How Sqool Alumnus Calvin Landed a Director-level Operations Role in Tech Because He Knew SQL

Sqool accelerated Calvin’s career from banking to tech. He pulls data with SQL & uses Excel for complex analyses. Knowing SQL basics increased his impact & ability to make data-driven decisions.

About Calvin

Calvin Hartanto is the Director of Business & Sales Operations at Front and a Sqool alumnus. He met Elaine and Karim at Sonder where he was on the Finance team. Before that, he was an Investment Banker at Deutsche Bank.

📣 Want to learn SQL? Sign up for our 6-week program. Or check out our curriculum materials to learn at your own pace.

Tell me about yourself. 

I studied Accounting and Finance at Georgetown University. My career began in investment banking in New York and eventually led me to San Francisco. 

There, I caught the startup bug and joined Sonder’s Strategic Finance team. I worked on many projects ranging from fundraising, preparing board materials, financial planning and analysis, and strategic special projects. I actually worked closely with Karim and Elaine—they were the data masters at Sonder. 

How did you get and analyze financial data at Sonder?

Because of my finance background, I naturally defaulted to Excel. Then when I transitioned into tech, it became Google sheets. That’s where I generated the insights we needed on the Strategic Finance team. 

However, I had trouble getting data into Google sheets. Our financial and operating  numbers were stored in multiple, hard-to-find databases. The only way to access that data was through SQL. I relied heavily on Karim and Elaine just to get the tables I needed so that I could run my own analyses, summaries, and outputs.. 

This increased the time it took me to deliver valuable insights. I’d always be blocked on someone else to pull the data for me. That’s why I did the Sqool SQL Accelerator. 

What was your experience at Sqool like? 

I loved Sqool. Karim and Elaine are extremely friendly and great to work with. They put a lot of thought into the curriculum. Even before day 1, I already had access to the Sqool Notion that laid out the schedule, what to review before each class, and how to set up PopSQL for the problem sets. Even today, I still use the Sqool cheat sheet today when I need a quick refresher.  

In the weekly classes, Karim and Elaine broke down SQL into basic building blocks that made it easy for me as a non-data person to understand. As someone who used spreadsheets, I appreciated how they highlighted the similar types of analyses I could achieve with SQL. 

The cohort-based structure also gave the program so much more sticking power. I’ve tried $20 self-paced bootcamps before but it was just so easy to stop caring after the first few lessons. I felt much more engaged with Sqool. I had a community I could exchange questions with and rely on for accountability. 

How did SQL help you land your current job? 

I was eyeing Front’s opening for a Business Operations & Strategy Manager. The job description listed proficiency in Excel and SQL as a requirement. During the interview process, the hiring manager directly asked me, “Do you know SQL?” 

I responded, “No, I come from a spreadsheets background. But I am currently taking a SQL bootcamp called Sqool.” Then I explained how I would use SQL to pull the data I needed and would rely on Excel to do the real transformations and create graphs. 

I don’t know what would have happened if I only said, “No, I don’t know SQL,” but I believe that taking the Sqool bootcamp helped me land the job.  Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to get promoted as the  Director of Business & Sales Operations. Honestly, if I hadn’t done Sqool and developed my foundation in SQL, I’d be much less effective in my job today. 

I don’t know what would have happened if I only said, “No, I don’t know SQL,” but I believe that taking the Sqool bootcamp helped me land the job…Honestly, if I hadn’t done Sqool and developed my foundation in SQL, I’d be much less effective in my job today. 

How do you use SQL today?

There are two parts to my role: Business Operations and Sales Operations. 

• Biz Ops is focused on helping solve cross-functional, strategic projects - very much like an internal consulting role where I help answer open-ended, unstructured problems and help coordinate the different teams to achieve our goals

• Sales Ops is similar in impact, but more so focused on the go-to-market teams specifically. Our job is to help make sure our Sales teams are put in the best position to succeed, including helping to ‘run the business’ on a daily basis as well as helping to drive the longer-term strategy. 

I use SQL myself to filter out all the noisy information I don’t need and join together records from different tables. Then I switch to Google Sheets, where it’s faster for me to run more complex analyses. This enables me to help all our teams make data-driven decisions, which is a core part of our culture at Front.

I still work closely with our Data and Product Analytics teams at Front, who know where all of the data lives. But I find myself a lot more independent now than I was at Sonder (where I was constantly bugging Karim and Elaine to help me pull data). It’s also empowering and freeing to get exactly what I need while being less of a burden on other teams. 

Anything else you want to share? 

You don’t need to be an expert in SQL to level up your career. Having a basic knowledge of SQL goes a long way. Really all I use SQL for in my job is to pull together the data I need into Google sheets and Excel. Then, I work my magic from there. 

If you are even just a bit interested in SQL, I strongly recommend Sqool. You will get your money’s worth and more from this investment in yourself.