My name is Cas Bezembinder and I am a Senior Data Engineer at Devoteam Netherlands.
When I started my studies, I didn’t expect that I would end up in the field of data, or IT in general. For my studies, I started out studying topics like political science before transitioning to studying philosophy for my Master’s degree. While studying philosophy, I came into contact with the field of logic, and immediately fell in love with it. I spent a few years studying everything from Aristotle to modern mathematical logic, and once the end of my studies was nearing, I took the step into programming.
From Trainee to Senior Data Engineer
I really enjoyed programming, which included a lot of the same logical thinking and problem-solving skills that I enjoyed about studying logic. I quickly decided to focus on working with data, for no reason other than that I thought I’d enjoy working with something concrete.
After completing a few online courses on programming, data science, and machine learning I was contacted by a Recruiter, who asked me if I’d be interested in a Data Traineeship at Devoteam. I happily accepted. A job (a rare thing for a recent philosophy graduate in general) where I could first gain the formal training needed to really be able to make the transition to working with data was exactly what I was looking for. Now, almost three years later, I’m still at Devoteam, enjoying my job in Data Engineering.
What does an average working day look like for you?
My days are quite varied. While there are Data Engineers at Devoteam that work in teams with other Data Engineers, most of my assignments so far have seen me placed as a single Data Engineer in a project with other professionals, be that developers or topic experts. This means that when it comes to data, I’m often a bit of a one-man team. I have regular meetings with the members of the project to determine what exactly is required with regards to data: what data should be available? How should people be able to access the data? Does the data need to be in a specific format? Do they want dashboards and visualizations? From there, I design and build solutions that match these requirements.
I really enjoy two things about this. First of all, due to the broad nature of these requirements, I get to work with a lot of different technologies and on different projects. I get to do architecture, data engineering, visualization, and some analysis – all in a variety of tools and languages. This means that every part of a project is new and different. This keeps my work fresh and interesting, and it gives me a broad range of experience – which in turn opens up more possible solutions for the next request I get.
Secondly, I really like the concrete and visible benefits of the things I build. A lot of the tasks that I spend my time on as a data engineer are things like cleaning up data and ensuring that data is available when needed. This is something that a lot of organizations already do, but far too often it has to happen manually. This costs many people many hours of boring work each week, such as moving excel-documents or cleaning up data. The things I build allow passionate professionals to spend their time on the things they care about.
Hobbies and activities
Outside of work, I can often be found in my local martial arts gym. In my youth and during my studies I already did judo and kickboxing, but in the last few years, I’ve really gotten into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It is one of the physically most challenging sports I’ve ever done, but there’s nothing that quite empties your head and distracts you from the programming problem you’re stuck on than someone trying to break your arm.
Advice for new colleagues
If I had to give advice to new colleagues, it is this: Devoteam is a place where you can develop yourself how you want to develop yourself. Don’t get too stuck in what you know or are already good at, but try new things, look around and pick a career path that seems exciting and new to you.
Cas is part of the DaaS Community
The Data as a Service (DaaS) practice within Devoteam Netherlands consists of a team of about 30 specialists who are focused on three technologies: Microsoft, Google and Elastic. Working in the DaaS practice therefore means that as a consultant you have a specific focus on one of these three Gold Data Partners of Devoteam.
In short, everything and everyone that has to do with data and the information-driven management of organizations is part of our DaaS practice. From Data Architects and Data Analysts, to Azure Platform Specialists and Elastic Monitoring Experts. Will you join us?
