Adopt & Learn to Get Ahead of the Curve

The tech industry is moving at a rapid rate and keeping yourself updated as a tech professional can be challenging. Continuous learning is key in an industry that is constantly evolving. The process of figuring out which trends to follow, which skills to learn and how you can grow your career can be intimidating. We speak to a tech professional, who has recently made a career move, on his thoughts about the changes in the industry and how he keeps himself updated.

1. Share with us your current role and how you came across this opportunity.

I am currently a KDB+ System Developer and I was introduced to this opportunity through Michael Nette from Ambition.

2. How do you see yourself developing/potentially developing from this career move? In what way has Ambition helped you in your journey as a tech professional?

When I made the decision to proceed with this career move, my primary goal was to enhance my skills and learn. As a tech professional, upskilling is important, and I wanted to learn how to build a sound financial data system from front market data flow to end-user portals. In addition, improving my project management skills was another area I wanted to look at.

I was introduced to this role by Ambition and it has given me great exposure to the professional field.

3. What are the growing trends that you observe in the tech industry?

We’ve observed plenty of growing trends and I think the ones that will have a big impact on the industry are low latency, encryption/security, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud.

4. How can professionals in this space prepare themselves for these changes?

• Key skills they should pick up

There are several technologies that are fast-growing and there are related skills that will come in handy as companies explore these new areas. Examples of such skills include:

Big Data – KDB+, Hadoop, and Spark

Low Latency – Q, C, and C++

Machine Learning – Python, TensorFlow, and PyTorch

Cloud – AWS, Google Cloud Engine, and Heroku

• Growing areas? Obsolete areas?

Two big areas that are growing are blockchain and deep learning. New advancements are continuously being made and applied to different businesses. It will be interesting to see what developments will be made over the next few years.

5. Personally, how do you stay abreast on the latest changes within the tech industry?

We try to adopt them in our projects, and this gives me practical, hands-on experience that allows me to keep updated with recent developments and the introduction of new technologies.

6. Could you share with us a bit more about the challenges and highlights of your career?

One of the challenges that I’ve encountered is to process tens of millions of records in real-time and join multiple fast-updating tables for additional information. The next step would be to pipe this data through APIs and Gateways. KDB+ is robust in a single threaded scope but difficult when it comes to scaling.

7. What is the biggest learning that you've taken away during your time as a tech professional?

Of course, the optimal situation is to have the perfect code but it’s difficult and a bit idealistic, although it’s encouraged. What I’ve learnt is that it’s more important to deliver within cycles and to perform as expected without errors.