Introduction to Careers in SQL
SQL stands for Structured Query and Domain-specific Language. It is used to communicate with and manipulate the data stored in RDBMS Databases. SQL is spread across diverse domains and has many concepts and theories to its name. However, in order to start a career in SQL, one needs to gain proficiency across all the concepts involved in the subject. Aspirants of careers in SQL will have multiple roles to play in data-centric organizations. As a result, the market demand is high for analytical thinkers who can blend their analytical thinking with SQL methodologies. Candidates who are passionate about working in data and dealing with its challenges analytically make an ideal match for a career in SQL ,a lot of them understand the future scope as well as demand for skilled people in the market end up enrolling in some SQL Course offered by good institutes across the globe.
Since SQL is uniformly distributed across both on-premise and Cloud, the market is flooded with jobs that use SQL majorly and have an ever-rising demand for SQL professionals. Although technical transformation at each step is changing the job landscape rapidly, being proficient in SQL will never go out of date. Instead, it will only help you find a perfect job role for your career growth. There are few things which you will have to be aware of, as a beginner or an SQL enthusiast, Learning from online SQL tutorial can help you master the basic concepts of SQL. In this blog, we will explore different aspects of finding and developing a career in SQL. Let’s take a look at the list of contents:
- Education to Improve Careers in SQL
- Career Path in SQL
- Job Positions or Application Areas
- Salary
- Career Outlook & Conclusion
Education to Improve Careers in SQL
The job requirements, prerequisites, and qualifications required for a career in SQL may differ from company to company, job type, client requirements, time, and Money.
- As we go along in the future, SQL professionals will be required to have a bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree in computer science or CIS, or any IT-related major specializations like B.Tech./B.E./MCA.
- They would be required to have a certification in Database Administrator (DBA), Database Developer, Database Designer/Database Architect, etc will further add more gravity to the qualification.
- An additional recommendation for candidates would be to learn PL/SQL and ETL tools that have great demand in the market today.
Careers Path in SQL
Among the plethora of popular databases, SQL servers stand third in popularity. Over millions of SQL servers, today are functional globally with millions of SL professionals managing them continuously.
Some of the most successful SQL career options include SQL Server Database Administration and Development, Business intelligence professionals, Data science, and engineering. Out of all the SQL roles currently in the market, DBA is in the highest demand which is further categorized into Development DBA, Production DBA, and Infrastructure DBA.
Job Positions and Application Areas
Database Administrator (DBA) – Person responsible for administration and maintaining a SQL Server database.
Database Developer – A Database Developer’s main duties are to design and implementation of databases.
Database testers – A database tester’s primary job role is to validate the database for the right data loaded.
Data Scientist – It’s a new job to deal with Big data, responsible for analyzing, predicting, and mining data to drive the business forward.
ETL Developer – The ETL developer will work on extracting, and transforming data from databases.
Data Application Interface Developer – Who works with different programming languages like ASP.Net, C #, and Java needs to connect to databases.
BI Application Developer – Business Intelligence Developer is one of the high-demand jobs in the market related to Data Warehousing, Reporting, and data transformations and dealing with query languages to analyze different data cubes and marts.
BI Administrator – BI Administrator is responsible for executing ETL jobs and publishing and monitoring Data Warehousing reports sometimes comparing data with SQL database for backend validation
Big Data Expert – Big Data expert works with Big data tools like Hadoop, Spark, Hive, etc., requiring SQL proficiency.
Cloud database Expert – We have many cloud databases like AWS, GCC, and Microsoft Azure which need SQL professionals.
Database Migration Engineer – He is responsible for data migration from different sources into SQL servers.
Data Analyst – Main responsibility is to create Key performance indicators to analyze data
BI Reporting Engineer – Builds, and executes business reports and metrics using different BI tools like Microstrategy, Tableau, Cognos, and Panorama Necto Business Intelligence solutions which build on SQL databases reporting concepts.
BI Solution Architect (SME) – Provides solutions for a business problem by analyzing data from various sources like SQL, etc.
NoSQL DBA – there are many no SQL databases like MongoDB, etc but SQL skills must be applied to work with NoSQL administration.
Big Data Architect – In today’s world data is everywhere in huge volume, velocity &in different verity so big data architect provides solutions to handle data in large number.
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Salary
Let’s take a consensus of salary ranges being offered in the USA. According to current salary data as of March 2018, SQL professionals’ salary varies on the company and the roles they are appointed at. The average salary of SQL professionals also varies based on the experience they bring to the table and whether they are employed on a contractual basis or full-time.
Experienced SQL professionals can negotiate the salary, but keep in mind that SQL skills should be on top when you negotiate your salary.
The following data chart describes SQL professional salary comparison metrics across roles.
Career Outlook & Conclusion
These career points will help aspiring SQL professionals to better manage their expectations and pick a career path that best suits their growth trajectory and fetch them suitable salary ranges. Studies suggest that IT jobs will see a dramatic rise in the next decade and subsequently SQL jobs too. The data-driven world that we are living in has brought major industries like social media, predictive analysis, and forecasts to the surface of conventional booming sectors. Every business requires a website and a social media presence in today’s day and age and this is further proof that SQL jobs will only see an upward curve both in numbers as well as pay range. In addition, the generation of high volumes of data finding their way to complex data warehouses only means an increase in opportunities in SQL. SQL today is a high-demand skill in the data-driven computer industry and it is here to stay. As organizations deal with daily petabytes of structured or unstructured data from different media, it all ends up with data so it is much needed for data analysis and preparing data for future predictions.
Keep in mind as technologies emerge, SQL interfaces and methods may get improvised so be in and live in SQL technology to be on top of the SQL career path.
