ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Is the data job market broken — or just reshuffled?
The vibes are all over the place. Some people have tons of opportunities; others have been job hunting for six months. What separates the two camps?
Ryan and Aaron sit down with Jeff Wolgamuth and Michael Butts from Birchworks, a 19-year executive search firm specializing in data engineering, data science, and AI placements, to get the real story on what's happening in data hiring right now.
We dig into:
- Where the demand actually is (and where it isn't)
- Why listing tools on your resume doesn't cut it anymore — and what to show instead
- The three things employers want to see from every candidate
- How fraud is reshaping the hiring process
- What it takes to break into leadership — and why the CDO role has fundamentally changed
- Compensation trends: who's getting raises and who's getting squeezed
- The fractional career path and why PE firms can't get enough of it
- Honest advice for juniors entering a brutal entry-level market
- Emerging trends: RLHF, frontier LLM certifications, and what's next
Whether you're actively job hunting, thinking about your next move, or just want to know where the market is headed, this one's for you.
Guests: Michael Butts (CEO) & Jeff Wolgamuth (Senior Recruiter), Birchworks — birchworks.com
