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Seconded for SQL. Don't sell yourself as a SQL person unless that's what you love and want to work on data-heavy systems. For everyone else, being fluent in at

by mcluck 4y ago

Seconded for SQL. Don't sell yourself as a SQL person unless that's what you love and want to work on data-heavy systems. For everyone else, being fluent in at least one dialect of SQL and being comfortable jumping between dialects will do wonders for you. I spend far less than 10% of my time on SQL but the time that I do spend on it is incredibly valuable

hellojesus 4y ago
I recommend trying to do some analytical exercises in SQL when you learn it. Often times we interview people that "know" SQL, which basically means they know how to do left joins but don't know the difference between left, inner, right, cross, full (or that joins other than left exist). Get familiar with window functions; I coincidently had a previous team member who moved to a different internal team message me today thanking me I thought him window functions as they're giving him an edge outside data science (my team). Know that NULL can produce three logical values: true, false, unknown, and how that impacts IN vs EXISTS when used in query predicates. Have some type of understanding of how indexing, partitioning, etc. work in your chosen db. Also please understanding aliasing. I can't tell you how many candidates have failed the most trivial warm up query question we've given which requires them to join twice on the same table.
- moremetadata 4y ago
  >Also please understanding aliasing. With ISAM files (dbase, clipper, etc files), one simply duplicated the file definition in code and pointed it to the same file on disk. Them were the days. I'd also add, be aware of the time it takes to build and deliver views and stored procedures result sets, some of them kill the server, but at least sql servers only deliver the results over the network, unlike ISAM files which copied the entire set of files down to the workstation in order to then build the "view". Talk about congest the network. TO the OP, I'd pick something that interests you and then look at what languages are being used in that domain. Whilst its common to hear about the pythons, dotnet, java languages, in practice, there are many languages out there many being used in niche applications. Not all recruitment agencies deal with niche programming languages, so recruitment can take place in other ways, like via internet forums and user groups. For example, one of the global companies that makes credit and debit cards uses this parser to control its manufacturing process. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOLD_(parser) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOLD_(parser) They have different machines for making the card, programming the chip, printing and embossing, and all these different machines use different programming languages to control them and there are sometimes different machines in different parts of the world to contend with, because the banks like to get your replacement card out to you overnight anywhere or nearly anywhere in the world. If you look on the back of your debit/credit card, you can usually find who manufactured your card. So if you want to go mainstream, life might not be as rewarding. If worst comes to the worst, get a job working for security services, they like to train people up and you'll get an insight into how they think and operate, but you wont be able to tell anyone, its a contract for life which you might not want.

by mcluck 4y ago

hellojesus 4y ago

I recommend trying to do some analytical exercises in SQL when you learn it. Often times we interview people that "know" SQL, which basically means they know how to do left joins but don't know the difference between left, inner, right, cross, full (or that joins other than left exist). Get familiar with window functions; I coincidently had a previous team member who moved to a different internal team message me today thanking me I thought him window functions as they're giving him an edge outside data science (my team). Know that NULL can produce three logical values: true, false, unknown, and how that impacts IN vs EXISTS when used in query predicates. Have some type of understanding of how indexing, partitioning, etc. work in your chosen db. Also please understanding aliasing. I can't tell you how many candidates have failed the most trivial warm up query question we've given which requires them to join twice on the same table.

moremetadata 4y ago
>Also please understanding aliasing. With ISAM files (dbase, clipper, etc files), one simply duplicated the file definition in code and pointed it to the same file on disk. Them were the days. I'd also add, be aware of the time it takes to build and deliver views and stored procedures result sets, some of them kill the server, but at least sql servers only deliver the results over the network, unlike ISAM files which copied the entire set of files down to the workstation in order to then build the "view". Talk about congest the network. TO the OP, I'd pick something that interests you and then look at what languages are being used in that domain. Whilst its common to hear about the pythons, dotnet, java languages, in practice, there are many languages out there many being used in niche applications. Not all recruitment agencies deal with niche programming languages, so recruitment can take place in other ways, like via internet forums and user groups. For example, one of the global companies that makes credit and debit cards uses this parser to control its manufacturing process. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOLD_(parser) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOLD_(parser) They have different machines for making the card, programming the chip, printing and embossing, and all these different machines use different programming languages to control them and there are sometimes different machines in different parts of the world to contend with, because the banks like to get your replacement card out to you overnight anywhere or nearly anywhere in the world. If you look on the back of your debit/credit card, you can usually find who manufactured your card. So if you want to go mainstream, life might not be as rewarding. If worst comes to the worst, get a job working for security services, they like to train people up and you'll get an insight into how they think and operate, but you wont be able to tell anyone, its a contract for life which you might not want.