Data Engineers, Formula 1 & Recruitment
I’ll be honest, I’ve been totally hooked on Formula 1 “Drive to Survive”. I’ve binge watched all three seasons (well two episodes to go at time of writing) and wanted an excuse to write about it for work.
But I think I am on to something, so here goes nothing.
Now, I’ll admit, I’ve never been an F1 fan, much to my in-laws dismay, so my base knowledge was almost as low as you could get — 20 drivers go round different tracks as fast as they can, the team with the best car/biggest budget usually wins. Simple right?
What I did not appreciate was the micro battles which happen across the paddock, with teams battling out to be best of the rest and on occasion make it to the podium.
It’s bloody fascinating! For some of these teams coming 5th is like winning the World Cup, which is pretty cool when you learn about their history throughout the show; the difference in budgets and you naturally start rooting for the underdogs — I dare you to not like Pierre Gasly!
Now what’s this got to do with recruitment — specifically of data engineers?
Well, if you’ve listened to my podcast before, you’ll know that the demand for Data Engineers is sky high at the moment. In fact, in March alone, we had around 20 separate roles across our UK business with various clients all screaming out for these people, with some clients looking for 5–6 people at one time.
Recruitment in F1 is key, you have two drivers in your team, usually a primary driver and although they never admit it, a secondary driver. Now, not everyone can have Lewis Hamilton on their team, in fact, not everyone can have a driver who has tasted the success of that elusive podium finish.
So they have to get creative. Do you have one experienced driver and compliment them with a rookie (a driver new to F1), or do you match two very similar drivers together to push them?!
In an unheard-of move Team Haas decided to go with two rookies for this season — stroke of genius or mental? We’ll see soon enough I suppose.
Anyway, get to the damn point … if you’re hiring for data engineering talent just now, chances are you are competing with the Mercedes, Red Bulls and McLarens of the world. So why not think outside the box? Can you hire two rookie drivers, or engineers in this case?! Can you lean on the experienced heads in your team to guide and mentor some less experienced people? Remember, in F1, rookies are coming from karting and F2, they don’t have the exact skills required to do the job on day 1, but they have the building blocks.
If you truly want to get ahead, you may need to hire someone with a strong SQL background, for example. Maybe someone great with maths, stats, or proficient with R/Python from University but who has never really worked on an ETL project before. Maybe a plucky Data Analyst in the team who has been looking for that next step and is already tweaking things in their own time using Python?
Yes, it will take longer, but you’ll be getting a more committed, highly skilled “driver” who in the long run may well help your business give the Mercedes of your industry a run for their money.
If you’d like to chat about F1 Drive to Survive or hiring data professionals in the UK, I’m always up for a coffee, virtually for the time being of course.
