From Actor to Data Engineer: An Interview with Jeff Vermeire

<blockquote> <p>Welcome to the DET’s “From Anything to Data Engineering” blog series! At DET, we believe that everyone can build a data engineering career regardless of their background. In this blog series, we interview data engineers from various backgrounds and share their unique career journeys and lessons learned. By telling personal stories, we hope to encourage more curious minds to discover their own strengths and break into data engineering!</p> </blockquote> <h1>About Jeff Vermeire</h1> <p> </p> <p>Jeff Vermeire</p> <p>Jeff Vermeire is currently a Staff Data Engineer. His data career started as a data analyst and before that, he was an actor! Jeff spent 41 years of his life with undiagnosed ADHD and as a result, he has a wide breadth of interests: from tennis, running, cycling, and hockey, to micro-farming, to urban design, to politics, to video games. Most recently, he discovered his passion for camping, after spending a night in a tent with his son in our backyard.</p> <h1>Q: What did you do before data engineering?</h1> <p>Oh gosh. Before I got into data, I was barely surviving. Mostly I was <a href="https://www.pghcitypaper.com/arts-entertainment/the-last-night-of-ballyhoo-1380601" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">acting</a> and doing lighting design for area theaters, which didn’t pay. I could never decide what I wanted to do with my life, but I was a pretty decent actor, so I thought it was a perfect job for me. What other career gives you the opportunity to be anyone at any given time? I also spent a number of years selling tennis gear, coaching, and delivering pizzas… There are some stories there, but I’ll save that for another day.</p> <p>On top of all that, I had become somewhat of a professional student: I kept accumulating credits but never graduated. I started in Computer Engineering because that’s what my parents wanted. After taking some time off, I transferred to major in theatre and ended up failing out of school. At one point I tried web design and biomimicry research.</p> <p><a href="https://blog.det.life/from-actor-to-data-engineer-an-interview-with-jeff-vermeire-b3905c34c0ab">Visit Now</a></p>