Agreeable Data reposted this
CEO @ Agreeable Data // Co-Host @ The Data Stack Show // Fractional Data Team for eCommerce Brands - Own Your Data, Understand True Return on Marketing Spend, Measure What Matters
The Massive Disconnect in Data Jobs: Is a Correction Coming? I believe there is a massive disconnect—and therefore a looming correction—in the data job market. The expectations and requirements of employers vs employees are at polar ends of the spectrum. Here's what I'm observing: Remote Data Job Postings: - 1000+ applicants within hours (mostly qualified people) In-person Data Job Postings (except maybe in tech hubs like NYC or Austin, TX): - 🦗 Little to no qualified applicants Interview Processes: - Far too many rounds of interviews - Often results in zero outside hires - "We didn't find the right candidate" or "We hired internally" New Position Approvals: - Very difficult to get approved - Some companies may be stalling, hoping AI can improve team efficiency and eliminate the need for the position The correction I hope to see: 1️⃣ Companies will realize the best talent can choose where to work—and will opt for organizations with the tools, policies, and culture that align with their needs. In my opinion a great data person may be 20x more valuable than an average one, outpacing even the 10x impact of top engineers. 2️⃣ Recognizing this, companies will improve their hiring processes—communicating more effectively and bringing in outside experts (recruiters, fractional data help, etc) when needed to maximize their for their desired outcome. 3️⃣ Organizations will adopt a growth mindset around AI, seeing it as a means to augment rather than replace data jobs. Is this perspective a little optimistic? Absolutely. But hey—it's only Monday. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this disconnect in the data job market and the potential shifts on the horizon? Let me know in the comments - fair game for the pessimists and optimists alike! 😀
Bret R.
2mo
To be competitive in this market, something I bring, is profiling and data cleansing tools. I can also obfuscate data very quickly giving complete security for testing. I can also bring my test management and automation testing framework. To complete everything comes my security and performance testing for all non prod and production. So you can say the pieces of a project that cost the most and take the longest I can make cheaper and deliver quicker due to having great tools included in my day rate.
Consultant to transportation and supply chain technology developers. Designing operational management systems that manage Margin Improvement Levers in Transporation w/ Lean/Six Sigma based methodologies.
2moData is analogous to maintenance in transportation. It is often viewed as a necessary evil, cost center to be avoided or minimized, when the best organizations have competitive advantage from how they architect storage and access, secure, and apply data throughout their organization. The affects of the competitive advantages are hard to identify, particularly because data is largely unseen - we call it back end development for a reason. Data application and affect on organizational, transactional management is derived and how it happens is not easy to understand, thus the ROI of the investment is misunderstood. I believe this is reflected in the propensity of businesses to find data analysts outside of the large tech hubs. No different than outsourcing development. The heavy lifting comes with the initial design, development to a MVP then often migrated to an enhancing and maintenance model, aka. use lower cost developers. The real question is whether the role is best served by a strategic orientation or a tactical executional orientation? The debate over technical product management or business/ marketing oriented product management; MVP development or optimal scalability?