SQL Skills You Actually Need to Land a Job

If you’ve been learning SQL and wondering, “Is this enough to get hired?” you’re not alone. Here are the core SQL skills that come up again and again in real analyst roles. If you can explain each one (not just write the query), you’re on the right track.

1. WHERE vs HAVING

Filtering 101: 

• WHERE filters rows

• HAVING filters groups (after aggregation)

If you can explain the difference, you’re ahead of most beginners.

2. GROUP BY + Aggregations

SUM, AVG, COUNT — the basics of summarizing data.
You’ll use these constantly to answer business questions like revenue by product or users by month.

3. JOINs

Know how INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, and OUTER joins work and what happens to your row count.
Analysts join tables every single day.

4. Subqueries & CTEs

These help you break big problems into clean steps.
CTEs (WITH statements) especially make your logic easier to follow and interviewers love them.

5. CASE WHEN

Conditional logic is your friend.
It’s used for bucketing data, creating flags, and building custom business rules.

6. Window Functions

ROW_NUMBER, RANK, LAG — these unlock deeper analysis like trends, rankings, and running totals.
Even basic comfort here sets you apart.

7. Date Functions

DATEPART, YEAR, MONTH, DATEDIFF — knowing how to work with dates is essential for time-based analysis.

8. COALESCE

A simple but powerful way to handle NULL values without breaking your metrics.

If you can explain every item on this list (not just memorize queries), you’re well on your way to SQL job readiness.

🎥 Watch the breakdown here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITwW825L4zg

Talk soon,
Agatha