Software Engineer vs Data Engineer

[nomaduser]

It looks like software engineer job field is too saturated.
There are so many people trying to get software engineer job position.

Do you guys think data engineer / data scientist job field is a better choice?
I have a few friends who majored in math and minored in computer science. They could get a job as data scientist at FAANG and another big techs.
I would try that path way as well and perhaps finish a degree in math or data science.

[kylan11]

I have worked both positions and yes, Data Engineers seem to be in higher demand right now, mostly because everyone and their grandma can be a mediocre developer right now, while there aren't as many decent Data Engineers. It's also a bit easier to ace technical interviews in my opinion due to a narrower and more specialized body of knowledge needed.

Personally though, I find it very boring. Most of the day you will be endlessly debugging workflows or desperately trying to figure out obscure and poorly designed data models to aggregate information for a report the business needed yesterday. A far cry from the rewarding creative work of designing/refactoring a software architecture.

This is a personal preference of mine, but it's a factor to keep in mind. You will always be better off in a position you are passionate about regardless of the job market. Plus while relatively worse than a few years ago, it's still in high demand.

[nyvrem]

Machine learning and AI optimization specialist !

[berlinerd]

It looks like software engineer job field is too saturated.
There are so many people trying to get software engineer job position.

Do you guys think data engineer / data scientist job field is a better choice?
I have a few friends who majored in math and minored in computer science. They could get a job as data scientist at FAANG and another big techs.
I would try that path way as well and perhaps finish a degree in math or data science.

In general, I don't think the salary expectations are much different, you can check the median wages online. It is quite saturated too, but the demand for smart folks is always here. It is, however, much different too from Software Engineering and it's not everybody. It may be boring. Data Engineer is more about data infrastructure and collecting-extracting data (with a lot of coding). There is AWS certification for that right now: https://aws.amazon.com/certification/cer...associate/. 

Data Science is more about data analysis, statistics, machine learning. Not necessarily AI. Lots of coding too.

There is a demand for such specialists, but the additional degree alone does not quite give an edge... unless it's PhD. Lots of heavy data science require PhD in data science/math/statistics.

But my recommendation from other thread about SNHU is still in force. I'd go for SNHU CS with minor in Applied Math or minor in Mathematics. It is very flexible degree setup.

The better resume, however, for these positions is lots of projects which you can show on github or anywhere else. And the projects have to be meaningful, not just regular stuff everybody does. Then you may shine out of crowd.

[davewill]

I think it only appears saturated in comparison to the ridiculous job market we had the last few years. I wouldn't make this decision based on that. I'd choose by what I'd rather be doing.

[bjcheung77]

@nomaduser, my suggestion is to decide on what you want to do or what you're interested in. Instead of completing another degree, you can complete the Coursera/TADA and edx, or other freebies/cheapies out there to get certificates and gain some experience/understand of the learning or knowledge needed to succeed in whichever you want to continue in... You can use these certs to get your feet wet and see if its 'the right profession' for you...