PostgreSQL Fundamentals

Many data science pros will tell you: learning SQL was one of the best investments in their career, even though the language is basic and obtuse. See why so many developers become data pros in this 2-hour video tutorial featuring data from the Cassini mission.

I won't try to convince you that SQL is awesome - it's not. It's an old, clunky language that's difficult to read and even harder to write given the strange syntax rules. But if you take just a weekend and learn it, your career will change forever.

That's not hyperbole - it's happened to everyone who become the "database person" on their project. Programmer's fear of SQL pushes them to do absolutely anything to avoid dealing with SQL, which includes asking you to solve the problem they're having.

Let them. It makes you extremely valuable.

It might be hard to believe but SQL consistently ranks in the top 10 programming languages, even though it's not a programming language! It's ahead of languages like Go, Swift and Ruby - consistently! That's because SQL people are always needed!

People do horrible things with data and spreadsheets, introducing errors, bias and often data that's simply trash. Being able to "sense" these issues and then correct them can save your company millions of dollars, making you look like the badass you are.

I’m Rob Conery and I’ve been building software for over 25 years without a CS degree. I’ve created applications for huge corporations including Ameritech and Southwest Bell. I’ve contracted to Visa, Google, Starbucks and PayPal - creating their very first developer portal back in 2005. I wrote an open source e-commerce site for Microsoft that was demoed on stage by Steve Ballmer at Tech Ed, Microsoft’s biggest developer conference (now //Build).

I started my tech career as a database administrator, and quickly understood just how fun (and terrifying) this job is. You are the one with the answers. It's great!