1 Indispensable Skill Every Data Professional Must Know

SQL. There's no surprise. Ask any industry veteran and they wouldn't deny.

Let me try to convince you by showing its importance:

Data Literacy:

Data is an asset. We live in a "data-driven" world. Business teams must know data literacy to leverage it. The easiest way to get business executives and employees started with it is using SQL. The syntax isn't tough and helps to get started in a short time. Data literacy is no longer "nice to have" but a "must-have" skill.

Basis of Advanced Analytics:

Business users often make use of SQL to get relevant information and derive actionable insights. Data, before being fed to Analytical Cubes and front-end tools like Power BI/ Tableau, etc, is manipulated using SQL.

Data Analysis:

If you are a fresh graduate and looking to get started in Data Analytics, do projects using SQL. A lot of exploratory data analysis can be performed using SQL alone. Once you know it, move on to R/ Python to do advanced data analytics.

Use in Modern tools:

SQL is the lingua franca query language of any modern database. Every year new Databases Management Systems come up. There is only a slight variation in their query language and most of them are some different flavors of SQL.

Getting Data From The Source:

This is what Data Engineers do. Data may lie in disparate sources and getting it is a challenge. This is the most critical step in any Data project and SQL plays a vital role.

I hope SQL becomes part of your toolkit. As long as there are relational databases, SQL will never go out of fashion. If you are a data professional, spend some time learning and getting comfortable with SQL. The returns will be high.