At the end of the day, the code is just the foundation. What matters most is how people feel about us and the interfaces we build. Do they feel they can trust us to build systems that safeguard their data? Do they feel comfortable accessing and inputting information? Do they feel like they are listened to? Therein lies the real work of data engineering.
What I'm working on: I’m building a single source of truth for our member information. Right now, that data is scattered across Google Sheets, digital folders, and even physical files. The project is about more than consolidation. It’s about building reliability and confidence in how we access and use that information.
Tools I'm using:
- Python:
- Data handling:
pandas,numpy,re,unicodedata - Storage:
sqlite3 - Utilities:
pathlib,typing,logging - Documents:
PyPDF2 - Google API access:
gspread,google-auth,googleapiclient
- Data handling:
- Platforms: VS Code, Google Sheets, Google Drive, Google Cloud Console.
What I've learned:
- The power of soft skills. Building a successful data pipeline involves way more than solid technical skills. Listening, communicating clearly, solving problems with flexibility and patience, and managing expectations are just as critical as writing code. My clients are my teammates. If they don’t trust the security of the data or feel comfortable entering and retrieving it, no technical wizardry will matter.
- Back up. And never forget that trust is the real currency. We had two data loss incidents. In one case, I managed to recover everything after hours of work. In the other, part of the dataset was gone for good. Both shook confidence in the system. What saved me was the credibility I had built over years of showing up and delivering. In a way, I spent that “stored trust” like currency.
The clearest lesson of all: more so than any language, platform or technique, data engineers depend on the trust our clients have in us. Files can often be restored, but trust is far harder to rebuild.
If you’ve ever learned the hard way about backups or trust, I’d love to hear your story.
tags: #systems-thinking, #applied-learning, #dev-life, #narrative, #reflective
Originally written as a learning log entry on October 2, 2025.