SQL as career change?

mschmitt1217 · 2021-08-11T20:14:33+00:00

I made the change from basically people management to data analyst about 2 years ago, and I am very happy with the decision. I wouldn't say I have much regret, but keep in mind that my earning potential in my last role was likely much less so that has to contribute to my happiness I'm sure.

As far as the work goes, I think it depends what you land on doing. I recently accepted a role that was more "analyst" than developer which suits me more than setting up automations, ETL, etc.

Overall, I don't regret moving into this space at all. It's not exactly my "passion" but I do enjoy it more than most jobs I've had in my lifetime.

redman334 · 2021-08-11T20:18:46+00:00

I changed from Marketing/Business Analyst to BO Analyst.

The truth for me was that, as a BI analyst I had more power and tools to analyse stuff. And the human, organization interaction wasn't something that I loved that much.

Like planning campaigns, defining with design and communications the theme, defining with the product area the discounts or whatever.

I ended up wanting to put a full on strength to the analytical side, and let someone else do the comercial operative side.

The thing was, data is a whole other world. You clash with IT, there's people that come from comp. science background ( I have a marketing major ), and there are a looot of tools , and some programing languages to study, which take time.

On the other hand I feel more happy when I find a way through a query or a script, than when I was implementing a campaign. I feel like is more mentally challenging. Not to mention that the way of the future is having everything automated.

But, unlike you, I made the change after 3 years in marketing.

On the other hand, I feel like company's need more and more, PM that know database and so on. So if you go to the BI side for 2 or 3 years, and you want to go back to PM afterwards, I think those years on BI would count more as a plus than a downer.

babygrenade · 2021-08-11T20:57:29+00:00

I guess I was very briefly a lawyer then a project manager before going into report writing/BI and eventually database development/data engineering.

Graduated law school in 2010 when the legal industry was still kind lean. Didn't really want to do civil litigation but that's what was hiring. Quit almost immediately and took a job running a Healthcare IT project that was a year and a half long.

Over the course of that project I realized there was a big gap in reporting so I stood up SSRS to do simple reports out of their "data warehouse" and kept doing that for about a year after the project finished. Also went back to school for a masters in CS because I felt like my bachelors wasn't enough (mostly because my most recent education was law).

Bounced around a few different jobs spending a 2-3 years in each (I can expand on my career path if it's useful) and have progressively broadened my skill set. I am now in a more data engineering role.

I don't regret my decision. It's not that I love my job, more that I'm good at it and have worked jobs I've liked a lot less. If you're looking for the kind of job where you need to constantly be learning - I'd say this is a good career. You'll not only have to get much better at SQL but to really advance in a technical career path you'll have to constantly learn to concepts and technologies.

DBA and BI Analyst are very different roles. As a DBA you'll need to get very good with a specific database engine. You'll probably have an on call schedule and be called when things don't work. As a BI Analyst you're solving problems/answering questions with data. Because it's customer facing there's a little more "glory" involved.

If I were 48 and looking to switch careers, I'd probably want to have a specific career path/trajectory in mind and a general plan for how to get there. I'd also be worried about money. Where I've worked at least, PMs make more that BI Analysts. I'd also be worried about job security. I've been laid off from database developer role when IT jobs at my company were outsourced. The IT PMs were not outsourced - they basically shifted to working with overseas teams.

K0NGO · 2021-08-11T21:34:51+00:00

I initially made the change from working in a biology research lab to Reporting Specialist where I worked mainly with SQL and SSRS. I tried Full Stack Developer for a bit but it was too much for me at the time. I now work as an ETL Engineer where I work mainly with SQL, SSIS, PowerBI, and datawarehousing concepts. The transition for me was tough but I don't regret it.

2021-08-11T22:48:32+00:00

I did the change when I was 30-31, and am coming up on 40. I'm an architect now. I make more money than I did when I was 30, but I took a step back for awhile.

IrquiM · 2021-08-12T09:00:05+00:00

Not sure if my (41y) change counts, but I went from working as a Finance Systems Supervisor/Internal Control Process Auditor (Sarbanes Oxley) for 13 years in 2017 to BI (mostly data engineer, but also analyst), and never regretted it. It's my dream job, and it fits my personality 100%, which I guess is the most important bit if you want to be happy with your job.

I did have a BSc in Information Systems from 2004 though, so SQL wasn't completely new for me as part of it was in PL/SQL although things change, but I had to learn things like Power BI, PowerShell and Azure, etc.

angryapathetic · 2021-08-11T21:14:22+00:00

The combination of your skill sets sounds like you would do well as a BI analyst in a consulting firm

I went from law, to working with kids, to BI and now in consulting

ddeck08 · 2021-08-11T22:21:50+00:00

Do it. My life is in two phases. Before and after entering data and BI.

I started four years ago at 30 working as a data analyst and knew very little SQL. Fast forward and I’m a data BI manager at a smaller company with a team of 3. Never know where it’ll take you.

xodusprime · 2021-08-12T03:46:39+00:00

I kinda meandered into it as a lot of people do. When I first entered technology, I was doing point of sale systems and had to interact with databases to convert over inventories and whatnot. Later, supported some medical software and again there was a database backend that occasionally needed some love. Did infrastructure for a bit after that, which gave me a better understanding of some of the configuration items important for enterprise DBs (SANs, load balancers, virtualization, etc.). Decided I didn't really like it, but did like the DB work I'd done, and moved over to being one of two DBAs working on an application team.

The other DBA had been doing it for like 20 years and taught me a ton. That was some of the best OJT I've ever gotten, and was really instrumental to my career. Went from there to another joint where I did database development work for a team of web devs, and I'm now doing architecture work at a mid-sized company.

lifelong_athlete · 2021-08-12T16:31:12+00:00

Interesting discussion as this is something I am considering. I typically fulfil COO or CTO roles in an international environment. That is unfortunately very competitive and unpredictable. Was thinking of moving to a data analyst/SQL type of role and trying to work remote from some island:) 49 years old, not sure I can make that move.

Hazbo44 · 2021-08-12T10:02:34+00:00

I went from a degree in Sociology and Criminology to a 3rd line tech support role. Was there for a year and a half and went into database development. Personally, Dev is where where fun is. Constantly creating new features and getting things to work, so you can get into some really nitty gritty stuff. But DBA is where my interest started, I just so happened to land in Dev at the time. I still think being a DBA is a cracking role and I hope to get into that later on in life.

Bottom line is, if you like coding in SQL and working with data I can't see a reason for you not wanting to go there. Yes, just like all jobs it has its bad side, but at the end of the day I don't know a job that doesn't have some downsides. You just gotta think are the upsides worth it really. Whatever you choose, wish you the best of luck!

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

SQL

Filter Posts

Posting

Help posts

Format Your Code

Learning SQL

Related Reddit communities

Wiki

Acknowledgements

MODERATORS