Well most people can get the hang of basic SQL statements pretty easily. It’s very similar to using Excel. Vlookup in Excel is basically a JOIN in SQL. Most accounting positions with SQL use will be using these basic queries, but creating the query is IT’s job.

Database administrators or database specialists are a whole different animal though. Not only do they need to be a SQL expert, but they do need to understand everything about the database and make sure it’s running smoothly. There’s no such thing as an entry level database administrator. You need to know everything because if the database goes down, you have to be the one to solve it.

My mother was the data architect at a Fortune 15 company, and there was no one else who could do her job. She was about to retire, but they begged her to stay for 2 more years. They eventually found someone they were comfortable with in replacing her, but it’s still a huge hassle for a large company to replace the database lead.