ETL vs. ELT
The same three letters in a different order, describing two eras of data work. ETL (extract, transform, load) cleans the data before it reaches the warehouse, traditionally in tools like Informatica or SSIS. ELT (extract, load, transform) loads raw data into a cloud warehouse first and transforms it there with SQL, usually using dbt. JDs often say 'ETL' when they actually mean the modern ELT approach.
How to tell them apart on a resume
ETL (traditional)
Informatica PowerCenter, SSIS, Talend, DataStage, Ab Initio, Oracle or Teradata — enterprise data warehouses, often at banks or services companies.
ELT (modern)
dbt, Snowflake, BigQuery, Fivetran, Airbyte, Airflow, analytics engineering — cloud warehouses with transformations written in SQL.
The question that settles it
“Did you transform the data in a tool like Informatica before loading it, or load it raw into a cloud warehouse and transform it there with something like dbt?”
Read the full definitions
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