
Ask HN: How I can get a job in “Big Data” technologies (Hadoop, Spark etc)? - aforarnold
Hey All,<p>I know,  at first sight the question seems to be lame. But I am struggling with this for years. By background is &quot;Backend Development&quot;. Mostly used python and also some node.js.
So, I want gradually want to move to work on technologies like Hadoop, Spark etc.<p>I am already doing online course on Hadoop but I don&#x27;t know where to apply my learnings. As my days job is mostly backend development+devops staffs. I applied for jobs which are looking for Hadoop eco system developers but I don&#x27;t get any response as I don&#x27;t have real life experience with these technologies. In general I have 4 years software development and writing only backend code is getting kind of boring.<p>I really appreciate your suggestion.<p>Thanks in advance.
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kafkaesq
Maybe the better question to ask is, "What kinds of problems are these
technologies intended to solve? And how can I go about understanding those
problems, and what other approaches might be used to solve them? Are
Spark/Hadoop really the answer, or is that just what people are talking about
because... it's what they keep hearing about?"

Remembering that, like everything, Hadoop, Spark and whatnot are means to the
end -- and not even necessarily the best solutions for the problems everyone
talks about using them for. And that understanding _business problems_ end-to-
end (and how they drive technology choices) is infinitely more valuable than
being able to play back what you learning in some online course somewhere.

And in the meantime -- don't worry about the rejection slips; just be awesome
in the skills you do have, + continually seek to become awesome in whatever
new areas you may be exposed to (which might be something relatively "unsexy"
like Postgres or Solr) --

\-- and eventually people will come to see that it is your _awesomeness_ , not
your online coursework or having this or that keyword show up in your most
recent job description, that is your main selling point, and will be happy to
bring you on board and throw you at new problems, and newer, even hotter
technologies (way more interesting than whatever the online courses are
pushing these days).

