December 27, 2012 at 9:47 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item 2013 Goals
December 28, 2012 at 6:40 am
My goal is to get my coworker trained up to handle more of the admin stuff on SQL Server. He's already a great developer on the platform but having someone available to fill in for me when I'm on vacation or just otherwise occupied will make us a more productive team. We started on this back in November and since I'm taking vacation early in the new year, it should help show us where we need to concentrate.
Heck, just this morning I was going to modify a replication process and then thought, "Hold on, I'll get him to do this when he's back from vacation next week."
December 28, 2012 at 6:45 am
I'm new to the site. Just a week into my learning of SQL.
My goal for 2013 is learn SQL and be able to sit and pass the 70-461 exam.
I'm really enjoying my experience thus far.
December 28, 2012 at 6:57 am
Ian Massi (12/28/2012)
My goal is to get my coworker trained up to handle more of the admin stuff on SQL Server. He's already a great developer on the platform but having someone available to fill in for me when I'm on vacation or just otherwise occupied will make us a more productive team. We started on this back in November and since I'm taking vacation early in the new year, it should help show us where we need to concentrate.Heck, just this morning I was going to modify a replication process and then thought, "Hold on, I'll get him to do this when he's back from vacation next week."
While I totally understand your goal, modifying production replication is not what I would start a "trainee" out on, particularly if they have never admin'd SQL Server before. That's a good way to get your production replication screwed up. I know veteran DBA's that still don't know how to fix replication issues. 😀
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
December 28, 2012 at 7:06 am
TravisDBA (12/28/2012)
Ian Massi (12/28/2012)
My goal is to get my coworker trained up to handle more of the admin stuff on SQL Server. He's already a great developer on the platform but having someone available to fill in for me when I'm on vacation or just otherwise occupied will make us a more productive team. We started on this back in November and since I'm taking vacation early in the new year, it should help show us where we need to concentrate.Heck, just this morning I was going to modify a replication process and then thought, "Hold on, I'll get him to do this when he's back from vacation next week."
While I totally understand your goal, modifying production replication is not what I would start a "trainee" out on, particularly if they have never admin'd SQL Server before. That's a good way to get your production replication screwed up.:-D
Normally I'd agree (especially since a little knowledge can be quite dangerous), but this is a case where "it depends" lands on "it's alright". He'd just be adding some new tables to an existing process that replicates to a development server. No biggie if it falls apart, but I'll be walking him through it and it should be alright. Since the setup is similar to a replication process we have working between 2 production servers, it'd give him some knowledge to at least get started on resolving an issue there if he needs to. Fortunately he's pretty risk-averse so he won't jump into anything he doesn't understand well enough.
December 28, 2012 at 7:08 am
I had goals, once. But working at a small-medium company(between 2500-5000, about 20 in IT), with no bonuses, no true different level of titles, and no new management positions in the foreseable future, of which would likley be filled from externally anyways again, its safe to say I'm in coast mode from here on out. At least the pay is good and the work is fairly interesting at times. I would assume a fair amount of people are in the same boat more or less.
December 28, 2012 at 7:17 am
Ian Massi (12/28/2012)
TravisDBA (12/28/2012)
Ian Massi (12/28/2012)
My goal is to get my coworker trained up to handle more of the admin stuff on SQL Server. He's already a great developer on the platform but having someone available to fill in for me when I'm on vacation or just otherwise occupied will make us a more productive team. We started on this back in November and since I'm taking vacation early in the new year, it should help show us where we need to concentrate.Heck, just this morning I was going to modify a replication process and then thought, "Hold on, I'll get him to do this when he's back from vacation next week."
While I totally understand your goal, modifying production replication is not what I would start a "trainee" out on, particularly if they have never admin'd SQL Server before. That's a good way to get your production replication screwed up.:-D
Normally I'd agree (especially since a little knowledge can be quite dangerous), but this is a case where "it depends" lands on "it's alright". He'd just be adding some new tables to an existing process that replicates to a development server. No biggie if it falls apart, but I'll be walking him through it and it should be alright. Since the setup is similar to a replication process we have working between 2 production servers, it'd give him some knowledge to at least get started on resolving an issue there if he needs to. Fortunately he's pretty risk-averse so he won't jump into anything he doesn't understand well enough.
Totally understand Ian, and again it's your call. I do think it is a smart idea that you do a walkthrough the first time with him, and like you say it is development, not production. As you probably already know, it is not hard to break replication by changing it. Because, even in most SQL Server training classes, peer-to-peer replication is considered an advanced topic. 😀
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
December 28, 2012 at 7:27 am
Oh, so many goals. Stuck in a very boring and not challenging job, so my primary goal is to stop the erosion of my skills that has happened due to lack of appropriate work. If I were to pare it down to a couple of attainable goals, I'd say 1) "improve my T-SQL skills by identifying, learning, and utilizing the newer (2005+) language enhancements (like the output clause, try/catch, etc.)", since my T-SQL is still fairly old-school; and 2) learn when and how to appropriately deploy and utilize PowerPivot (SharePoint 2010+ based, and in Excel 2013) for self-service BI, only because I'm quite intrigued by that whole concept, haven't been able to work on it, it seems to have so much potential, and requires good data modeling skills, which I enjoy as well.
Ultimately, I have to figure out how to align my interests in data warehousing, data mining, the cloud, and general self-service BI with the company's needs. I think the opportunity is there to do that, but that's going to involve many other aspects, like planning, politicking, and proving, on top of the actual work of infrastructure implementation and development.
Stoked for the New Year!
December 28, 2012 at 8:02 am
I think my main goal for 2013 is to learn about unit testing, primarily in Visual Studio but also in SQL Server. Also want to learn more about performance tuning (I know the basics already but not everything about tuning queries and such) and maybe some WMI projects. This past year I've gotten more comfortable with Visual Studio and some new techniques in T-SQL.
Tony
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Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
December 28, 2012 at 9:01 am
Learning Sharepoint 2010+ should be on everyone's goals because the entire Microsoft technology is being intertwined with it now. That is going to be a big resume question in the future (if not now), not only for developers, but DBA's as well: "How much Sharepoint experience do you have?" How you answer that question could determine whether the interview continues or not.:-D
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
December 28, 2012 at 10:35 am
TravisDBA (12/28/2012)
Learning Sharepoint 2010+ should be on everyone's goals because the entire Microsoft technology is being intertwined with it now.
I tend to agree. This is one I've considered.
December 28, 2012 at 10:50 am
I have two things. XE and PoSH.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
December 29, 2012 at 8:51 am
I too will be studying hard for the 70-461 exam. I'm also going to learn some .NET.
December 31, 2012 at 7:53 am
Goal #1 for me is to find new employment. I think I've done as much as I can for the company here; my presence is literally handled entirely through modifiable automation (which, with our database being a mere 2GB of almost purely static data, was easy to attain). I'm still being paid for my time, but my skills aren't growing here in the slightest beyond what I can read and practice on my workstation instance.
Goal #2 is to take the 70-461 myself before the end of 2013. The one area I'm still rusty at is HA, mostly because I haven't been able to implement it at my current workplace. Definitely going to buy a copy of Developer's Edition and get to that as soon as I can with my home computer, along with throwing all manner of tests at the poor thing 🙂
- 😀
January 1, 2013 at 7:07 am
1. Learn Extended Events well enough to where I never need to use Profiler/Trace again. That is, as long as I am working on a SQL Server 2012 instance.
2. Learn PowerShell 3.0 formally and comprehensively instead of the bits and pieces of Microsoft documentation, random blog posts and hacking around that helped me pickup the very small amount of PowerShell 1.0 and 2.0 I have in my toolkit. The end-goal is to make all my T-SQL admin scripts server-aware via PowerShell starting with log shipping and database backups. I just purchased Don Jones' new book so I know what I'll be doing during lunch every day in January.
PS 3. Almost forgot, develop a working knowledge of Analysis Services. It is one of the few areas of SQL Server (that have been included in more than the newest release) that I have not worked with. The new shop (started 3 weeks ago) is said to be ~5% Analysis Services and I have an opportunity to "pick it up as I go, as time allows." It's obviously not front and center on my mind but it is a nice situation to be in...maybe I'll find time in Q2 😛
Thanks for the post, Steve.
Happy New Year!
There are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue is taught by the whole community.
--Plato
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