辩护律师和会见律师

by Ed Nunes

由Ed Nunes

我是律师 现在我是一名数据工程师。 这是我的故事。 (I was a Lawyer. Now I’m a Data Engineer. This is my story.)

I have a career that I genuinely enjoy, but it wasn’t always this way. There was a time where I thought Same S?*! Different Day would be my motto until I retired in the distant future. It was a series of (seemingly) logical steps that led me towards a miserable career, and a series of minor decisions (and a fateful poker game) that led me to a career I love.

我有一个我真正喜欢的职业，但并不总是这样。 曾经有一段时间我以为Same S？*！ 在遥远的未来退休之前， 不同的日子将是我的座右铭。 这是一系列(看似)合乎逻辑的步骤，使我走向了一个悲惨的职业，而一系列的小决定(以及一个致命的扑克游戏)使我走向了我热爱的职业。

This is how it happened.

这是怎么回事。

大量的教育，但不是太聪明 (Lots of Education, but Not Too Smart)

Upon finishing high school, I prepared to enter a reasonably well-regarded state university. Around this time I had concluded, with all the confidence of the inexperienced, that math and science were hard and the humanities were easy.

高中毕业后，我准备进入一所颇受好评的州立大学。 大约在这段时间里，我以没有经验的人的全部信心得出结论，数学和科学很难，人文学科很容易。

Having no clue what I wanted to do with myself, I decided to take easy classes (preferably that met in the afternoon) while I figured it out. After two years of college, I still hadn’t decided on a career, but I did figure out how to kick the can down the road for three more years: law school.

由于不知道自己想做什么，所以我决定上简单的课(最好是下午见过的课)，然后自己弄清楚。 经过两年的大学学习，我仍未决定要从事什么职业，但我确实想出了三年来如何打起罐子的道路：法学院。

I saw my friends working on engineering and computer science degrees, and I had some inkling that maybe I should be doing something with technology. But at that point, I had adopted flawed thinking that would plague me for years: the Sunk Cost Fallacy. I had non-technical college courses under my belt, and switching to a technical major would make those courses worthless. It would be wasteful to pursue a technical degree, I reasoned, even if I found technology interesting. So, on I went with my education.

我看到我的朋友们攻读工程学和计算机科学学位，并且我有些暗示也许我应该在技术上有所作为。 但是到那时，我采用了会困扰我很多年的有缺陷的思想： 沉没成本谬误 。 我有非技术性大学课程，而转向技术专业将使这些课程毫无价值。 我认为，即使我发现技术很有趣，追求技术学位也是浪费。 因此，我继续接受教育。

I got into a prestigious law school, moved from Massachusetts to Virginia (no more shoveling snow!), and spent three years learning the law. During that time, I continued anticipating some sort of passion for the law to grab hold of me, but I was to be disappointed. In undergrad, I thought the enticement of a large salary would drive me to success, but as I got closer to starting my career, I realized that money didn’t have the allure I thought it would.

我进入一所享有盛誉的法学院，从马萨诸塞州搬到了弗吉尼亚州(再也没有铲雪了！)，并花了三年时间学习法律。 在那段时间里，我继续期望某种法律会抓住我的热情，但我感到失望。 在本科生中，我认为高薪的诱惑会促使我成功，但是随着我接近开始我的职业生涯，我意识到金钱并没有我认为会吸引人的魅力。

I was a walking contradiction: both my apprehension at pursuing a career I had marginal interest in, and my commitment to that career, grew. I remember scoffing at how foolish classmates were for dropping out after spending so much time and money on their law careers. Yet, I was ignoring how foolish it is to spend years pursuing a professional career I had marginal interest in.

我是一个步行的矛盾者：我对追求我边际兴趣的职业的恐惧，以及对那个职业的承诺都在增长。 我记得嘲笑过花了很多时间和金钱在律师职业上的同班同学是多么愚蠢的辍学。 但是，我忽略了花数年时间从事对我有微薄兴趣的职业生涯是多么愚蠢的做法。

As graduation approached, I felt more trapped than ever — though I had trouble admitting it to myself. I graduated, got my law license, and got a job. Graduating in 2010, in the middle of the largest recession in a generation, meant that even the solace of a high wage for boring work was gone.

随着毕业临近，我感到比以往任何时候都更加受困-尽管我很难承认这一点。 我毕业了，获得了法律执照，然后找到了工作。 2010年毕业，正处于一代人最大的衰退之中，这意味着即使是无聊工作的高薪慰藉也已荡然无存。

我去上班 (I Went To Work)

My fears were realized: I became a cog doing boring work in a place where I did not feel appreciated. That I had seen this coming for so long made it all the more bitter. I ended up processing claims for a legal settlement of the 2010 Gulf Coast oil spill.

我的恐惧得以实现：在一个我不感到欣赏的地方，我变成了一个无聊的工作。 我已经看到这种情况持续了很长时间，这使它变得更加痛苦。 我最终处理了有关2010年墨西哥湾沿岸石油泄漏的合法解决方案的索赔。

When I eventually shook off my funk from feeling trapped in my career, I took a look around at the people who were getting promoted at my company. I noticed a common thread: everybody who was advancing was doing significant work in Excel. In my quarterly meeting with my supervisor (which was usually the only time we talked), I told him I wanted to do more work in Excel, and he agreed to send more Excel work my way. That simple request transformed my professional life.

当我最终摆脱被困在自己职业生涯中的束缚时，我环顾了那些在公司得到晋升的人。 我注意到一个共同的话题：每个前进的人都在Excel中做着重要的工作。 在与主管进行的季度会议中(通常是我们唯一一次交谈)，我告诉他我想在Excel中做更多的工作，他同意以我的方式发送更多Excel工作。 这个简单的要求改变了我的职业生涯。

I did learn Excel and got quite good at it. It was challenging and exciting and powerful. I learned some VBA, and for the first time was using programming to complete my work. It felt like something had opened up in my life. Work became more than just a chore needed to pull in a paycheck. It became a place to learn and grow and build.

我确实学习过Excel，并且非常擅长。 这是充满挑战，令人兴奋和强大的。 我学习了一些VBA，这是第一次使用编程来完成我的工作。 感觉就像我的生活中打开了一些东西。 工作不仅仅只是增加薪水所需的琐事。 它成为学习，成长和建设的地方。

When I moved to DC for my wife’s new job, I made a decision that was a long time coming: the law was behind me and technology was my professional future.

当我搬到DC担任妻子的新工作时，我做出了一个漫长的决定：法律落后于我，技术是我的职业前途。

在纸牌游戏中绕过恢复老鼠赛跑 (Bypassing the Resume Rat Race Over a Game of Cards)

Of course, the decision to pursue work as a data analyst ended up being much harder to realize than I thought. While I had essentially been working as a data analyst for three years, my title had been “Special Counsel.” Of the people that actually responded to my applications, the general response was skepticism at my qualifications. On paper, I was a lawyer, not a data analyst, and I rarely got the opportunity to explain further.

当然，决定从事数据分析师工作的决定比我想象的要难得多。 从本质上讲，我从事数据分析师工作了三年，而我的头衔是“特别顾问”。 在实际上对我的申请做出回应的人员中，普遍的回应是对我的资格持怀疑态度。 在纸面上，我是律师，而不是数据分析师，而且我很少有机会进一步解释。

After a month with only a few interviews and no offers, I got tired of eating eggs for dinner and resigned myself to taking whatever job I could find. All the hard work I put into my resume and cover letters never did pay off.

一个月后，我只接受了几次面试，没有任何要约，我厌倦了吃鸡蛋作为晚餐，并辞职去从事我能找到的任何工作。 我投入履历表和求职信中的所有辛苦工作都没有得到回报。

Instead, a friend invited me to a poker game and it came up during conversation that I was looking for work. A person I’d never met before had a friend looking to hire a lawyer. And then I was interviewing at the company two days later.

取而代之的是，一位朋友邀请我参加扑克游戏，聊天时出现了我正在寻找工作的情况。 我从未见过的人有一个朋友想聘请律师。 然后两天后我在公司面试。

At this point, I had assurances (but no formal offer) from another company that they could hire me as an analyst in a couple months. I didn’t know what this new position that fell into my lap required, but I figured that I could tough it out for a couple months until the other job came through.

此时，我已经从另一家公司保证(但没有正式报价)，他们可以在几个月内雇用我担任分析师。 我不知道这个新职位需要什么，但我认为我可以坚持几个月，直到其他工作完成。

In the interview, I found out that they were working in the same industry as my last job (mass claims administration) and were looking for someone with Excel skills to do some data analysis. I doubt there was a person more qualified in the entire city, but the job was essentially unlisted. If not for that poker game, I expect my career would have been quite different.

在采访中，我发现他们和我上一份工作(质量索赔管理)在同一行业中工作，并且正在寻找具有Excel技能的人员来进行数据分析。 我怀疑整个城市中是否有一个更合格的人，但是这份工作基本上没有被列出来。 如果不是那种扑克游戏，我希望我的职业会大不相同。

So for six months, I did work similar to what I was doing before. My new job was a slight step down in seniority, but the culture was good, my boss approachable, and my colleagues smart and fun. I was assured there was the opportunity for rapid advancement, and that assurance held true.

所以六个月以来，我所做的工作与以前相似。 我的新工作在资历上略有下降，但文化很好，老板平易近人，同事们又聪明又有趣。 我向我保证，有机会Swift进步，而且这种保证是成立的。

我成为一名数据工程师 (I Became a Data Engineer)

After six months a position opened up on the three-person Data Operations team in the same company. At that point, my analytical work had gained recognition throughout our department, and after a brief interview, the job was mine. For the first time, I was working in a position where my exclusive and explicit responsibility was to support data analytics products.

六个月后，在同一公司的三人数据操作团队中建立了一个职位。 到那时，我的分析工作已在整个部门获得认可，经过简短的采访后，这份工作是我的。 第一次，我担任的职务是我的唯一和明确的职责是支持数据分析产品。

Unlike my previous work, most of the work for this job was done in SQL. During the interview, I was informed that my lack of experience in SQL was not a problem and I would be trained by my other team members. Which is why it was disconcerting when, on my first day, my new team lead informed me he was putting in his two-weeks notice.

与我以前的工作不同，这项工作的大部分工作都是在SQL中完成的。 在面试中，我被告知我缺乏SQL经验不是问题，我将接受其他团队成员的培训。 这就是为什么在我的第一天，我的新团队负责人通知我他要放两个星期的通知时感到不安的原因。

Management scrambled to reorganize, and in two weeks I found myself on a team with two other people with similar skills and experience to my own and a simple mandate: the weekly deliverables must continue to go out and they must be of high quality. For everything else, like how to manage a codebase our team could barely read, we were left to our own devices.

管理层争先恐后地进行重组，在两个星期内，我发现自己与另外两个人组成了一个团队，他们的技能和经验与我自己的任务相同，任务很简单：每周可交付成果必须继续发展，而且质量必须很高。 对于其他所有方面，例如如何管理我们团队几乎无法阅读的代码库，我们任由自己使用。

Facing this new and exciting and daunting task, I did the only thing that made sense to me: I immersed myself in SQL and didn’t come up until I felt like I knew what was going on. I read every book I could get my hands on (my favorites being SQL Queries for Mere Mortals and T-SQL Fundamentals). I stayed late, came in on weekends, and got weird looks from pub patrons as I sat in the corner drinking a pint with a giant manual open in front of me. Like all technology, there’s no magic, and with enough study and familiarity, the mysterious becomes mundane.

面对这项新的，令人兴奋的，艰巨的任务，我做了对我来说唯一有意义的事情：我沉浸在SQL中，直到我感觉自己知道发生了什么时才出现。 我读了所有可以动手的书(我最喜欢的是《 凡人》和《 T-SQL基础》的 SQL查询 )。 我熬夜，周末进来，当我坐在角落里喝着一品脱的啤酒时，酒吧顾客的表情很怪异，面前摆着一本巨大的手册。 像所有技术一样，没有魔术，经过足够的学习和熟悉，神秘的事物变得平凡。

That’s not to say that all it took was a little hard work and I was an expert. In my ignorance, I made many mistakes and bad decisions, some of which linger on in obscure corners of our code base. Being thrown into the deep end gave me the opportunity to rise to new challenges, and the incentive to grow professionally.

这并不是说所有工作都是辛苦的工作，而我是专家。 由于无知，我犯了许多错误和错误的决定，其中一些错误会徘徊在我们代码库的晦涩难懂的角落。 陷入困境，这给了我机会去迎接新的挑战，并激发了我成长的动力。

That being said, the value of having an experienced developer to guide a project cannot be understated. Later, my team would more closely integrate with our division’s software developer and operations teams, and their insight continues to be invaluable.

话虽这么说，拥有经验丰富的开发人员指导项目的价值不可低估。 后来，我的团队将与我们部门的软件开发人员和运营团队更紧密地集成在一起，他们的洞察力仍然非常宝贵。

Now I use SQL, Python, and JavaScript in my regular work, among many other technologies. Knowing that investments in my skills will directly improve the capabilities of my team provides a rewarding experience that encourages me towards continual learning. Reading technical articles can be intimidating as I continue to realize everything I don’t know. But at the same time, there’s the promise that through my hard work I can empower myself to do amazing things.

现在，我在日常工作中使用SQL，Python和JavaScript以及许多其他技术。 知道投资于我的技能将直接改善我的团队的能力，这将提供有益的经验，鼓励我不断学习。 当我继续意识到我所不知道的一切时，阅读技术文章可能会令人生畏。 但同时，我也有希望，通过我的辛勤工作，我可以使自己有能力做出色的事情。

回头看 (Looking Back)

While I don’t particularly appreciate my monthly student loan payments, I can honestly say that my educational experience has been valuable to me. Communication and analytical thinking are a large part of my daily work, and my years in college helped hone those skills. So while I would not necessarily choose this path for anyone else, I can appreciate the value my diverse experience has given me.

虽然我并不特别喜欢每月的学生贷款付款，但老实说，我的教育经历对我来说非常宝贵。 沟通和分析思维是我日常工作的重要组成部分，而我在大学期间的工作有助于磨练这些技能。 因此，尽管我不一定要为其他任何人选择这条路，但我可以体会到我丰富的经验给我带来的价值。

The biggest piece of advice I can glean from my unorthodox career path is this: don’t worry about where you’ve been, think about where you want to go, and then figure out how to get there.

我可以从我非正统的职业道路上收集到的最大建议是：不要担心自己去过哪里，想想要去哪里，然后再弄清楚如何到达那里。

翻译自: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/i-was-a-lawyer-now-im-a-data-engineer-this-is-my-story-3e8f70fdc966/

辩护律师和会见律师