The Role Debate: Data Engineers vs Data Scientists

In 2012, the Harvard Business Review broke the term "Data Scientist" into the public awareness. Now, every company seems to be madly in the market for this mythical being. Schools are also one by one launching their version of a bachelors and masters degree in Data Science.

However, 7 years later, reality bites. On the one hand, companies still struggle with finding candidates, and job applicants struggle with seemingly impossible job descriptions. Those who are fortunate to have found data science roles themselves report rising levels of job dissatisfaction. Companies who have data scientists are also reporting they are not maximizing their investment and report rising costs of data analytics teams. At the same time, in the last 2 years, there seems to be a clamor for yet another data role: the Data Engineer.

What is the difference between a Data Scientist and a Data Engineer? Who does what? Who is more important for companies and when?

Reference: https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/data-engineers-vs-data-scientists

Join us as we discuss and dissect these two similar yet different roles, and what the way forward will be for companies, data practitioners, and the Philippine job market for data and analytics.

Representing the Data Science practitioners is Reina Reyes. Representing the Data Engineering practitioners is Arvin Lat.