Learning SQL, SAP + other business software/languages

[Q]

I recently graduated from college with a business degree and I'm looking to eventually becoming a business analyst.

A lot of these positions use SAP, SAS, SQL, etc. I'm pretty technically sound, but what is the best way to practice/learn these programs / languages?

 

[YoungGun21]

I don't really know anything relating to those languages (I know a little SQL) but really what I've done to learn a computer language is follow the online tutorials. I guarantee you that somewhere out there in the series of tubes, somebody has written a tutorial for the language you want to learn. It also really helps to have an idea of what you want to make already, then you can make mini-side projects to learn techniques or ideas that you can piece together for your ultimate goal. I found that when I was trying to learn C++ for my first try, it was difficult because I had no projects to try besides what the tutorial listed. Once I found projecteuler and also came up with ideas on my own, I started to learn the language better. Same thing for when I learned Perl and now C#.

In short, you said it in your post - practice.

 

[Cogman]

YoungGun's advice is solid, do stuff with the languages and you will eventually learn them. Most of the languages you've listed are fairly simple to understand.

My only advice would be to pick up a good database book. SQL itself is really pretty easy to learn. Doing SQL cleanly, on the other hand, takes a fair amount of planning and prep. How well you lay out your database is WAY more important to learn then learning how to exactly use a SQL Select statement.

 

[modestninja]

YoungGun's advice is solid, do stuff with the languages and you will eventually learn them. Most of the languages you've listed are fairly simple to understand.

My only advice would be to pick up a good database book. SQL itself is really pretty easy to learn. Doing SQL cleanly, on the other hand, takes a fair amount of planning and prep. How well you lay out your database is WAY more important to learn then learning how to exactly use a SQL Select statement.

Very true. There's a lot more to SQL than getting it return/do what you want. I've seen a lot of developers that don't spend any time tuning their SQL which bites you in the ass in a production setting.

That being said, I haven't heard many BA's designing the schema for a database. Hopefully that's done by a dedicated resource.