Intro

It’s been just over three months since I joined my first company as a data engineer at a mobility platform. I’m fascinated by data engineering, infrastructure, visualization, and DL/ML—here’s what I’ve learned so far.

Hiring Journey

• A notification from Wanted led me to a company I admired.
• The recruitment session sold me on their vision, so I applied.
• Coding test: 3 questions / 2 hours. Focused more on clean code and complexity than tricky algorithms.
• Interview 1 (technical) felt like mentoring—discussed my capstone, pipeline design, and received constructive feedback.
• Interview 2 (culture fit) with the CTO was intense; probing “why” questions and pressure testing logic. I thought I bombed it… but got an offer.

Onboarding

• One month of onboarding: Airflow, Python-based services, Docker/Kubernetes, CI/CD, etc.
• Learned the team’s tech stack via structured tasks and by shadowing teammates.
• Company-sponsored education budget helped me fill gaps quickly.

Day-to-Day (Data Infrastructure)

• Working on cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, monitoring, and more.
• I’ve already caused a few mishaps—but each incident became a learning opportunity. Supportive teammates emphasized “you learn the most from mistakes.”

Observations & Lessons

1. Amazing teammates – strong engineering skills, communication, and ownership. I feel lucky to learn from them.
2. The only true “newbie” – others had 1–2 years of experience, which pushed me to work harder.
3. Real collaboration – GitHub, Slack, Notion, Jira, pair work… collaboration is much more than committing code.
4. Code reviews – readability matters; writing for the team, not just myself. I’m also learning to review others’ code effectively.
5. Vocabulary overload – agile terms, infra jargon… I’m still catching up.
6. Flat culture – everyone uses English nicknames (no honorifics). Weird at first, now it feels natural.
7. Trust + freedom – the company grants autonomy but expects accountability. It’s the work culture I hoped for.
8. Rest is a skill – colleagues have diverse hobbies (fitness, travel). I realized I need one too.

Overall, I’m grateful—getting paid to learn, feeling rapid growth, and wanting to become someone my teammates can rely on. My new question: “Beyond technical stacks, what does a healthy engineering culture look like, and how can I contribute to it?”***