I've mentioned in previous blogs that I was not very good at math in school. I always had to take remedial math. In 8th grade I was in the "Thug Math Class". It was all the kids who had failed out of 8th grade a few times. A lot of those kids were into crime.
A few of them used to actually drive to school! That's how old they were!
In college the situation got better. I wasn't taking classes with criminals, but I was still behind in my math knowledge. I had to take Elementary Algebra at a local community college while at the same time taking my other classes at the local University.
During that Elementary Algebra class "it" clicked! I understood what I was being taught!
FINALLY!
However, it wasn't enough to just understand. I had to practice. I had to do a lot of homework exercises to reinforce what I had learned.
SQL is no different.
If you look at SQL jobs out there...whether they be DBA jobs, BI jobs, MySQL type jobs, PostgreSQL type jobs, Oracle jobs, or SQL Server jobs they all have one thing in common: SQL.
It's irritating going on the job hunt looking for SQL Server jobs. Let's say you don't see many, but you do see a lot of other SQL type jobs. So you set out to learn MySQL, or PostgreSQL, or even Oracle. You land an interview and don't get the position.
Then you get a call that there's a PostgreSQL job. So now you learn PostgreSQL.
You don't know what to focus on!
Here's what helped me: Focus on SQL.
A buddy of mine from work, who has been a senior level SQL DBA for years, told me that "SQL was SQL".
We had been told by upper management that we were switching from SQL Server to PostgreSQL. We were keeping our e-learning platform on MySQL. However, our bread and butter work was going to focus on PostgreSQL instead of SQL Server.
I was starting to panic! I considered myself to be at the junior level of SQL. I felt a lot of anxiety as I thought that there might be a huge learning curve if I had to switch gears from one platform to another.
My friend Rob assured me that, "SQL was SQL." He said that as long as you understood SQL you just had to remember the particular nuisances of each platform. 'Those", he said, "you can just Google."
He was right.
A few blog posts ago I put some links that helped me quite a bit with SQL. Here's another source of help. I've been playing around with this app on my Android phone. It makes practicing SQL pretty fun.
The app is called, "Knowledify SQL".
I've played around with a few SQL practicing apps. I found them to be limited to basic queries. Others didn't allow you to practice queries. They just had basic tutorials.
This app treats SQL like a game. You even get points towards achievements.
I would strongly suggest getting an app like this one. You need to practice SQL quite a bit to get good at it. You also need the repeated practice to get SQL in your head. What I mean is, you need to not only understand it but memorize it. That's where speed develops. Understanding AND memorization.
What's also cool about this app is that you don't need your computer. You don't need to install any particular flavor of SQL.
Imagine, you're sitting there waiting for your doctor to see you. Or your sitting in the car waiting for you kid to get out of school. Instead of just wasting that time you can do something beneficial. You can practice SQL!
I've found that my goal of practicing SQL at least one hour a day in addition to what I do at work is very easy to meet. The other night I spent 3 hours on the app, and didn't even realize it!
Good post! Thanks!
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