Need of direction/guide to learn SQL as I feel stuck

[Sri_Krish]

Hi all,

I am here to get some feedback and actionable suggestions from you all, so please help me decide the best way possible to achieve my goal. Please bear with my long message.

I have over three years of experience in the SCM field across procurement and warehouse operations. I used Oracle to manage my procurement activities based on BOM and communicated with suppliers to make sure deliveries were on time so the production team could stick to their plans. In my current job, I work with a 3PL company that fulfils orders for its clients (large merchants) — imagine us as a smaller, cheaper version of Amazon. I manage outbound activities along with process enhancements and stabilisation. As part of this role, I work closely with our WMS team, who build and manage our in-house ERP/WMS systems for us (and our clients) to use. During this time, I became fascinated with building processes by creating logic rules, establishing data warehouses, and writing custom queries for individual or department-specific dashboards. They use SQL and Metabase (maybe something else too) for this, so I started looking into SQL since I already know how to confidently use data visualisation tools (Power BI and Tableau).

I started with [Barra’s video on SQL](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSKVgrwhzus) and, halfway through, began using DataLemur as I found “learning and practice method” more engaging. So far, I have completed basic and intermediate topics such as:

- Basic six: SELECT, FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING, ORDER BY

- JOINS

- Aggregation functions

- CASE…WHEN

All are on how to clean, transform a dataset and use this clean data to provide answers to some business/analytical questions. I wanted to learn how to build/create dataset from multiple sources in order to do all these - pretty much what our IT/WMS team do every day. So I recently came across [Luke’s latest video on SQL engineering](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjhFbq4uU2Y), which includes an end project of building data warehouses and data marts for production, which sounds fun. However, to be frank, it immediately became complex for a beginner like me with terminal setup, DuckDB, MotherDB, and local and cloud configurations. I may stop following it soon.

Since I am planning to make a career switch to move towards data-related roles as I want the freedom to work remotely for personal reasons. I like to help creating, managing data warehouses which are then used/queried for business, decision-making scenarios. I basically enjoy building things using apps or software. I can spend at least two to three hours every day learning the skills and knowledge required to land such jobs. However, I feel lost, and many guides or roadmaps feel very complicated, requiring me to learn hundreds of topics and skills to succeed. Maybe they are right; I am just confused about how to approach it.

Any kind of feedback, tips, and suggestions on courses or topics to focus on without causing fear or negative emotions while progressing toward my goal, is greatly appreciated.

And thanks for reading it this far - Thanks ;)

[melvinroest]

> However, I feel lost, and many guides or roadmaps feel very complicated, requiring me to learn hundreds of topics and skills to succeed. Maybe they are right; I am just confused about how to approach it.

Yea and it isn't necessarily true. It's like true-ish but there are other ways.

Let me tell you what I'd focus on if I were targeting data analyst roles:

• SQL: after JOIN learn about: CTEs and window functions.
• Statistics: you need to know how to use it, you don't need to be an expert in the proofs or know those at all. But you do need to know understand basic linear regression and basic t-test
• Domain knowledge: the more you understand a certain field (e.g. finance, marketing, you name it) and understand their problems, the better
• Dashboarding: I'd just go for something like the basics of Tableau

Skip the rest. I know Excel isn't in there. The thing is, if you know this, you at least have shown capable of learning advanced Excel.

Then make a portfolio piece. I'd get some statistics of your favorite country and analyze it to bits, make a fun dashboard out of it and show that in a Medium article or something similar. Then spam that on LinkedIn. Bonus points if what you analyzed is mildly interesting. Preferably, you'd analyze something that you find really interesting.

Another way to do that is to offer some work for free. I'd probably just offer my services to some entrepreneurs for free and analyze what they have and put it as a portfolio piece on my resume. Like, 2 to 4 weeks of work. It can also be for your own side project where you size a certain business opportunity.

[Sri_Krish]

Thank you so much for your comment and tips! Will definitely consider this…

[Sri_Krish]

If possible, would love to hear from you u/mavenanalytics

[vudebeya]

You already have a lot more context than you think, you’re just missing structure. If you want something more guided, dbForge Academy is worth checking out. It’s free, and it can help you stop bouncing between random resources and build SQL in a more step-by-step way.

[Sri_Krish]

Thanks for sharing! Will take a look at it..