A tough pill I had swallow

If you're in a beginner or somewhat intermediate in python and thats pretty much the only language you know, I have some bad news

I've been programming in python for some time now. And if you're a newbie, you probably heard that python can be used to do pretty much anything. From mobile app development with Kivy to web development with Django and Flask to making games with Pygame and so on. And I used to think that employers would probably not need anything else. I mean, since they can do pretty much anything, they'd just require you to be adept in just python right?

Wrong...

If you search for job requirements on LinkedIn, they never require you to be just adept in only python. It's usually python and something else of some sort, usually SQL. Even if you're a Django developer, it's not just python you'll be using. You'll be doing stuff with HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

I'm not saying learning those libraries and frameworks are a waste of time.You can go on fiverr and offer Pygame or kivy services. But there's always someone using a better technology to solve those problems you want to solve as far as you're using Kivy or Pygame or even Django

I do understand how annoying it is but thats the reality of a python developer.

So you have a couple of options...

1. Learn SQL
2. Learn HTML, CSS, and Javascript for web development with Django
3. If you insist on sticking with python, you could create a new revolution for python developers by creating a strictly python framework. For example, you could create a framework for web development that uses only python. No HTML, CSS, or Javascript needed
4. Remain in your python-only fantasy world (which could land you some jobs anyway)

The choice is yours...

My SQL journey

As for me recently owning this harsh reality, I have taken it upon myself and started learning SQL with PostgreSQL. Because as an aspiring data scientist, you are inevitably going to use it. Also, it is possible implement Postgres with python for backend development which is not in the scope of this blog

I'm not going to be going into detail what PostgresSQL is in this blog or what SQL is in general as I am only going to be talking about my experiences so far.

So far, its basically just filtering data from a database using basic programming concepts like logical operators and arithmetic operators.

The problem is that there are a few shocks when it come to this SQL of a language. Unlike other languages that see no difference between " " and ' ', SQL sees them as 2 completely different things.

Check this out

SELECT "first_name" FROM employees  -- will return the firstname field

SELECT 'first_name' FROM employees  -- will return an error

Another is that SQL has 3 boolean values which is very unconventional. They are True, False and Null.

To be honest, Null is still not clear to me but going forward I don't think that will be too much of a problem

Final Thoughts

It's not as hard as I first envisaged but I would be expecting some more annoying things going forward

I would update you on my journey as I go on with the things I've learned. Correct me if I'm wrong on anything. I do appreciate you for stopping by.

P.S. If this blog post looks poorly organized that's because it's my first-ever blog post. I have never done anything like this before. I don't even believe that I know what I'm doing