Have you ever found yourself taking on more responsibilities at work, only to realize you’ve accidentally become something entirely different? That’s exactly what happened to me. I started as an IT support guy at a massive company, but before I knew it, I was building 500+ line Python scripts to automate reports and connecting to internal apps with APIs.
It all started when I noticed the tedious copy-paste workflows for reporting. I wanted to help, so I started assisting with Excel formulas and stuff. But soon, I was creating automated reports left and right, using PowerQuery to load clean data into Excel files and creating pivot tables with graphs. I even built scripts to clean and enrich data from multiple sources.
The weird part? I’m still getting paid as an IT support guy. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the overtime and the recognition from high-ranking people in the company. But let’s be real – my current setup is unsustainable. CSVs on a shared drive and Python scripts on my Windows desktop won’t cut it forever.
The company is old-school when it comes to tech, and they still think I’m just ‘good at Excel.’ But I know the truth – I’m doing data engineering work without the title or the paycheck. It’s time for a change, and I need a raise.
If you’ve been in a similar situation, I’d love to hear your story. How did you navigate the transition from IT support to data engineering? And more importantly, how did you convince your company to give you the recognition (and salary) you deserved?