About Me

Hi, I’m Derek Jung, and I hope Next Level SQL can help you can strengthen your SQL skills! I have 5 years of experience as a data scientist, working with Macy’s, GSK, and now Petco. Before this, I got a BS in Math from UCLA and then a PhD in Mathematics from the U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My wife and I live in Pennsylvania with our 4 kids, and we’re expecting our 5th later this year! In my free time, I enjoy going to our local Catholic Church and participating in the community there, and also listening to podcasts and audiobooks. 

On a side note, if you really enjoy using SQL and you'd like to spend all your work time working with SQL, it seems like there's primarily two industries you could join: tech and (perhaps unexpectedly) retail. And retail has excellent work-life balance and opportunities for you to make a large impact using SQL. So I'd recommend joining retail, better yet come work with me at Petco!

Why Next Level SQL?

1) Repeatedly solving problems while getting instant feedback leads to the greatest improvement. 

2) Spending less time learning new datasets and more time solving problems will make sure you’re using as much time as possible practicing SQL

3) Writing an email at the end of each dataset will force you to connect the results of different queries to tell a story, a common task of any data analyst/scientist/engineer

Contributing

There are 3 ways you can contribute to the platform if you find it helpful:

1) You can donate to the GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/next-level-sql to help support the development of more datasets (read: help me find some free time in my free time to type out the many problems swimming around in my head).

2) You can recommend the website to others.

3) You can share your experience by posting about it or messaging me.

Support

I just have problems here, no real tutorials, so hopefully you have at least some SQL experience before. If not, I always recommend going through the tutorial at https://www.w3schools.com/sql/!

If you have any other questions or feedback, feel free to:

1) Email me at sqlnextlevel@gmail.com

2) Connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekjung

3) Post on the Reddit community at https://www.reddit.com/r/Nextlevelsql/ (this will likely be the fastest way to get a response, see above: 4 kids with 5th coming).

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope this website helps you learn something new, wherever you are in your SQL journey!