Data Modeler

As a Data Modeler, you represent both the yin and yang of computer professions. You’re creative and highly logical at once, allowing you to find ingenious solutions to computer system problems while implementing them in a structured, well-documented fashion. A Data Modeler takes large masses of information and sorts them into separate chunks that all relate to one another in some way. Often, the models of information you plan out are used to structure a large computer database.

In a way, you serve as a Highway Planner for computer information. Data must be stored, retrieved, and transferred across the most efficient paths possible, and this involves linking different sections of data to other parts. Social security numbers, for example, are stored in one table and then linked to the names they correspond to, and these names, in turn, might link to phone numbers, physical addresses, and other personal information.

A Data Modeler’s work may be physical or conceptual depending on the specific stage of the project. Perhaps your boss needs only a rough outline of how information will be retrieved from various systems, or she may want the details mapped out right down to physical locations where every bit of info is stored in the computer.

Often, you work on a team to complete a project. It’s your job to conjure up an idea of what the finished project will look like. You create the picture on the puzzle box, and the Computer Programmers and Computer Engineers who make up your team fit the pieces together.