Reflections on the First Week of my SQL for Data Science Capstone

(What is this project I’m writing about? I have a pretty detailed description here.)

The first thing I’m noticing is that I’m taking this project very seriously. This is a project that I feel like I could provide a minimally acceptable product and pass and move on. I’m not doing that. I think there are 2 reasons:

1. This is a project. Though this is an early project in my data life, it is somewhere I can begin to prove myself. If not my data skillset, I hope this project will begin to show my acumen for analysis and communication skills. Maybe someone will look at this someday, and want to hire me to do something.
2. I think I like this stuff. This isn’t the first time I noticed that I’m putting a lot of heart into an SQL project. When I finished the first course in the specialization, I noticed when peer reviewing other students’ assignments that… I cared more than them. Nothing against them, they had other stuff to do. I got into the project. I liked the joining and the selecting and the subquerying…

I really like SQL.

At the end of the Python for Everybody specialization, though, when we were looking at a whole pile of twitter data or whatever, I wasn’t as psyched. I really like making data happen. Making it go places. Not as interested in the data analysis part I think. That led to my decision of what to study after the Python for Everybody specialization.

It may affect my decision as to where my studies go next. Data Engineering anyone?

(Stay tuned)