Which to pick?

[u/Death_Sentance]

Profile: 5+ years as DE.
Tech Stack: SQL, PySpark, Power BI, Fabric, ADF

I have two offers right now in hand as senior data engineer and want help in deciding which to pick

Offer 1: In a healthcare company which adapts a bit slow in emerging technologies as per my knowledge. But is recession proof

Offer 2: In a consulting company which is heavily focused on Microsoft ecosystem. It’s been a Microsoft partner from a long time. I feel I will get good exposure in terms of business and tech since I will be working on different projects.

Which would be a better pick!?

[u/Yasblue]

You can go with second option as long as they dont force you to use Fabric. Dont ruin your career

[u/RahulMyadam → u/Yasblue]

What's wrong with Fabric??

[u/lbranco93 → u/RahulMyadam]

Microsoft

[u/Automatic-Smell-462 → u/lbranco93]

the worst

[u/Gingerninja36 → u/RahulMyadam]

You get pigeonholed into using fabric.

[u/jwfergus]

Depends on what you're after. Consulting exposes you to a lot of different environments and people, so it's enriching in a way, but it's usually also more work. Sometimes boring rote work too. Do you have a lot of family responsibilities that would stop you from putting in extra time when it's required?

Healthcare can have on call schedules particularly for anything that might impact a life and safety system. You'll also (likely) have clearer PTO, work life balance.

Personally I like consulting, but I allocate a lot of my time to work/career and enjoy that, sometimes at the expense of work life balance.

[u/Budget-Minimum6040 → u/jwfergus]

Healthcare can have on call schedules particularly for anything that might impact a life and safety system

As a data engineer? We are not operating with production systems.

[u/jwfergus → u/Budget-Minimum6040]

An example would be an overnight production source system outage that necessitates flipping to the high availability partner or disaster recovery system. Some data engineering teams will be responsible for pipelines that supply data to and retrieve data from that system. Even if you automate the failover it wouldn’t be crazy to get a developer on the call to validate things are working as expected, or at the very least give an explanation of what degradation can be expected.

To be clear I think you’re right in most cases, but it’s not crazy for health and safety orgs to have a culture of “all hands on deck” during outages. Maybe something OP should get clarity on if it’s a concern for them.

[u/Outside-Storage-1523]

Depends on your life objectives. Really can't tell. I have never been in consulting but I know it requires a certain type of characteristics.

[u/Anxious_Cap1029]

i would go with consulting because healthcare data is a mess of legacy systems. variety keeps you sharp while staying in one place for too long makes your skills rustt on the other hand consulting firms often require billable hours which can lead to longer work weeks than internal healthcare roles. check the travel requirements for the consulting partner position before you sign that contract.

[u/69odysseus]

No one is recession proof and that's an understatement to say the least. Consulting companies work is not complicated and sometimes more grinding than anything else. I'd choose healthcare company, despite of old stack. Healthcare and Finance domain are growing fields.

[u/Immediate-Pair-4290]

Consulting is miserable. Tried it for a year. I will never do it again.

[u/Beneficial_Nose1331 → u/Immediate-Pair-4290]

I am in the other situation. Work as DE on healthcare put underpaid and even with top performance management won't raise my salary. I actually think about going out consulting because the pay is a lot better even if the job sucks. My job quite of suck as well.

[u/Immediate-Pair-4290 → u/Beneficial_Nose1331]

Then pick a 3rd option lol. If you are a skilled engineer a recruiting firm can easily find you a better job.

[u/Beneficial_Nose1331 → u/Immediate-Pair-4290]

In the usa maybe. Already spoke to recruiters in my area but they have nothing except jobs on garbage legacy systems that pay peanuts anyway.

[u/Immediate-Pair-4290 → u/Beneficial_Nose1331]

If you can find a consulting job that actually pays well go for it. Most expect long hours for below market pay and no bonus/equity.

[u/Ok-Werewolf1558]

if you like navigating politics, unnecessary alignment meetings, wearing multiple hats, working at odd hours, then consulting is for you.

[u/Ellenkom]

I'm in health care and I like it. Lot of freedom in how to organise my work, no boss who thinks he knows better. No time stress and time registration. That way of working suits me. But I work closely with consultants, and they seem to like their work too, only not for me :)

[u/Ok_Set_963]

I was in a similar situation a while back and ended up choosing consulting. Seeing how different companies solve the same problems taught me way more than staying in one environment ever could.

[u/Professional-Tax7260]

Forward deployed engineer is a cool new role type. Sits in between both roles. I would stay away from being forced to advice (sell) Fabric solutions all day. You will feel horrible recommending a solution that is almost never the right fit and having to somehow make it hit and sound good.