If you want to be a business analyst, data analyst, data engineer, data scientist, web developer, software engineer or database administrator, it’s important to know SQL, Sommer says. 3.

That’s not to say tools don’t matter; today’s data analyst absolutely needs to be able to use at least a few of the most common tools such as Excel, SQL, Tableau, Power BI, R or Python. Such ...

Analytics engineers have some of the most in-demand big-data roles in the industry. They're experts in SQL and a new tool called dbt, tasked with cleaning large data sets.

An eclectic mix of skills and experience is often key to getting noticed when applying for data analyst positions, though facility with SQL and statistical analysis is a requirement.