philosophical question, if we will, in the data engineering and IT world, meaning how do we feel about IT certifications? I’ve answered this question. I had myself and Aaron Banks [Phonetic 00:02:31]. We were talking about specifically around IT certifications, and are they worth it, and we have a full-length video where we really dip into it. I’ll give you a little bit of a preview of my thought process around it.

The way that I look at certifications is, if you’re looking to be able to prove out, especially if you’re outside of a field, then hey, getting a certification might benefit you to make yourself more desirable to getting your application and getting your brand in there. Having a certification does lend some credence in those situations. However, if you’re established in the role, and you’ve been doing data engineering, and you have a lot of experience in it, necessarily you’re not going to really need to have that certification. You’ve been proven. You’ve down the due diligence of being in that role, and you’re applying for a role as a data engineer. You don’t necessarily have to go through that certification process.

Like I said, I really think that certifications are really good. Whenever we’re talking about, hey, maybe I don’t have that experience in that role, and I want to prove to you that, hey, I’m coming from, maybe you’re a web developer like I was. You’re a web developer, and you’re like, “Man. I’d really like to get into this,” Hadoop and this data engineering side of things. Where can I start, or how can I really identify myself to be somebody who wants to take on that next role? That’s where a certification is really going to help. You can get that certification. You can walk through it, but, you’re not going to walk in though, and say, “Hey, I’ve got the certification,” and you, Mr. Data Engineer, Miss Data Engineer, that’s been in that role for six years, “I know more than you do, because I have the certification.” That’s not really the case, and that’s probably not what you want to do, especially if you’re new to an organization.

Be honest, and be gentle in your interview process if you have a certification, but you don’t have the experience, and just say, “Hey, you know, I’m really passionate about it.” I’ve been following Big Data Big Questions for some time, and I thought that it’d be good to get into the data engineering field. To show how serious I am, I actually went through and got, walked through some of the certification process in there, too. Just an opportunity there for you to stand out from the crowd and show your experience, when you don’t really have experience. Let me know how you feel about this question and this answer here. Put it in the comment section below. Love to hear feedback. Also, if you have any questions, make sure you put them in the comments section here below, and never, never forget to subscribe and ring that bell, so that you’ll never miss an episode. Thanks again, and I’ll see you on the next episode of Big Data Big Questions.

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.

Show Notes Links

Ambari

Ambari Meetup

Amabari Mailing List

HDFS Documentation

Hadoop Mailing List

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Certifications Required For Hadoop Administrators?