More context: I was a 60% Data Engineer and 40% back eng engineer.

The job ads now ask for cloud computing, I did on-perm with similar components but built in house.

Step Functions Glue Athena S3 RDS

Databrick GCP Snowflake

I am looking at ways to 'modernize' 'cloudifly' myself

This is chatgpt suggestions: Step 3: Your FIRST project (this is the breakthrough) Project: “Cloud Data Pipeline” (must-do) What you build: Pull financial data (API) Store in S3 Process with Python Schedule with Airflow Load into warehouse (Redshift or PostgreSQL) Architecture (simple) API → Python → S3 → Airflow → DB → (optional dashboard)

Sometimes I wonder if my timing is really 'bad', to be out of work in a year that the learning curve become so steep.

Then when I worked with AI coding tool, it's like coaching a new junior. Though their 'way of coding' bought a lot of 'surprises'.

Upskilling is showing I commit to learning and improving myself, and getting a shot in the interview by not 'lying' to list the skills on my CV. I had an interview the other day and the take home assessment was actually fun for me. Though the vibe of the company didn't really click so I kinda show in the interview. Ouch... another story.

I actually think if given some ramp up time, I would learn the skills while on the job. Because decade in tech meant that I have done that multiple times.

Thank you for the steps

I am a super social anxious so the first 2 steps felt a bit daunting. I moved (family reason - caregiving) so my 'best work buddies' are in another city/country. I did reach out to 2 or 3 but no leads there. I am from a company that people 'used' to stay there a very long time.

I joined a local mentoring group in STEAM and expanding my network.

For step 3, I put in

Side Project: Python Coding Agent AWS cloud platform

Practice Interview: LeetCode SD BQ Story writing

I am still looking for a side project

I just want to add I am interested if there are any opensource or volunteer project contributing to medicine/health/public good area.

Thank you everyone for your kind comments.

I didn't 'code' or read any CS related for almost a year. I agreed that now I didn't need more 'input' course material, but rather a 'learn and output' way to rebound.

Since last October, I have been using github co-pilot(because its free, unemployed) to write little python project helper for my finance admin and other daily stuff. Initially I had to 'plan' with AI, broke tasks into smaller tasks and modified a few things. I haven't 'written' a single line of code since January as the model is so powerful they can step thru the changes and debugging. Granted this is a very small project.

I aslo think contributions to the opensource projects would be helpful, for the sake of mental health and having 'real' practice.

I am also thinking about might be start with some opensource project that I have used, e.g. like pyarrows, pandas, jupyter for python, and spark for scala. However, I think I am actually more interested in building a system together, rather than writing 'libraries'.

Do you know how I can find one? I had tried searching via google but its not effective. I guess I don't know how.

I have also tried to find 'volunteer jobs' but not very successful. Again, I think I might not know 'where' to look.

I think my mind is still all over the place after the burnout so would need some brain power from the community.

Thank you!

Pypy is looking for contributors. There was a recent HN post about it.

Thanks for the heads-up.

I have never worked on compiler. More on application level. I did have a lot of benchmarking experience on architecture choice so might be that is a skill I could contribute.