Introducing our new Pathway Training – Let's go for a walk!

Claire Poland

We believe that every question matters, every challenge strengthens us, and every pathway counts

Firstly, let us ask a few questions:

Are you an experienced kdb+ developer looking for new opportunities and training?
Have you mastered the basics and not sure what to do next?
Are you stuck in a role doing the same thing everyday?
Do you want to expand your knowledge base?

Maybe you just fancy a change; let us showcase what we have to offer at DI and the different routes we can make available.

You might be familiar with our graduate training program, the GATEWAY. But what comes next? You’ve mastered the basics like vanilla tick setup and on-disk data structures; where do you go from here?

At DI we don’t believe training should stop at the basics. We are committed to encouraging our employees to expand their knowledge through Continued Personal Development (CPD) and further in-house kdb+ training sessions.

Where will the path take you?

We’ve been developing additional in-house, level-based training to ensure our developers reach their full potential and become trusted advisors. This has led to the creation of the PATHWAY (Professional Academy for Time-series H???). The ‘H’ remains a mystery for now — can’t give away all our secrets!

Think of it this way: you start at the gate, and from there we help, advise, and guide you to build upon your core understanding of kdb+. Then, you embark on a journey along a path.

The destination is entirely up to you! There are several routes you can take, and we work with our employees to build upon their strengths, creating structured goals for them to achieve.

While you can learn kdb+ through online materials, becoming an expert requires much more than that – experience. Would you know how to improve efficiency or resolve issues effectively within a framework or structural architecture?

We have been working with our most senior kdb+ developers who have this experience to create an advanced training program that teaches these critical skills, encouraging our developers to think about the bigger picture, ask questions, and make informed decisions.

Pathway training topics

We’ve delved into the deeper functional aspects of kdb+, and here’s a sneak peek at some of the exciting topics we have covered:

Writing Feedhandlers – Capacity considerations, batching, striping and handling potential issues
Disaster Recovery – Different outage scenarios and how to manage them
Design Principles – Exploring different frameworks, building gateways or discovery services, why do we use them and all the nitty, gritty bits in between including security, permissions and best practices for writing APIs
Architectural Workshop – High-level decision-making (we call this “Questioning the Matrix”)
Profiling – Exploring hardware and cloud based solutions
Storage Solutions – Evaluating options like S3 Buckets, Elastic Block Storage (EBS), and ObjectiveFS based on requirements and budget
Technical Advisory Board – A collaborative initiative to share technical insights and to tap into others expertise, experience and perspectives

… and that’s just the beginning! We’re continually expanding our training offerings based on our People’s wants and needs.

Testimonial: I should have joined DI earlier!

"As a senior developer I wanted to work for a company where I can further improve my KDB skills. I wanted to be surrounded by people who are experts that I can learn from.

This all came true when I joined Data Intellect, I still remember my interview and the first few meetings with my People Leader, CTO and CEO. They were not only nice and approachable during the interview process but they are actually easy to talk to and have been ever since.

The first thing that got my attention was the focus on training, personal development plans and the more relaxed environment (Previously I worked on a trading floor in an investment bank).

My first task was to contribute to the training portal, both for Finance and Time Series. It was so nice to see how well organised the training material is here! The Time Series Training is exactly what a younger version of myself was missing a few years back!

What I expect from DI, is being able to grow continuously and gain exposure to different projects. Anyhow, my career is expanding here and I want to spend each day knowing I've learnt something new.

Oh and sorry if I miss out on drinks in London! I will probably be out salsa dancing!"

- Ferenc Hegedus

The journey

kdb+ is a steep learning curve, but at DI we foster a culture of togetherness, aiming to nurture our high-level developers and grow their technical mindset. Our goal is to develop teams, so they are capable of providing solutions to complex problems, not just work on the tasks at hand.

We are committed to investing in our developers to help them become trusted advisors:

People you can turn to for their views and opinions.
Individuals capable of making architectural decisions that impact scalability, performance and maintainability.
Team members who embody our values of togetherness, a can-do attitude, humility and problem solving.

Whether our employees choose a kdb+, data science, software engineering or business advisor focused route, we are here to support them on their journey. We provide the training they need to succeed and realise their potential.

Your journey starts here.

#ChallengeAccepted