Tag: Extras

Tired of Conferences? Grow with eLearning!

Laptop/book with the knowledge coming out of it.
In the face of a constantly changing labor market, the concept of lifelong learning has become more important than ever. Humans continue to evolve, so any professional wishing to be on a roll should stay up-to-date with technological trends. But how does one do that conveniently? Let’s face it: no industry is stable. No matter what your profession is, your environment is continuously undergoing processes that redefine the game.

Coding Wo[men]'s World: How to Start Coding

Beware! This is not a motivational article. If you are not interested in how to start coding, don't read this. However, if you want to know how and where to start learning programming, please continue reading. When I started to think about learning to code, I decided to write about women's stories because of the stereotypes they face. Many women want to try coding but are afraid of it.

Learn Skills in Bulk with Vertabelo Academy Bundles

Buy courses individually or in packs! Find out what courses are in each course bundle and learn the skills you need. Now, you can get them with over a 70% discount! At Vertabelo Academy, you can buy online courses individually or in bundles. Bundles, to put it simply, are packs of courses that teach you one technology (e.g., SQL) or one particular topic (e.g., data analytics.). Below, we present the list of our currently available bundles.

Crossword or Trick? Paranormal Sales Activities at Vertabelo Academy

Trick or treat! Halloween is coming, the festival of ghosts and monsters! At Vertabelo Academy, it’s time for paranormal sales activities and a Halloween promotion. We also have a special Halloween challenge: a haunted SQL crossword puzzle. Even if you don’t have experience in SQL, you can solve it! Halloween Promotion Halloween is coming! Many of you are probably getting ready for costume parties and deciding whether to dress up as Dracula or Lord Vader this year.

Latest Technology Trends and How to Determine Which Ones are Important

The IT field observes a massive increase in new tools, languages, and solutions each year. It's hard to keep up with all the updates and recent technology even if you're an experienced developer. As such, it’s no wonder that beginners often feel a bit lost when entering the industry. They may deliberate over where to start or what to learn in the first place. An old programming language or a current trend in technology?

7 Effective Ways to Deal With Small Dataset

In a real-world setting, you often only have a small dataset to work with. Models trained on a small number of observations tend to overfit and produce inaccurate results. Learn how to avoid overfitting and get accurate predictions even if the available data is scarce. Big data and data science are concepts often heard together. It is believed that nowadays there are large amounts of data and that data science can draw valuable insights from all these terabytes of information.

How Online Learning Can Help Us in the Automation Race

If you search “will robots take my job” in your browser, you will find a website that lists the automation risk level for each occupation within two decades. This simple website is based on Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne's research. In the report “The Future of Employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?”, they examined over 700 occupations in the US, using a Gaussian process classifier to estimate the probability of automation for those jobs.

Higher Education–Universities or MOOCs?

You have probably heard about the concept of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the last few years. It is an alternative to formal education and is seen by some as the way of the future. Have you taken an online interactive course? Have you tried to create one? In this article, I’ll describe my personal experience with MOOCs and how I grew from a student to a content creator.

New Course Launch: Writing User-Defined Functions in PostgreSQL

Already know some SQL basics and want to take your PostgreSQL skills to the next level? Learn how to create, use, and manage your own functions in PostgreSQL. We’re pleased to announce the launch of our new online course: Writing User-Defined Functions in PostgreSQL. This course is aimed at people who already know some basic SQL and greatly benefits not only PostgreSQL developers and database administrators but also anyone interested in database programming (especially through PostgreSQL).

How to Gift a Vertabelo Academy Course

Learning is the gift that keeps on giving. Find out how you can gift an online course. So you’ve decided to gift a course but don’t know how to do it? It’s very easy! Following is an example of how to do this using our introductory course on Python. First, pick and navigate to the page with the course you’d like to gift. Click on the “Gift this course” option that is visible on the right-hand side.

8 Most Common Programming Errors Made by Beginners

Learning to code can be fun and absorbing but it can also be a rocky road at first. If you have a feeling that your learning process could be faster and more efficient, take a look at this list of common programming mistakes. Maybe you’re making some of them? When I first started learning to code it was a time of constant fire in my belly—I was so excited about every new issue and every new technology!

New Course Launch: How to Read and Write JSON Files in Python

Providing various types of data in a unified way is one of the core concepts of web communication. In recent years, JSON text files have become extremely popular due to their simplicity and universality. Vertabelo Academy’s recent course—How to Read and Write JSON Files in Python—explains how to manipulate JSON files in Python. If you work with Python and want to learn a practical skill in high demand, you’re in the right place.

New Course Launch: Python Data Structures in Practice

Do you know the feeling when you’ve read the theory behind some programming concepts but you’re at a loss when it comes to writing actual code? Vertabelo Academy’s new course—Python Data Structures in Practice—addresses this exact problem by explaining the practical aspects of basic data structures. The course discusses frequent use cases and teaches you optimal solutions to common problems. As a bonus, you’ll create a real Python game!

Are You Ready To Celebrate Geek Pride Day?

Are you a geek? Today being a geek means being smart and passionate about certain complicated subjects like mathematics, programming, science fiction films, and fantasy books. That sounds cool. So why not join the celebration of Geek Pride Day on May 25th? What’s a Geek? Let’s first define who can be called a geek. According to Wikipedia, this term was originally used to describe "eccentric or non-mainstream people". Today the word typically refers to an expert or a person who is passionate about some hobby or intellectual pursuit.

What is Git, How to Start Working With GitHub–a Beginner Friendly Overview

It looks like everybody in the tech world is using GitHub. Wondering if you need it too? Let’s have a brief beginner-friendly overview to see what Git and GitHub are and how you can start working with them right away. What is Git? We are going to start with defining what Git is and how you can benefit from it. Git is an open-source distributed version control system. What does this mean in simple terms?

How do you Become a Successful Freelance Software Developer?

Freelancers are workers who, for one reason or another, decided to work independently. Flexibility and continuous training are usually what interest programmers who approach this career. You might have a lot of questions and wonder: what does it take to become a freelance software developer? In this article, we will give you some tips on how to approach this career and become a successful freelance software developer. Tips to Become a Successful Freelance Software Developer Like all jobs, freelancing comes with its pros and cons.

Why Python Should Be Your First Programming Language – Python Basics Course Review

Python was my love at first sight. It was at the very beginning of my interest in programming when I took my first Python course, and I instantly fell in love with this language. Unfortunately, I had few opportunities to work professionally in the Python environment, but I kept learning after hours, just for fun, until my new job became too demanding and I simply had no more time for my coding hobby.

New Course Launch: How to Insert, Update, and Delete Data in MS SQL Server

Learn how the T-SQL data manipulation language (DML) can help you control the information inside your SQL Server database. Do you work with SQL Server? Interested in learning more about the T-SQL language? Then you’re in the right place! We’re excited to introduce our new online course: How to Insert, Update, or Delete Data in MS SQL Server. In this course, you’ll learn about the data manipulation language (DML) statements in T-SQL.

New Course Launch: How to Read and Write CSV Files in Python

Another Python course is now available on Vertabelo Academy. “How to Read and Write CSV Files in Python” is an online course for anyone interested in working with files in Python—a must-have skill for any beginner software developer or data scientist! After the great success of our SQL courses, we began working hard on the Python learning path. So far, we’ve made five Python courses available, and we’re proud to announce the release of yet another one: How to Read and Write CSV Files in Python!

Speaking the IT Language: A Basic Technical Dictionary for Non-Technical People

It’s sometimes hard to understand what IT people are talking about because of all the technical terms they throw around. So I compiled this little dictionary of IT terms for beginners! It may seem silly, but communication problems are all too common in IT teams. Programmers and other computer science professionals use a technical language of their own that may not be too accessible to non-technical people. But effective communication is one of the keys to survival in the industry, so it’s definitely worth understanding what those terms mean so you’re on the same page as everyone else.

New Course Launch: GROUP BY Extensions in MS SQL Server

If you’re looking for an online course to improve your SQL skills for Microsoft SQL Server or simply want to pass the Microsoft SQL certification, you’re in the right place. Vertabelo Academy’s new course—GROUP BY Extensions in MS SQL Server—is a perfect way to learn how to create advanced reports or facilitate ETL processes. At Vertabelo Academy, you’ll find lots of general SQL courses that’ll teach you to work with any relational database.

18+ Best Online Resources for Learning SQL and Database Concepts (2020 revision)

-- -- -- -- -- We did it again! Each year, we review the SQL courses and tutorials on the market to help you find the best online resources to learn SQL. Find out which SQL courses are worth a try! But let's get to the point and take a closer look at some of the best online resources that can help beginners get started with SQL.

A Typical Day in the Life of an IT Team

Ever wondered what daily life in a tech company looks like but had no one to ask? Let’s take a look at a day on the IT team from the inside. All programmers wear plaid shirts and thick glasses, eat junk food, sleep during the day, stay awake all night, and spend their time in dark basements where the only light comes from a few monitors displaying tons of unintelligible code.

Go Data-Driven or Go Home

Being data-driven is a must for companies these days. If you think differently, you might as well pack it in now. Here’s why. Companies are always trying to outdistance each other, winning more clients and gaining the most profit. They burn a lot of time in building strategies and working on tactics, but their actions may not bring the expected results. Why not? Because they don’t start with data.

SQL Crossword #3: Test your basic querying knowledge and win a prize! (Halloween Edition)

How much SQL do you know? Test your knowledge with this spooky crossword to find out! Contest Rules Downloadthe Vertabelo Academy SQL crossword. Solve tasks and unlock the secret solution. Send your answerto marketing@vertabelo.com before 👉 November 1, 2018. Wait for the prize to be drawn and, if you’re lucky, win a course 💜 One lucky winner will be drawn among the users who send us the correct solution, and they’ll be contacted by email within 7 days of the contest closing.

Halloween Contest: Win a Course Bundle of Your Choice!

Share a pic of your DIY jack-o’-lantern or halloween costume to win a spooky prize. Halloween is upon us! And there’s lots of costume parties and trick-or-treating to be had. But if you’d just like to chill at home, we invite you to join us in our online festivities—and possibly even win a course bundle of your choice! This Halloween season, Vertabelo Academy is hosting a jack-o’-lantern and costume contest.

Tech Jobs That Didn’t Exist Back in the 90s

Technologies are constantly developing, and so is the labor market. Here are some tech jobs born in the 21st century. I vaguely remember a time when people in public transport read books, talked with each other, or simply looked at the scenery rolling past their windows. Now, we’re all occupied with our mobile phones. It’s no surprise, really—with smartphones, we can do almost everything: chatting, shopping, working, watching TV series, learning, and much more.

8 Best Beginner Data Science Articles from the Past 12 Months

Data Scienceand Big Data are the biggest industry buzzwords in 2018. Experts believe that artificial intelligence (AI) systems will continue to reign supreme in the technology marathon through 2019. “More than 40 percent of data science tasks will be automated by 2020.” –Gartner The data science trends for 2019 are essentially a continuation of some of the key trends of 2018, including areas such as: Machine learning (ML) Artificial intelligence (AI) Big data Edge computing Blockchain Digital twins Serverless computing Because data science is so vast and challenging to navigate, we’ve compiled a list of the most popular data science articles that dominated the industry over the past 12 months.

R Jobs and Salaries—All You Need to Know!

R is an extremely powerful and lucrative language for data science, and as of 2018, it’s one of the most popular programming language choices for data science professionals. R is an open-source programming language that’s widely used by data miners, statisticians, and data scientists to perform statistical computing as well as data analysis. Given R’s increasing popularity, R professionals are faced with plenty of career options and future possibilities.

How to Start a Job in IT with Vertabelo Academy

Information technology is one of the hottest industries in the world and offers thousands of job in each major city around the globe. If you’re a student or professional who wants to get IT skills and find your first job in the industry, Vertabelo Academy can help you get started. The range of IT jobs available is stunning—from software engineers to system administrators and data scientists, IT rules the job market.

New Course Launch: Python Basics for Programming

The Vertabelo Academy Team has been working hard to release a brand-new course, and it’s finally here! Python Basics for Programming is a great place to start for anyone aspiring to become a software developer. Since our SQL courses, the Vertabelo Academy platform has been embraced by thousands of students who are eager to learn new technologies. After releasing Intro to Python for Data Science last month, we asked ourselves: why not create another introductory Python course, but this time from a software developer’s perspective?

SQL Crossword #2: Test your basic querying knowledge and win a prize!

How much SQL do you know? Test your knowledge with this crossword to find out! Contest Rules Download Vertabelo Academy SQL crossword. Solve tasks and unlock its solution. Send your answer at marketing@vertabelo.com before👉 September 8, 2018. Wait and win a special prize 💜  Prizes will be drawn among the users who will send us the correct solution. Then winners will be contacted by email within 7 days from contest closing.

How to Help Employees Develop IT Skills with Vertabelo Academy

One of the oldest jokes in the business world goes like this: The CFO asked the CEO, “What happens if we invest in developing people and they leave us?” The CEO answered, “What happens if we don’t and they stay?” If you’re like the CEO and want to help your employees grow, this article will explain how you can do so with Vertabelo Academy. Vertabelo Academy has been around since 2015.

Making a Career Change to IT: From Zero to Coding Hero

IT-related careers are some of the hottest in the industry, as they boast high wages and increasing demand. Have you ever considered learning to code but felt it’s impossible because you chose to study non-technical subjects? Think again—it’s actually never too late to learn how to code. Are you sure you want to do this? Currently, a computer science degree is not necessarily required to find a job in IT.

11 Top Data Science Influencers Worth Following (Twitter)

Which influential data scientists are leading the charge? To help you keep up with the latest data science trends, we’ve compiled a list of the top data science and big data experts worth following. Putting Your Data to Work! Data science has long been a driving force in modern business, but even more so now with the wealth of data at our fingertips. Data is everywhere, thus, we need to learn how to make the most of it and get ahead in business.

How to Land a Good Coding Job in Just Three Years

Three years or three months? With all the 12-week bootcamps and coding schools out there, three years sound like a joke. “Enroll in our course today, and become an expert programmer!” “Start learning to code and jumpstart your programming career immediately!” Most probably, you’ve heard lots of claims like these if you’re interested in coding. Are they reassuring? Maybe. Frustrating? Sometimes. If you’ve been learning for a year and still feel like a newbie programmer while others are starting their careers in three months, you start to wonder: What’s wrong with me?

Exploring Summer Solstice With SQL

Why is June 21 the official start of summer? Let’s see how SQL can help us answer this question. The Summer Solstice Officially, June 21 is recognized as the summer solstice, the longest day of the entire year in terms of daylight. Why? Because on this day, the sun rises early and sets quite late. People in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate the summer solstice with feasts, bonfires, picnics, and traditional dances and songs.

Inside a Data Science Team: 5 Tips to Avoid Communication Problems

Data science professionals frequently coordinate their workloads, host meetings to discuss and share ideas, and collaborate to solve problems. But all it takes for things to fall apart is a lack of clear communication. Data Science is a team sport that involves a variety of professionals working together to solve technological problems. However, you need good communication for your team to run like a well-oiled machine. You may be thinking that poor communication isn’t that big of a deal.

More Than Just Coding – IT Community Involvement

There are many perceptions of IT, one of the fastest growing industries in the world. For a non-technical person, IT is usually associated with high salaries, numerous job offers, and elite clubs. But IT is more than just people earning big bucks for writing code. The most valuable part of the IT industry is its community. The first steps are the hardest As a complete IT newbie, I had lots of doubts and fears about entering the IT industry.

Short Guide to Most Popular Database Administration Certifications

As an ambitious database administrator, you want to get ahead of the crowd and expand your knowledge. The best way to do that is to get certified in the technology you’re working with. This article and infographic will guide you through the most popular database administrator certifications on the market today. If you’re here, you’re passionate about working with databases, like many other IT professionals. Being a database administrator (DBA) will open up an IT field of pure engineering, with little consideration of the business side of your organization.

DBAs: Why Use Scrum?

Are you the type of database administrator who organizes files by folder? Do you have a folder full of sorted folders? If so, then scrum is the right methodology for you. A database administrator (DBA) is an essential member of any IT team. DBAs create, maintain, and secure an organization’s database, in addition to overseeing user rights assignment, backups, querying, and database tuning. You need specialized training and technical expertise to manage the specific RDBMS setup used by your organization (to understand what an RDBMS is, read on), along with a quirk for analytical thinking.

Agile Data Science: Improving Your Workflow with Scrum

Within organizations, Scrum promotes efficient time and process management along with better team building and leadership. In order to implement Scrum, you’ll need to follow a few simple rules. Introducing Scrum Today, we have the power to collect precise data both quickly and in vast quantities. In fact, 90% of the data available today was collected in the last two years alone. The rise of big data has greatly increased demand for data scientists, but the profession is one where few candidates possess the right skills.

My Very First Script

We recently published a story from a Vertabelo Academy user who found her love thanks to SQL. On a similar note, I asked my colleagues to bring back old memories of writing their very first scripts. And yes, love is involved. Here at Vertabelo Academy, we’ve got some real OG programmers and data scientists making great content. They fell in love with data way before it was cool—and easy. So today, we’re jumping back in time to see what it was like to learn SQL before the Internet and Vertabelo Academy courses existed.

SELECT * FROM love

They say that if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. At Vertabelo Academy, we strongly believe in this adage. We’re creating courses because it’s what we enjoy doing. We’re passionate about SQL and data science, and we want to deliver the best content possible in these domains. To that end, we provide our users with practical modules because learning by doing is the best way to master a new skill.

SQL Advent Challenge 2017: Get 25% OFF for Helping Santa (updated list of tasks)

Wanna be part of this year’s Christmas success? Santa needs your help organizing his Christmas deliveries. For this occasion, we’ve prepared a special Christmas database. While working on tasks, you’ll help Santa Claus deliver gifts to children. For this upcoming Christmas, we’ve prepared a 24-Day SQL Advent challenge. From now until Christmas Eve, we’ll publish daily SQL tasks for you to complete. If you’ve completed or recently started our SQL Basics course, or if you already have basic SQL knowledge, then this event is perfect for you!

SQL Hacks To Control Family Budget On Black Friday Weekend

If you’re in the US, chances are you’ve been eagerly awaiting the approach of Black Friday just as much as Thanksgiving. Though the shopping frenzy takes hold of nearly everyone, some people have to stick to their budgets and shop prudently. In this article, we’ll take a look at how generating an SQL report can help you track how much your family spent shopping on Black Friday. Storing Black Friday Purchases in a Database Before we can create an SQL report, we first need some data we can use.

Happy Thanksgiving! Using SQL to Prepare a Traditional Menu

Thanksgiving is a holiday many Americans celebrate with their families and friends, seated around a table loaded with a hearty feast. The most prominent of all dishes is, of course, the turkey. However, at least a few other specialties are also cooked for Thanksgiving. Do you find it hard to choose what to prepare? If so, we’ve got a solution for you: a special SQL query that will help you pick the best dishes.

SQL Crossword #1

How much SQL do you know? Test your knowledge with this crossword to find out! Download SQL Crossword #1 Psst! Be the first to post your answer in the comment section belowand get 50% OFF on the selected course.  

Spooky Scary NULL: Unexpected Danger Lurking in Your Database

Relational databases often store the value NULL in their tables. If you’re not familiar with NULL and what it is, you could run into unexpected problems. In this article, we’ll take a look at how the IN and EXISTS operators work with NULL. What Is NULL? In SQL, NULL is a special value indicating that a particular piece of data doesn’t exist in the database. For SQL beginners, it’s often a source of problems.

So You Want to Be a Data Scientist?

A career in data science is hot right now. What is a data scientist, and how can you become one? Very few of us said “I want to grow up to be a data scientist” when we were kids. But now, in the age of Big Data and economic uncertainty, a career in data science is looking mighty attractive. If you like the idea of working with information and earning a good paycheck, read on.

Kill Online Distractions: 5 Tools to Help You Stay Focused

Phones, emails, social media accounts, and about a hundred other things are constantly competing for our attention. Can tech tools help us stay focused? A lot of apps say that they help humans work better and faster. But the truth is that the more interactive tools we use, the more focus-shattering notifications we get. In many ways, technology has gotten us into this problem. Can it help us get out of it?

Kill Online Distractions: 5 Tools to Help You Stay Focused

Phones, emails, social media accounts, and about a hundred other things are constantly competing for our attention. Can tech tools help us stay focused? A lot of apps say that they help humans work better and faster. But the truth is that the more interactive tools we use, the more focus-shattering notifications we get. In many ways, technology has gotten us into this problem. Can it help us get out of it?

Jane Solves Her Business Analysis Problem

Jane has a data problem and an overdue report. Will SQL save the day? Jane works as a business analyst for a large London bank. As she walks to the station on Monday morning, she’s thinking about last week’s unfinished work. She couldn’t get the data she needed from IT, so she could not deliver her report on a financial product’s non-performing assets. She absolutely must submit the report to her manager today; she’s already delayed it for more than a week.

5 Documentaries for People Who Love the Internet

Here’s a shock: not everything in the movies is true. But these five documentaries offer interesting insights into the Internet and its people. Non-tech people tend to consider coding, hacking, and anything remotely dev-y as mysterious and magical processes. This myth is helped along by the movie industry, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Movie watchers generally like thrilling, action-packed stories, and coding can be anything but exciting. But not every good movie needs to be filled with action; some get our brains going by presenting new ideas or interesting viewpoints.

Why I Choose Learning Apps … And You Should Too

Learning from books is so 1999. Can app-based learning do any better? Do you like wasting your time? I don’t. Any time I start something, I find out how to do it efficiently. For me, this means learning new skills using apps and online learning rather than books. Online and app-based learning focuses on you, the student. This is the exact opposite of traditional learning, which is teacher-driven. There is a physical classroom and students, but the teacher plays the primary role.

Strategies for Online Learning Success

Internet-based learning is very popular. Knowing your learning style and motivations will help you study smarter, not harder. We tend to spend a lot of time online these days. Between watching funny YouTube videos, catching up on news and celebrity gossip, and binge-watching our favorite Netflix series, we even find the time to learn new skills. But are we in a constant learning process? How can we pluck out – from the vast resources of the Internet – the exact courses and methods that will work for us (or you) personally?

SQL and Your Next Job

The tech sector is experiencing strong job growth. Should SQL be on your list of must-have skills? If you’re even remotely interested in finding a new job, you’ve probably noticed that IT jobs are hot. Not only are a lot of these jobs available, they offer some pretty great opportunities to challenge yourself, grow, and build new skills. And the compensation tends to be pretty awesome too. In today’s world, technology is evolving at an almost daily pace, and this is producing a flood of data that has to be managed.