For this month’s Beyond the Data, we’re venturing overseas to our Bangalore office to meet Ravi Kumar, a talented Sr. Data Engineer with a passion for programming, traveling, and ping pong.
Tell us your name, where you’re from, and a little about you.
My name is Ravi Kumar and I’m currently residing in Bangalore, Karnataka along with my family.
I was born and raised in Patna, Bihar, which is a sacred place for Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs and is located along the banks of the river Ganges. I completed my primary and secondary education in Patna and pursued a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology.
I recently joined phData as a Senior Data Engineer and have enjoyed the daily opportunity of getting to code programs in multiple ways.
Two of my favorite dishes are Hyderabadi biryani and penne arrabbiata with red sauce.
What does a Sr. Data Engineer mean? What do you actually do in any given day?
As a Sr. Data Engineer, I build production-level solutions while incorporating best practices. Solutions consist of architecture (done by Solution Architects) and data pipelines (extraction, ingestion, validation, others) on the cloud, on-premise, or hybrid clusters using distributed computing. Solutions are featured to deliver the final dataset efficiently along with cost-effectiveness and scalability. On any given day, I would be doing any combination of tasks from the list below:
- Understand customer requirements
- Learning a new technology stack or do a deep dive into an existing one
- Programming
- Guide DE team members
- Share knowledge/experience with the DE team
- Share innovative ideas in our DE leadership channel
- Actively participate in team activities
- Be a creator of a team activity within the DE team
- Plan for the next day and week ahead
Are things what you expected them to be from when you were going through the interview process?
I would say that I got much more than what was expected from my side. It has been an absolute pleasure to join such a wonderful DE team here at phData. This is one of the key reasons I continue referring my acquaintances to phData and have received positive feedback from them too.
How has working with phData helped you accelerate your skills or career goals?
The opportunity and quality of work here have been so great. In just four months, I feel like my career goals are precisely aligned with my job. There are so many channels with experts to reach out to on any technology stack, which has greatly accelerated the growth of my technology skills.
What surprised you most about working at phData?
Onboarding. I was surprised by the amazing onboarding process at phData. Onboarding was so well defined that it covered every aspect concerning a new employee. Hat’s off to the HR-OPS team at phData. Additionally, their core values of psychological safety, grit, curiosity, and community have been well indulged in the working environment. This simulates positivity among us and the founders have been doing amazing in setting this up into the work culture.
I also love our Slack Channel called, “Ask Anything,” which is a safe place for us to ask just about anything and we’ll easily get many answers from various experts within phData.
What is the one thing you want customers to know about phData?
phData has been rated as the best place to work in Minneapolis. The quality of solutions delivered by phData is truly awesome. I have seen customers re-using these solutions across multiple projects within their organization. At phData, the capability to maintain the solutions running live by the MLOps team is the cherry on top.
Outside of work, what's your life like? What do you do for fun?
My life outside work is focused on keeping my surroundings full of positive energy.
I am an early bird and most of my days start with a jog or playing badminton with my friends. Ping pong has always been one of my favorite sports and I love to play on the weekends.
Occasionally, I play Counter Strike and go cycling. Most of my free time is spent with family and friends. I also enjoy learning new technology stacks. While COVID has certainly curtailed my travel plans, I do enjoy traveling.
Where would you like to go for your next vacation?
I would like to travel into the Solang valley of the great Himalayan mountain ranges. It’s been almost two years since I last visited and I’m eager to return. The snowy peaks with glacier water melting down into the river are calling to me.
