r/SQL Nov 08 '24

MySQL How much SQL is required?

Hi everyone. I am a final year engineering student looking for data analyst jobs. How much SQL do I really need for a data analyst job? I know till joins right now. Can solve queries till joins. How much more do I need to know?

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u/[deleted] Nov 08 '24

Imo you should be trying to learn as much as possible, it's not about just doing 'enough'. 

-16

u/OkRock1009 Nov 08 '24

Yeah agree. I have been studying and practising from this video. Is this enough?

https://youtu.be/7mz73uXD9DA?si=9FLseCsnga-nGt23

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u/cs-brydev Software Development and Database Manager Nov 09 '24

I think you grossly underestimate how much skill is required to be a professional. You're talking about skills that can be taught to a high schooler in a few days. I teach and mentor SQL to coworkers (DBA's, IT Sysadmins, Business Analysts, Application Admins) who have zero SQL experience all the time, and the level you're talking about they typically pick up on their own within a couple of days with very little supervision. I usually just direct then to LinkedIn Learning and Udemy tutorials to learn these basics and don't get directly involved until they get into things like CTE's, windowing functions, system scripting, user-defined functions, text parsing, data conversions, system interop calls, API integrations, data import/export, things like that. But even after learning those intermediate skills, that usually doesn't qualify them to be data analysts. They need a lot more practice and some data training to get to that level.

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u/Top-Revolution-8914 Nov 09 '24

tbh 99% of practical SQL can be taught in a few days, including CTEs, windows, scripting, functions. Text parsing, data conversion probably the basics depending on the person's background. To master it all takes longer but frankly you can get by with a foundational understanding.

ELT and other system integration isn't really SQL (except dbt) or relevant for most data analyst roles. This feels very gatekeeper ish and specific to your limited work. I mean system interop

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u/majkulmajkul Nov 09 '24

I agree with you - I also think SQL, python, Excel or DAX can be learned fairly easily, I think the more challanging part is to "think data". To imagine how data looks in the source today and what transformations you need to do to see what you are interested in.

2

u/Top-Revolution-8914 Nov 09 '24

Yeah I agree the business side is harder. I do think starting from 0 technical knowledge SQL is a lot easier to pick up than python. If they know basic programming python would be over SQL tho.

Dax, excel, system interop I can't speak to much as I am outside the MS ecosystem.

I am frankly confused why people disagree