Come and meet Wilim, our data detective and data engineer. With a name so unique, you can bet his data skills are also unique. Dive deep into what he loves about his works, what motivates him, and why he believes data engineering brings so much fun and creativity.
Tell us who you are and what you do in Digital Poirots.
Hi dear Reader, my name is Wilim, and I officially work here at Digital Poirots as a Data Engineer, but, if you ask me what I unofficially do here at Digital Poirots, my answer would be that I am playing with magic over the data like if I was David Copperfield.
What does your typical day look like?
I always start my day with a cup of coffee while reading e-mails or scrolling through unread messages on my Slack if there are any. After my morning routine, I spend the rest of my day working on tasks assigned to me, in collaboration with my teammates, and with one more cup of coffee.
What made you decide to develop your career in this field?
I think the main reason was the way of thinking during the programming – you often have to be imaginative, creative, and predictable in doing that. Additionally, every day brings new challenges that push you to learn something new.
What drives you in your work?
Music and coffee!
What’s the best part about your position?
The technologies I use at any given time depend on the task or project I am working on – a new task or project may imply new technologies, but the concepts will still be the same. So that’s the best part of my job because I don’t have to worry that one day I’ll get bored with my job because of working with the same technology all the time.
What don’t you like about your job/work?
Writing the documentation.
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in your career or what ups moment you had?
Right now, I can’t remember any big mistakes I’ve made, but of course, there surely were many smaller mistakes I’ve made along the way.
What drives you crazy about your job or your daily activities?
Multitasking drives me crazy. It can add extra time to the task I’m working on, and if it happens often it makes me tired. Also, some unpredicted circumstances related to the task may have the same effect.
Which technology/tech stack do you like the most?
The tech stack I like the most is the data engineering-related stack, which contains technologies such as Python, SQL, ETL tools (e.g. SSIS), Apache Kafka, and CI/CD tools (e.g. Jenkins).
What advice would you give to someone entering this field?
I would tell them to enjoy the wonderful data universe where every data problem is unique and has its own approach to solving it. That pushes you to come up with creative solutions and makes your job more exciting.
Do you have any funny or interesting stories that happened here in the company?
My employers threw a surprise party for my colleague Ivo and me after graduation. The surprise included a cake, which was even more significant for me because it was the Ledeni vjetar, my favorite cake.
Your favorite person to work with?
I like to work with all members of Digital Poirot’s team (data team), especially our common discussions on a glass wall in the office (that we use as a writing board) related to data, of course.
If you can compare your job/work to one movie or show, what would it be?
Pat & Mat, I would say that sometimes data engineering, especially a part of data engineering that is close to the DevOps domain, is not always rainbows and butterflies. We sometimes face challenging infrastructural problems where searching for a solution can seem like we use a trial and error method as if we were in Pat & Mat.
If you can choose one song to go along with your job or which would make you be really in the zone while working, what would it be?
Something from Gigi D’Agostino always keeps me in the zone while I am working, especially the songs La Passion and L’Amour Toujours.
