Some months it’s a good thing to be prompted to post by T-SQL Tuesday, because it gets me to talk about something I should’ve talked about already, but haven’t. This is one of those months, thanks to Malathi Mahadevan (@sqlmal)’s topic around Learning Goals
I don’t generally write about my Learning Goals, because I tend to base what I’m learning around what my clients’ needs are. If I feel like I need to brush up on Azure Data Lake because I have a project around that, then I’ll take some for that. I like to keep on top of new things as they come through, but then hone my skills when I have a proper opportunity. I don’t tend to study much for certifications – I didn’t prepare much for MCM exams that I took (and passed – just!) five years ago, nor the couple of exams I took recently to keep hold my ‘Partner Seller’ status.
That said, it’s always good to see things that are coming up and dive a bit deeper into them. And for me, at the moment, that’s the edX courses in the Data Science space. I’m not sure whether I’ll get through to the end of them all, because I’ll happily let myself get distracted by something else. The Advance Analytics area is one of which I’m particularly fond – it’s a nice contrast to the Pure Maths subjects I did at university which shapes my approach to relational data. So far, I’ve gone through the courses quickly, but picking up the odd bit that I didn’t remember. The “Essential Statistics for Data Analysis using Excel” was a particular area, which rang bells but also reminded me how long it’s been since I’ve studied this kind of material.
Where do I think I’ll be in 12 months? Well, like the answer to all good SQL questions, it depends. I’m sure I’ll still be analysing data and helping businesses with their data-focused ambitions, and that I will have learned quite a bit during that time.
