Mentoring
Databricks mentoring that gets you to senior faster
A 1:1 Databricks coach in your corner: twice-monthly sessions, async chat in between, and honest review of your actual code and architecture. I'm Scott Bell — triple Databricks certified, and I still write pipelines for a living. You learn Databricks from someone doing the job, not teaching from slides.
I keep a small mentee roster so everyone gets real attention. Plans from $350/month (full subscription $450/month), cancel anytime.
- Databricks Certified Data Engineer Professional
- Databricks Certified Machine Learning Professional
- Databricks Certified Generative AI Engineer Associate
- 28 Microsoft certifications
- Creator of DailyDatabricks.tips
Scope
What mentoring covers
You bring the goal — a promotion, a certification, a migration you've been handed, or learning Databricks from zero. We build the path and walk it together.
Career path
Getting from mid-level to senior, from DBA or warehouse developer to data engineer, or from engineer to architect. We map the skills gap and close it deliberately — including how to present your work so it counts.
Code review
Your notebooks, jobs, and repos reviewed line by line by a senior. Spark anti-patterns, Delta Lake mistakes, brittle orchestration, missing tests — caught and explained, so the next PR is better without me.
Architecture thinking
How to reason about medallion layers, Unity Catalog boundaries, streaming vs batch, DLT/Lakeflow vs plain jobs, and serverless vs classic compute — and how to defend those decisions in a design review.
Certification prep
Structured prep for the Databricks certs I hold myself — Data Engineer Professional, ML Professional, Gen AI Engineer Associate. Study plans, drills, and exam strategy from someone who passed them. Start with my Databricks certification guide.
Real-project guidance
Stuck mid-migration, mid-incident, or mid-build at work? Bring it to a session. We debug the actual job, tune the actual cluster, and untangle the actual Unity Catalog permissions — your project moves while you learn.
Learning Databricks from zero
Career-switchers welcome. A sequenced path through Spark, Delta Lake, Databricks SQL, and MLflow with hands-on exercises in a real workspace — and a mentor to correct your course every two weeks.
Plans & pricing
Pick your plan
Published prices, month to month, cancel anytime. Every session is 1:1 with me.
Mentoring Lite
$350/month
- 1x 60-minute 1:1 session per month
- Written notes and next steps after every session
- Bring anything: code review, architecture, career, or cert questions
- Pause or cancel anytime; unused sessions roll over one month
- Upgrade to the full subscription whenever you want more cadence
Mentoring Subscription
$450/month
- 2x 60-minute 1:1 sessions per month
- Async chat between sessions — send code, questions, and job failures anytime
- Code and architecture review on your real work
- Written notes and next steps after every session
- Pause or cancel anytime; unused sessions roll over one month
Certification Mentoring
$550/month
- Prep with someone who passed them: Data Engineer Professional, ML Professional, Gen AI Engineer Associate
- Study plan mapped to the current exam guide
- Question walkthroughs and weak-spot drills
- Exam-day strategy and readiness check before you book the exam
- Everything in the mentoring subscription included
Team Mentoring
Custom
- A fractional Databricks mentor embedded in your team
- I join your ceremonies: standups, sprint reviews, design discussions
- Pull-request review with teaching comments, not just approvals
- Standards for Unity Catalog, Delta Lake, and cluster policies set as you build
- Scoped to your team size and cadence — fixed price agreed up front
Format
How mentoring works
Kickoff: goals and gaps
Your first session maps where you are against where you want to be — role, skills, certs. You leave with a written plan: what we cover, in what order, and how we'll know it's working.
Two sessions a month, your agenda
60 minutes on video with screen share, working in a real workspace — yours or mine. Code review, architecture whiteboarding, exam drills, or debugging whatever your week threw at you.
Async between sessions
Stuck on a Tuesday? Message me. Send the stack trace, the query plan, the PR link, or the DBU bill. You get a considered answer, not a link to the docs you already read.
Fit
Who this is for — and who it isn't
A good fit if you are
- An engineer who wants to level up on Spark, Delta Lake, and Unity Catalog with feedback on real work
- A career-switcher — from DBA, BI, warehousing, or software — who wants a guided path to learn Databricks properly
- Chasing a specific Databricks certification and tired of guessing what to study
- The "Databricks person" at your company with nobody senior to ask
- A lead who wants a fractional mentor raising the whole team's bar
Not a fit if you want
- Someone to do the work for you — that's consulting, and I'm happy to help there
- A same-day fix for a production fire — that's urgent help
- A passive video course you can watch at 2x and forget
- Real exam questions or a guaranteed pass — I don't sell either
- Progress without practice — mentoring works because you do the reps between sessions
Outcomes
What you'll be able to do
No invented statistics — just the capabilities mentees build, stated plainly.
Engineering capability
- Design a lakehouse — medallion layers, Unity Catalog structure, storage layout — and explain why it's shaped that way
- Read a Spark query plan and know where the time and money are going
- Choose between DLT/Lakeflow, jobs, and Databricks SQL for a workload — and defend the choice
- Cut a DBU bill by reading it like an engineer: cluster sizing, Photon, serverless, and job scheduling
Career capability
- Walk into a Databricks certification exam knowing what it tests and where you stand
- Hold your own in design reviews and architecture debates with seniors
- Talk about your Databricks work in interviews with specifics, not buzzwords
- Become the engineer your team asks — instead of the one who has to ask
FAQ
Mentoring questions
Which mentoring plan should I pick?
If you want to level up on the job — code review, architecture thinking, career moves — take the mentoring subscription. If your near-term goal is a Databricks certification, take certification mentoring; it includes everything in the subscription plus a structured exam plan. If you want a mentor for a whole team, email me and we'll scope it. Not sure? Say so in your email and I'll recommend one honestly, including telling you if mentoring is the wrong fit.
What actually happens in a session?
You set the agenda; I bring the judgment. Typical sessions: reviewing your notebook or repo line by line, whiteboarding a lakehouse architecture you have to present, debugging a slow Spark job together, mock exam walkthroughs, or rehearsing how to argue for a Unity Catalog migration with your leadership. Every session ends with written notes and concrete next steps.
Can you help me pass the Databricks certifications?
Yes — for the exams I have actually passed: Databricks Certified Data Engineer Professional, Machine Learning Professional, and Generative AI Engineer Associate. Certification mentoring gives you a study plan mapped to the exam guide, weak-spot drills, question walkthroughs, and exam-day strategy. I cannot share real exam questions, and I will never promise a pass — but you will walk in knowing exactly what the exam tests and where you stand.
I am new to Databricks — is mentoring right for me?
Yes, if you will put in hours between sessions. Career-switchers and engineers coming from SQL Server, data warehousing, or software backgrounds do well here: I build you a learning path through Spark, Delta Lake, and Unity Catalog using real exercises in a real workspace, and correct your course every two weeks. If you want a passive video course, buy one — mentoring is for people who want feedback on actual work.
Can I pause or cancel?
Yes. Mentoring is month to month — no minimum term, no cancellation fee. Pause for a busy sprint or a holiday and resume when ready. Unused sessions roll over for one month. You can also switch between plans, for example moving from certification mentoring to the standard subscription after you pass.
Do you mentor whole teams?
Yes. Team mentoring embeds me in your existing ceremonies — sprint reviews, design discussions, pull-request reviews — as a fractional Databricks mentor, typically a few hours per week. It suits teams new to the lakehouse or partway through a migration who need standards set and questions answered as they work. Pricing is custom; email a short description of the team and I'll propose a format and a fixed price.
Get a Databricks mentor in your corner this month
Email me your goal — the role, the cert, or the skill — and I'll reply within one business day with the right plan, a published price, and a kickoff slot.
Start mentoringSmall roster, real attention. If I'm at capacity, I'll tell you straight away and offer the next opening.