Call me Gerhard
Good luck with the pronunciation! 😀
I am a guy who loves data and people. I’m frustrated by the frustrations of engineers in our industry, hence this blog.
On this blog, I commit to making you a better data engineer or turning you into one if that’s where you are in your career journey.
Here’s a short history of my life:
After school, I worked as a Y2K technician. That entailed loading patches with external CD-ROMs on end-user PCs to ensure the world didn’t end.
The world didn’t end, but my career as a Y2K technician did after the dot-com bubble burst. I spent six months looking for any IT job I could find, i.e., unemployment.
Eventually, I found a job as a helpdesk technician and server support person. Working shifts was tough. Too many nights were lost sitting in a server room, with the unceasing noise of server fans as my only company. I have great respect for anyone working shifts.
Enter data. A contact from my Y2K gig offered me a job as an interim Database Administrator. I had to take a big pay cut but needed to get out at any cost.
Do you have self-limiting beliefs? I did and I do. Convinced that I needed to be smarter to learn data, I persevered. Ironically, I took to it like a duck to water.
From DBA, I progressed to Senior DBA, BI Developer, Tech Lead, Data Warehouse Manager, and Data Engineer.
Today I am an Equal Expert. Here are some more highlights:
- I lost 20kg, transforming from an overweight, drinking, smoking, party nerd to an ultra-marathon runner, completing the Comrades Marathon twice. I am still a nerd.
- I got married and am a dad of three wonderful kids. We have two dogs.
- I moved from commuting five days a week to fully remote work.
- I mentored and trained countless happy data engineers during my 20-year career.
- I am happy.
