Software Engineer vs Data Engineer

[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.