At a recent event, I had a student ask about how to get started as a data professional. What types of things should they do? What platform should they work on or learn? Where should they focus time? What tools are available?

Those are all good questions and many of you likely have your own advice. I’ll give a few things to think about today, which are good for anyone that might want to get into the data field. I think this is still one of the better technical careers. I’ve suggested this to my kids, though only one of them went into a technical area. One is a therapist for autistic children and one helps run the ranch while pursuing a graduate degree in literature.

If I were to give someone advice on how to get started in a tech field, I’d likely start with these items: first, download the free SQL Server developer or Express editions. Most of us run Windows and this is a good place to start. Get SSMS, and learn to connect to your server. If you have struggles, ask a question in our forums.

From there, I’d suggest working through a book on SQL. Or look at our Stairway series on T-SQL (basic, beyond basics, advanced). Learn to work with data and query it. Learn to download and get datasets into a database, as well as how to query, update, and analyze the data. Those are key skills. If you want to manage systems, try setting up an Availability Group, ensure you have backups and can restore systems, and maybe explore replication and CDC.

If you want to develop applications, then start building something. Ask a GenAI for help, but produce a working system that lets you analyze some data. Pick sports data, or music data, or something else, and produce an application or report that conducts an analysis of the data. Work with something that’s interesting to you.

While you’re doing this, blog. Write about what you learn. Build a growing resume that showcases your skills. Chat with others online, build a network of people, and always have an up-to-date resume that you can send out to find a job. Your resume/CV and your blog are invaluable.

That’s my advice. Anything else you suggest?

Steve Jones

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