The arena of big data technologies and tools is vast, and it is only expanding. It can become overwhelming for the freshers looking for building a big data career or the experienced looking to starting afresh with big data.

Thus, it is a challenge to decide the initial steps, and the idea of where to only begin. A clear and definite pathway can allow you to efficiently prepare yourself for the right role of your interest that you want to get in the industry of your choice.

The learning pathway of big data involves learning the right technology which is relevant to your job role. Let us discuss the basic big data skills that you need to begin with.

• The core of big data technologies is formed by Scala or Java. But you can also choose R or Python if you are uncomfortable coding in the former ones. Hence these skills need your focus one by one. You can pick any of these programming languages as a basic qualification.
• The big data engineer shall also carry the knowledge of Linux and Bash scripting as it is used for deployment of applications. Hadoop Developer shall also be familiar with the technologies HBase and Zookeeper.
• If you want to explore more, Flume and Sqoop are also widely popular technologies. The knowledge of these tools and technologies will make you an expert in essential big data skills. This will serve as a foundation for the next level.
• Once you carry the scripting and programming skills, next requirement is the knowledge of cloud. The big data technologies need the experience of cloud, and you can begin learning it by practicing on any cloud provider like AWS with smaller datasets.
• The knowledge of Hadoop Distributed Filesystem along with NoSQL is also required for a big data professional as these form the basic infrastructure of big data. The knowledge of NoSQL database in your relevant domain can help you build a strong big data foundations. This pathway can prepare you with basic big data expertise.
• There could be many other paths to follow further once you carry these skills. There could be a Kafka path or MapReduce path as per your interest. Else, you can also go for Pig or Hive to study more about the trending technologies of big data.
• For a professional looking for experience and skill set for big data architect, the advanced certifications and skills are also required. These include the knowledge of MongoDB and Cassandra as these two are very commonly used these days.