The Chandoo of SQL?

[Montrey]

I want to learn SQL. Since Chandoo and related blogs helped me become pretty fkin awsome in excel, is there an equivalent SQL blog /site?


Chandoo's site got me so interested in Business intelligence it is now what I want to do for a living but I am having some trouble on figuring out how to move out of the finance field and into the BI field which is more on the IT side of things.


Feel like I am trapped. Do i go back to school and get another degree? or is there an entry level BI job of any sort that I could get into?

Just wish a company would give me a chance.


either way. Thanks for any help anyone could provide, you guys are the best.

 

[Jordan]

I'm right there with you man. I only have an undergraduate degree - and I'm debating if I should go back to school to get a more advanced degree. It's not that my job needs it - it's just that everyone else I work with seems to have a masters or phd. So it's not clear that I need one...but if everyone else has an advanced degree, shouldn't I? I don't know. I get a lot of conflicting advice.


In any event, why do you feel trapped? why not pursue an entry level position? I'd take a look on LinkedIn, Dice.com, and eFinancialCareers.com - maybe something is available for which you are well suited? If you live in the United States, you might also consider an online degree an analytics. Northwestern University is a well acclaimed school and offers an online degree which you could complete while you're working at your new position. You could also pursue and online masters degree form Penn State in applied statistics or management information systesm - both of which are good degrees for BI depending on whether you like the soft mathematical side or the hard infrastructural side.


Good luck.

 

[NARAYANK991]

Hi Montrey ,


There is no dearth of SQL sites ! When I put :


SQL tutorial


in Google , I got the following :


1. http://www.w3schools.com/sql/

2. http://www.tutorialspoint.com/sql/

3. http://www.sqlcourse.com/index.html

4. http://www.1keydata.com/sql/sql.html

5. http://beginner-sql-tutorial.com/sql.htm

6. http://www.baycongroup.com/tocsql.htm

7. http://www.quackit.com/sql/tutorial/

8. http://sqlzoo.net/


Having just glanced through them , I think you can become and expert in SQL just by going through these sites.


However , I would like to say that SQL is a very small subject , if you take it only from the programming point of view , somewhat like regular expressions. Since SQL is connected with databases , it is more important to understand RDBMS if you wish to continue in an IT career.


Secondly , you can combine both Finance and IT , especially since nowadays more and more IT personnel are taking up Finance courses ; BI has been named aptly , since I think it relies more on intelligence than any in-depth knowledge , unless it is domain knowledge ; if you need insights in finance , you certainly need some if not a lot of finance knowledge ; you are fortunate that you are already in finance ; I think it is easier for a finance person to get into BI than for an IT person to get into BI , since for a finance person , BI is adding value , whereas an IT person who is very strong in IT does not really need any value addition.


Lastly , don't let anyone tell you that your education is inadequate or incomplete ; the only thing that education needs to teach you is how to learn , and a passion for learning ; as long as you have this , I think you can go very far in life. Your knowledge may be insufficient , but it is not something that you cannot overcome. Just start.


Narayan

 

[Sajan]

Hi Montrey,

Since Narayan provided you a few sites to check out, I will not attempt to add any to that list.


BI is a vast topic, and is often used as a catch-all term when companies or consultants want to sound important. It can mean reporting, analytics, data warehousing, database tools, reporting tools, etc. to name a few. With respect to BI, one can specialize in the science of how the data is turned into information (where you would focus on database technologies, reporting tools, data warehousing methods, etc.), or become specialized in a specific domain (such as finance, sales, marketing, etc.) and analyze the information to help others make business decisions. Since you already have a background in finance, that might be something you may want to explore.


As Jordan pointed out, there are quite a few universities and training companies that offer courses related to BI. However, as Narayan pointed out, there is a wealth of information available publicly too.


As far as getting an entry level job in BI, I would encourage you to leverage your finance-field knowledge, since there are more than enough techies out there but not enough business/subject matter experts. Some job titles to look for include "reporting analyst", "metrics analyst", and "data analyst".


Good luck with your exploration.


Regards,

Sajan.

 

[Colin Legg]

For SQL Server you might want to check out

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/


The site has blogs, articles, question forums etc. When you join you will get daily emails with SQL tips (which you can turn off if you don't want them).