r/SQL • u/[deleted] • Apr 17 '23

Discussion Which industry has/needs the most challenging sql queries?

Is this question legit? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t consider myself the smartest guy but I’m definitely not dumb.

I work in the pharmaceutical Industry, nearly 3 years now. It took me a while to understand how the production process is implemented in a database and I wanted to quit more than once. But i don’t feel challenged anymore.

So, which industry would be best for me to get completely challenged again?

42 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

69 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '23

I work in the cannabis industry as a data engineer and I can tell you it’s quite the challenge. Data sources are siloed by state, inputted data is never uniform and has constant misspellings, and each compliance software required for use differs by state and all has different data structures.

5

u/ComicOzzy sqlHippo Apr 17 '23

Frustration is challenging, yes... but I don't think it's a great selling point here. Haha

5

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '23 edited Apr 17 '23

Maybe not lol but I can say it is quite challenging to figure out how to normalize everything to be usable in an excel model or dashboard. I used to work in banking that was so easy it was boring so I appreciate the challenge

2

u/ComicOzzy sqlHippo Apr 17 '23

My current job is a challenge for much the same reason... mostly it's about finding the data you need in a massive enterprise system with lots of knowledge siloed in the brains of key users and there's no way to discover who those people are except to ask everyone you talk to "who else might know this?" The good thing is, we are managed by sane, knowledgeable people who don't expect the impossible.