Want to make yourself employable? Learn SQL
In normal circumstances (remember them?) it can be difficult to put aside time to focus on personal development but, within the last 100 days or so, many individuals may have taken the extra hours freed up by no commuting, temporary furlough, or weekends with little place to go to sharpen or expand their skill sets.
Whether it’s that the widespread lockdowns and distance from the office have provided clarity on your career direction, you want to remain employable in a rapidly digitizing world, just want a new challenge, or otherwise, there are huge volumes of free tutorials, apps and resources available online to help.
According to an analysis of more than 1 million active LinkedIn job advertisements on April 30 this year commissioned by SHL, coding skills comprised 7 out of ten of the most in-demand hard skills for jobs in the US. Learn to code well, and you’ll most likely never struggle to find work again (or for the next ten years or so, at the very least).
Topping that list with 116,765 jobs sourcing the skill was SQL, the standard language for relational database management systems, and an indication of the vast role and importance that data plays in businesses today, and the need for individuals who can access and manage it, and help businesses to make sense of it and utilize it.
According to Indeed.com, the average SQL developer’s salary was US$92,000 as of July this year as businesses seek those who can get them answers from their data, and ensure it’s being leveraged to full effect as volumes continue to amass and data use becomes a strategic asset for business intelligence. Brewster Knowlton, owner of the IT services firm the Knowlton Group,said“[…]learning SQLcan be one of the greatest career decisions you make.
“Between the potential salary, no longer relying on others to give you information, and being able to askanyquestion about your business, learning SQL enables you to do so much more than you could have done previously.”
While Java (which recently passed a25-year milestone) was second-most in-demand, Python was a near second. With an active community and support, Python has seen enormous growth in the past several years and, according toGitHub repositorycontributions, surpasses Java to be the second-most popular coding language behind JavaScript.
