Manoj Kukreja is the author of Data Engineering with Apache Spark, Delta Lake, and Lakehouse, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What is/are your specialist tech area(s)?
Manoj: Big Data Engineering and Data Science
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Manoj: Honestly, I had been thinking of self-publishing my first book for a while but never put the plan into action. Earlier this year, Packt approached me to write this book. I think they must’ve found me through my medium articles.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Manoj: I have been lecturing students on Data Engineering for the last five years. A lot of the material covered in my book is a result of several years of experience combined with lecturing.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Manoj: Delivering lectures and writing medium articles gave me a good head start. I just needed a final push to organize my thoughts and present them in the best way possible.
Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Manoj: Overall the cloud industry is empowering the way we perform computing in the modern world. Today, the limitless power of the cloud combined with modern-day analytics makes it possible to put dreams into action—something we could not have done in the past.
Q. Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Manoj: I deal with complexity but believe in simplicity, therefore, I have tried to present Data Engineering topics in the most straightforward way possible. Throughout the book, I have attempted to co-relate every topic’s theory with how it is done in reality. Hopefully, this co-relation will not only make the readers understand these topics but also implement them successfully in real life
Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?
Manoj: In my opinion, “The road to effective data analytics leads through effective data engineering.” Unfortunately, many companies are making the mistake of implementing data science practice in their organization without having a solid data engineering practice: this is a big mistake. After reading my book, my readers can hopefully understand why.
Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Manoj: Data Engineering is a vast topic, and the technologies are still evolving as we speak. By reading this book, the readers will get a good head start on the need for a strong Data Engineering practice within your company and how to implement it using modern data lake architectures and frameworks. Regarding the top tips, I recommend keeping yourself up to date on emerging technologies at the top of the list. Force yourself to read about and better practice using the new tech as soon as it gets introduced.
Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?
Manoj: Yes, and it is well read by followers. It is available at https://mkukreja1.medium.com/
Q. Can you share any blogs, websites, and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?
Manoj: My primary channel for blogging is medium – https://mkukreja1.medium.com/. The articles covered on my blog are purely on data engineering topics. My articles cover various topics in data engineering using AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-premises infrastructures.
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Manoj: My author journey with Packt has been very satisfying. I must say that every member at Packt is knowledgeable, well organized, and eager to help whenever required. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the entire team; thanks all for your contributions.
Q. Do you belong to any tech community groups?
Manoj: I am subscribed to many groups including the Toronto AWS User Group, Toronto – Cognitive, Al & Data Science Meetup, Data, Cloud and Al in Toronto DevOps Toronto, and The BlockchainHub.
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Manoj: By far, my favorite one is reading and writing articles on Medium. To keep myself up to date, I try to introduce new topics in the Data Engineering courses that I deliver on the weekends. This forces me to learn the latest tech before lecturing on it.
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Manoj: This, by far, has been the most challenging part. Managing time between my regular job, writing articles, lecturing students over weekends, and spending time with family comes with its challenges. I don’t think there is a magic pill to plan and organize except remaining persistent.
Q. What is the one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Manoj: I would say persistence and simplicity are very important. The hardest part of writing a book is to put your thoughts on paper—not everyone is good at it. I struggled with the same thing when I started writing articles. Remember to connect with the audience through real-life examples and follow the KISS rule (Keep it simple, stupid).
You can find Manoj’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here
