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?

Taken from Linkedin, July 2021Taken from Linkedin, July 2021Taken from Linkedin, July 2021

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.