November 14, 2008 at 7:31 am
I've come into my position as a SQL Server DBA rather unusually - or maybe it's more common than not. I have a degree in Computer Science from the U.S., worked in IT overseas, moved to Canada, and because of my lack of Canadian or U.S. experience, I had a hard time getting in. I managed to get in through an internship program in the company I was working at in a retail capacity, and the interviewer was impressed enough to give me a shot, even though I hadn't worked with SQL since university and he was aware of that.
I feel I now have one of the most useful learning environments, and besides learning about all the pretty theory from the books, I get do deal with the harsh reality of poorly designed queries, running out of space and learning to archive appropriate tables, and dealing with space issues. I work with three other DBA's and I think only one of them has a certification, and that's from a long time ago. The person hiring me hired them as well and prefers real world experience over certification.
That being said, I still think it's good to get a certification when you are first starting out as well working in a real production environment. It is a way to round out your experience initially for companies in the future. I'm working on the first exam (70-431) but I'm in no hurry. Give me a couple more months here, I'll be sufficiently trained in 70%+ of the exam I feel. I'll take the exam (the company pays for training/exams as well), use it as a tool, but focus more on the real world experience I have.
I recommend that anyone who has real world experience but is just starting out to do this. Focus more on the realities of managing live databases, but use the certification and it's training as a tool among many. Anyone else feel that way?
Gaby________________________________________________________________"In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." - Albert Einstein
November 30, 2008 at 10:26 pm
I think the certifications can enhance your experience, but if you get them without experience, then you are proving you can study and test, but not necessarily do anything.
In other words, I'm not sure I think a certification has much meaning unless you have at least a year of experience.
December 1, 2008 at 10:45 am
I am in Canada, about to take my 70-431 soon too (should've done it a year ago)
but now a year later, I have learned a lot more that's beyond the 70-431 scope even
I even have a lot of SQL 2008 exposure
But reading the 70-431 book still teaches me things I don't know or don't remember
Especially features that I never use (such as Replication, Service Broker, HTTP Endpoints...)
Keep at it, IMO Experience > Certification
but having both > just Experience
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