Scorecard

Level 1 — Awareness: Just getting started, concepts still fuzzy.

Level 2 — Basic Operator: Can use independently for routine/basic tasks (pre-junior level).

Level 3 — Applied Practitioner: Can audit, integrate with related tools, and troubleshoot simple issues (pre-junior level).

Level 4 — Junior Engineer: Can teach, build with the tool, and solve problems in organizational contexts.

Level 5 — Senior Engineer: Tool is second nature; can optimize, debug, innovate, and mentor others.

Current Comfort Level

• Structure Python projects optimized for scalability and collaboration.
• Write clean, maintainable Python code.
• Write programs with error handling, event logging, and environment-independent execution.
• Design reusable Python modules with init.py.
• Safeguard secrets using .gitignore and environmental variables.
• Maintain auditability using logging.
• Perform ETL workflows.
• Transform and analyze tabular data using Python data structures.
• Design and manage lightweight relational databases using sqlite3.
• Perform basic quality control using pytest and ruff.
• Set up virtual environments and manage remote and editable packages using pip.
• Build and install Python APIs.
• Connect to Google Drive using Google's API.
• Use Git/GitHub for version control and collaboration.

Immediate Next Steps (1–2 months)

• Become fluent with key data engineering tools such as numpy and pandas, pathlib, requests, selenium and scrapy.
• Gain competency with tooling and code quality packages such as sys, dis, and mypy.
• Strengthen professional practices by structuring ETL as reusable functions and pipelines, and integrating programs with terminal shells.

Current Comfort Level

• Apply core infosec principles across systems and data workflows.
• Manage and track IAM, assign Role-Based Access Controls, and enforce the Principle of Least Privilege.
• Map and document data flows throughout the data lifecycle.
• Use data services that provide encryption in transit and at rest.
• Maintain awareness of privacy-by-design and data minimization practices.

Next Steps

• Establish expertise to educate and collaborate with teams on secure data and device handling.
• Learn and practice tools for auditing and testing vulnerabilities (e.g., OWASP ZAP, Nessus, Azure Security Center).
• Develop confidence in documenting and reporting security posture and incidents.
• Implement logging and monitoring to support audit trails and anomaly detection.

Current Comfort Level

• Recognize Git as a system of record, where every change is traceable.
• Undertsand how teams use Git and Github to keep codebases compatible and workflows aligned.
• Use Git to track changes and maintain a remote repository over time.
• Maximize clarity and efficiency by following standard naming conventions and documentation for branches, commits, and repositories.
• Create deliberate version history and protect work with consistent use of add, commit, and push.
• Manage pull requests and merges via terminal (individual and collaborative projects).
• Create, work with, and merge experimental branches on solo projects and individual branches on collaborative projects.
• Merge branches using both merge and rebase.
• Diagnose and fix merge/rebase conflicts.
• Protect origin/main from direct or unauthorized pushes through branch protections.
• Explore version history, branches, and commits using status, log, diff, and show.
• Access and recover prior versions using stash, cherry-pick, restore, and reset.
• Set up a GitHub repository and connect to my local project.
• Connect a local machine to GitHub using SSH.

Immediate Next Steps (1–2 months)

• Improve comfort with resolving merge conflicts independently.
• Practice advanced history rewriting with rebase -i (interactive rebase).

Current Comfort Level

• Navigate directories.
• Run commands with conditional logic and ForEach-Object loops.
• Build .ps1 scripts to automate and standardize project setup.

Immediate Next Steps (1–2 months)

• Strengthen fluency with core PowerShell commands and syntax to navigate, query, and manage directories and files more efficiently in terminal.

Current Comfort Level

• Understand core database design principles (e.g. tables, relationships, normalization, granularity, primary and foreign keys)
• Working knowledge of core SQL syntax.
• Practical experience using sqlite3 in Python projects for structured data storage and retrieval.

Immediate Next Steps (1–2 months)

• Build fluency by using SQL in everyday work.
• Practice designing small schemas to support ETL pipelines.

Current Comfort Level

• Understanding of core cloud concepts such as availability and redundancy.
• Navigating GCP architecture and creating Organizations, Projects and Services.
• Configuring billing and safeguards to stay within budget.
• Enabling APIs and creating OAuth and Service Account credentials.

Where I'm headed

Build fluency with Cloud Storage, Cloud SQL and BigQuery to conduct large-scale data projects.