Do you need SQL for a data related job?

I wanted to talk about this because I see a lot of doubts and lack of direction from people who are either beginning now in IT land or thinking about switching careers. The short answer to “do I need to know SQL for a data job?” , is yes. In the next few paragraphs I explain why I think so.

It’s easy to get caught up in all the fancy programming languages and methodologies for projects that sometimes the basics… are just not there. I believe having a good foundation opens paths to other doors that you could not see before. And I’m certain that SQL is one hell of a foundation to have in the data land.

Data jobs have been on a hype for the past few years. There’s a lot of speculating about what a data person job is (and actually it can vary a lot). However, there is one skill that seems to endlessly haunt job descriptions. Can you spot it below?

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SQL is always on high demand for any data job. Because it’s part of our basics. And knowing your basics can help you thrive. You can learn a lot of interesting stuff about data, but in the end, you’ll most likely need to get your hands on a database at some point, and SQL is how you talk to a database (and I think that’s beautiful. Stop judging me!).

I’m working on a series of posts dedicated to people who would like to learn SQL from zero. I’ll focus on the Microsoft product, MS SQL Server. They have a version of SQL just for it, it’s called T-SQL. I hope to share my knowledge with you and perhaps help someone along the way. This is my way of giving back to the community 🙂

Any questions or suggestions, my comments are always there for you.

If you want to check out this same post in Portuguese, click here.