Is SQL Worth Learning in 2023? 5 Reasons to Learn SQL

Feb 3, 2023 by Efim

Hey! I already wrote an article about resources that will help you learn SQL and prepare for an interview for a desired job. If you haven't read it, you can check it out at the link. Now I want to explain why everyone should learn SQL in 2023. Why is he so good and why in 2030 the answer to this question will not change.

Versatility

SQL is used in many jobs in IT. Literally every specialist, whether he is junior or senior, whether he is a project manager or a technical support specialist, he must know SQL. Sooner or later, an HR recruiter will need to query the database or support department to draw statistical conclusions from last year's numbers. If you're even slightly into IT, SQL is the first thing you should learn from day one on the job. If only because it is found everywhere.

Note that I'm not specifically talking about PostgreSQL, Oracle SQL, or MS SQL. In general, I believe that once you have mastered the syntax of one, switching to the other will not be difficult and will take one evening. For example, I started with Oracle, but it turned out that I managed to work with each one. In any case, you will have to interact with databases, and I believe that you can prepare for this in advance.

Simplicity

Most likely, this reason is subjective. Everyone will take a different amount of time to learn something, we all have different abilities and, most importantly, different experiences and backgrounds. So I will speak from my experience. I learned SQL about 5 years ago, and it took me one month. One month of regular classes was enough for me to master SQL at a confident level, build complex database queries. By the way, I studied using the resources from this post.

SQL is intuitive, the query language has a very simple syntax (not like C ++), the keywords of which are one hundred percent consistent with English. I will list the main keywords to prove my words to you:

If you know at least a little English, then you will spend no more than a week learning SQL syntax (+ time to develop skills and practice). Moreover, a database query is neither a script nor a program. The query is not as cumbersome and does not perform complex calculations. The largest query I've written in my career was about fifty lines, and that was only because I was too lazy to write several small queries and I wanted to see all the pieces of the database on my screen.

Benefit

Let's calculate the SQL utility factor (of course, this doesn't exist, but let's imagine for a moment). We divide the huge value of universality by the small value of complexity, and we get a utility factor that approaches infinity.

But seriously, in my career, I have never been so grateful to myself that I learned SQL. It turned out that I changed my place of work quite often, and at the same time radically, working in absolutely different IT areas that had nothing to do with each other, and there was not a single position in my experience where I would never need SQL. Here's a short list to illustrate:

✅ Web developer

✅ Data Analyst

✅ Technical Support

✅ Penetration Tester

❌ Pizza Maker

Outlook

Let's say you've never worked with programming and query languages. Let's say you don't need it. You are a recruiter who communicates with potential talents, talks about the terms of employment and brings the candidate together with the team leader and project manager. Why do you need SQL? Good question. And here's a good answer for you - to understand who you're hiring. A small story from life. When I got a job as a data analyst, everything, as usual, started with a conversation with a recruiter, first through LinkedIn, then through Zoom, and during our conversation, I begin to understand that this girl with a beautiful voice does not understand who she is looking for. The position is written in her paper, the team leader wrote what to ask, she just reads from the sheet and does not understand what she is asking questions about.

I don't blame anyone in any way. Each of us is strong in his own way, and no one is obliged to know everything, for example, I don’t know how to do it right and where to look for talents. But it seems to me that if you are looking for a talent for the position of a data analyst and the team leader wrote something similar to SQL on the question sheet, then you can at least watch a YouTube video just to understand what this abbreviation means and why it is needed at all. It will take 7 minutes to figure it out.

Moreover, I have already said that working with databases is now everywhere. Even a small startup of five people, where I was a web developer, had its own database. If this is so common, then at least for the sake of personal interest and broadening one's mind, it would be nice to get acquainted with it, at least to understand what kind of beast it is.

Basis

Many developers say - if you don't know what programming language to learn, learn python. I would put it differently - if you don't know how to find yourself in IT, learn SQL. Considering all the factors that I mentioned above, I want to say that SQL will help you build the logic of an IT specialist in general, technical logic, so to speak. I wrote a post about two weeks ago about an educational platform that teaches python not through syntax and algorithms, but builds the very logic of writing programs for the student (if you haven’t read it, you can read it at the link). The head is literally rebuilt, and you begin to think differently.

If python is a great basis for developers, then SQL is a universal basis that will suit everyone. That is why many, including myself, recommend entering IT by learning the query language, because this forms the necessary logic in the minds of students.

Conclusion

In this post, I tried to prove to you that SQL is the foundation on which your career in IT should be built. This foundation, by the way, also includes Python, but more on that some other time. Sooner or later, in any case, you will have to deal with the query language, sooner or later you will still have to find out at least what it is, who uses it and how, and most importantly, why. If you have read this article up to this point and I convinced you, then I suggest you check out the article where I break down the best resources for learning SQL. Good luck!