Start with knowing the roles of a data engineer

In the later chapters, we will spend much of our time doing practical exercises to understand data engineering concepts. But before that, let’s quickly take a look at the data engineer role.

The job role is getting more and more popular now, but the terminology itself is relatively new compared to well-established job roles, such as accountant, lawyer, and doctor. The impact is that sometimes there is still a debate about what a data engineer should and shouldn’t do.

For example, if you came to a hospital and met a doctor, you know for sure that the doctor would do the following:

1. Examine your condition.
2. Make a diagnosis of your health issues.
3. Prescribe medicine.

The doctor wouldn’t do the following:

1. Clean the hospital.
2. Make the medicine.
3. Manage hospital administration.

It’s clear, and it applies to most well-established job roles. But how about data engineers...