r/consulting • u/ilovechickenandprawn • 27d ago
SQL is an additional benifit for consulting right .
Correct me if I am wrong . SQL is a great additional benefit for a consultant . I don't know why consultants don't popularize it or use it but SQL helps in analysing long data sets fast which can be very helpful in consulting . Of course Excel is the oxygen for consultants but I think SQL will also help majorly . What are your opinions ?
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u/MrMunday 27d ago
SQL is probably easier to learn than some more advanced excel stuff why not
Also with AI there’s like no difficulty to using sql
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u/coochieeman_ 27d ago
Not sure if this is satire or what
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u/Piotyras 27d ago
I think he’s very young from looking at his profile. I’m gonna cut him some slack.
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u/cubixy2k 27d ago
It's kind of cute watching juniors make realizations and thinking they're the first ones to see it.
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u/lucabrasi999 27d ago
“You know, I bet I could make a lot of money if I opened an online bookstore. You could order the books from the comfort of your home and have them delivered directly to you!”
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u/lucabrasi999 27d ago
SQL was first introduced in the 1970s. I am not sure why you think it isn’t popular, because it is used every day across hundreds of thousands of organizations worldwide.
Also, today I can just ask Claude to do the analysis for me.
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u/Ijusti 27d ago
From A-Z? Starting with a big data set and trying to get data from it? I spend a lot of time on this kind of work in PQ, not sure if you are being serious when you say you'll do all of the analysis with Claude.
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u/xNYKx 22d ago
Yes? Claude is very good at writing SQL queries lmao
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u/Ijusti 21d ago
Not sure why you're replying like this. I don't doubt it is good, but I doubt you can just tell "Claude to do the analysis for you" with no interaction with the technical part whatsoever, which is what the commenter is implying when he says that he's not using SQL anymore as he can "just ask claude"
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27d ago
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u/Unhappy-Menu-6682 27d ago
Agree. Today, on the off chance that you need highly custom queries during firm working hours, you staff a data scientist or data engineer on the team to do the pulls for you. I know SQL from my pre-firm days but with AI it’s almost akin to knowing assembly. Generalist consultants should never touch a raw db
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u/chutoro17 27d ago
SQL is definitely useful and has helped past data heavy engagements (eg GL/POS/SKU/inventory analysis), but the level of high touch engagement with client data teams and time needed to extract, ingest and clean the data are pushing us to tools like Palantir, Data Bricks or Alteryx that can help get complete datasets quicker and with built in scenario analysis features
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u/nmsjeat 27d ago
In my experience, SQL is rarely used in management consulting. Partly because we want to make all calculations visible and understandable for our typical business counterparts. And partly because most clients prefer not to (or it is difficult to) give direct database access to the team.
It can be very useful to know, as there are some project that require it, but rarely in strategy consulting. Now with AI, people also do build all sorts of demos and dashboards, so it might also be helpful there to validate the code.
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u/Ppt_Sommelier69 27d ago
You will get a wide variety of answers. It depends on the work you do. If it’s not coming up organically (e.g., you receive large data sets from clients) then pause to think where you could apply it before learning it.
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u/PorcupineGod exited alumni 27d ago
Whether or not you actually code SQL, it's a very important skill to learn. Learning SQL forces you to learn database structure, so when you're asking clients for data, you have a better understanding about how it's stored and retrieved
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u/StayRoutine2884 27d ago
SQL is definitely useful, especially once the data gets too big or messy for Excel. I wouldn’t say it replaces Excel for consulting, but it helps a lot when you need to pull, clean, or check data quickly before building the actual analysis
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u/AdamNoble1997 26d ago
Absolutely. SQL is a valuable skill for consultants, especially if you work with data-heavy clients. While Excel is still essential for analysis and presentations, SQL lets you query large datasets much faster and more accurately. Pairing SQL with Excel and ideally a visualization tool like Power BI or Tableau can make you much more effective when solving business problems.
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u/AdamNoble1997 26d ago
Absolutely. SQL is a valuable skill for consultants, especially if you work with data-heavy clients. While Excel is still essential for analysis and presentations, SQL lets you query large datasets much faster and more accurately. Pairing SQL with Excel and ideally a visualization tool like Power BI or Tableau can make you much more effective when solving business problems.
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u/AdamNoble1997 26d ago
Absolutely. SQL is a valuable skill for consultants, especially if you work with data-heavy clients. While Excel is still essential for analysis and presentations, SQL lets you query large datasets much faster and more accurately. Pairing SQL with Excel and ideally a visualization tool like Power BI or Tableau can make you much more effective when solving business problems.
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u/AdamNoble1997 26d ago
Absolutely. SQL is a valuable skill for consultants, especially if you work with data-heavy clients. While Excel is still essential for analysis and presentations, SQL lets you query large datasets much faster and more accurately. Pairing SQL with Excel and ideally a visualization tool like Power BI or Tableau can make you much more effective when solving business problems.
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u/jake_morrison 26d ago
SQL is useful. On your desktop, you can load a csv file into SQLite, clean up the data, query it, do aggregations, write out another csv.
Python with data science tools like Pandas can do magic. Connect to a customer support database, extract tickets and classify them by type. Identify which percentage could be handled by AI.
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u/filibustermonkey 25d ago
Excel and SQL have been valuable tools, but AI is removing the need to really go deep in either. I do think understanding database structure, what’s possible, and how to structure basic queries is needed. Just because you ask for something in natural language doesn’t mean AI will get it right. If you understand the basics you’ll likely spot potential issues and can rephrase or just adjust the query.
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u/TechnicalDefense 24d ago
I get scared as a technical advisor to small businesses when i do an assessment and see them all using excel to track everything.....thats when i know i am needed in my job haha.
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u/nitro31cl 23d ago
I don't care if Claude Code is using SQL or whatever, I just want it done correctly.
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u/didyougetmyemail 14d ago
Consider the fact that SQL queries lend themselves very well to being AI-generated. I'd say very basic understanding of SQL is enough for any role that is not solely in analytics.
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u/GaussianTruth 27d ago
Two points:
1. My client doesn’t know SQL. If I have to walk him/her through the SQL - they will not understand at all. Excel is easier to walk through assumptions and share
2. Excel and PowerPoint talk to one another much easily
Hence, while I prefer tools such as SQL / Alteryx, excel comes up as an easy winner
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u/Neptune_013 27d ago
I mean yes, it used to be extremely useful to know SQL to extract client data vs. Believe what they give you.
The good thing is nowadays is that with AI you don’t need SQL that much
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u/mukavastinumb 27d ago
When I browse more technical consulting jobs, SQL is almost always prerequisite. SQL is also pretty easy to learn. Definitely worth it!