November 29, 2007 at 6:29 am
Clive Strong (11/29/2007)
Check out the microsoft sites for the content. Also check Amazon for the study guides.Also, I disagree that you need certification...Its a nice to have and yes, I agree, stands out a bit more on your cv/resume. I don't have one and nor did I go to University and get a degree, but here I am.
Experience counts for a hell of a lot.
I must admit, my views are somewhat tarnished around the certifications after reading Brandie's story! Granted a lot of work and effort was put in to obtain the certification, but if someone with no real world experience can get certified, to me, it doesn't carry much weight as something that truly sets people apart.
A lot of it depends on what else is on your resume. If you have solid experience and a degree that is directly related, then the certification will probably mean little or nothing. I on the other hand moved into IT from a somewhat related but different field and hold a degree in mathematics. My employer was quite up front about the fact that my MCP (working towards MCDBA), while not the only factor, played a role in getting my foot in the door when I made that switch.
So the biggest question with certifications is if your potential employer values them, but they can certainly help especially if you are just moving into IT or making a switch within IT.
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Timothy A Wiseman
SQL Blog: http://timothyawiseman.wordpress.com/
November 29, 2007 at 6:40 am
I have to agree with Timothy. It depends on what your employer of choice is looking for.
I originally used the cert material as a method of learning the basics of SQL Server. After I got into it, I realized that I needed some validation of what I had spent 2 years teaching myself, so I got the certification as my "proof of education."
I'm not sure if the MCSA cert I got also helped with the job hunt or not. It taught me a lot about server OS's and validated my previous unofficial server/pc admin experience. The info I learned while studying for it had definitely helped me resolve problems since I became a DBA. I think all DBAs should know about the platforms their systems are running on. Since most of my previous experience is in PC support, though, I'm a little biased on that fact. @=)
November 29, 2007 at 10:14 am
Thank you very much Clive and other friend who are very kind on the group and help out.
Nadeem
November 29, 2007 at 10:31 am
In my corner of the world of IT, I have found that experience is definately much more important than any degree or certification. In fact, I have yet run into an employer who has put any emphasis degrees or certifications.
I have taken some classes to prepare for the MCDBA certification tests; but never taken the tests. Test and I are not friends. 🙂 At this point there is not really any motivation to spend the time or money to acquire these certifications. I do have 15+ years under my belt as a developer and that may be why it is not as important for me; but an employer considering someone with less than 3 years experience may have a different expectation.
Having said that, the old saying of "It's not what you know it's who you know" is very true with securing a job. Many opportunities come about when you are excercising your peer networking muscles. Giving a newbie a chance is much more likely when you are recommended by a trusted source. Although, I would add to that old saying that it's what you know that keeps you there.
March 17, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Good article.
I ended up as a DBA by accident. I don't have the certs yet, but will definitely get them.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
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March 18, 2008 at 4:06 am
Glad you enjoyed it, GSquared.
I won't say that certs are the only way to get a DBA job, but they definitely help those who come from different industries and have never been near a SQL Server in a RL job. However, as others have pointed out, sometimes its who you know and how you present yourself that gets you the job.
Whichever the case is, "Try, try again" is a good motto to keep in mind.
March 18, 2008 at 8:13 am
For me, the certs are going to be more of a means of filling in the (huge) gaps in my knowledge.
I'm totally self-trained on this, and it's mainly been by means of "well, that didn't work, what did I do wrong?" That means there are areas I haven't messed with, because they haven't exploded yet. So to speak.
For example, you mentioned replication in your article. My one experience with replication was set up by someone else, and was a disaster. All I did was turn it off and remove it from the database and tell that guy to never, ever, ever touch my databases again. Never. Ever. So, I know how to turn replication off. That's it on that subject.
I'm really more of a database developer with some slight knowledge of administration. I do administer databases, and got a passing grade on the Brainbench test on that (3.something grade), but I've never had to recover a badly crashed database, never yet set up mirroring (though I'm currently working on a project to do exactly that), never set up a cluster, etc. I have some theoretical knowledge on some of these things, but I don't even know how big the holes in my knowledge are.
Thus, I'm hoping that studying for and getting certs will help me to target the important aspects of what I don't know. I can study forever on my own, but it's hard to figure out how important something is in that kind of vacuum.
As I mentioned, I ended up being a "DBA" by accident. Seven years ago, I was a sales/marketing person, and I created a database to track my own customers and their orders. A year later, with everyone in the company using my database, I ended up being a full-time dev/admin for that database. (You should have seen the first version of the database. Not even 1NF. It was horrible! But it got the job done.) That background has the advantage of being able to very, very easily translate user-needs in very precise specifications for coding, but it does mean that my knowledge is heuristic in nature, and lacking in large areas.
(My education is in management and business administration, so that also helps in determining what software should do and so on, but again doesn't help when it comes to the day-to-day of being a DBA.)
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
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"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
March 18, 2008 at 8:47 am
GSquared,
Might I suggest setting up a test lab or SOHO for yourself?
There are a lot of PCs you can get at clearance at local computer shops (or shows) or even refurbed off of EBay and other auction sites. All you need is eval software for the OS and SQL Server and you can go to town.
I do recommend doing your best to cause a SQL Server failure because sometimes the only way you learn how to solve a problem is if you create them in the first place. @=)
Of course, I don't recommend the above technique on a Production box. Just on a test box set up specifically so you can "break" it.
March 19, 2008 at 7:37 am
I have a test box. Actually, have one at work and one at home. Trust me, I blow them up regularly. Ended up with a test of CTE behavior causing the tempdb to use up the whole disk drive (it grew to over 200 Gig), just last week.
But, for example, when I recently took a Brainbench DBA test, a huge number of questions were about sqlcmd, which I've never had a use for, so didn't know anything about. Never would have even bothered to learn about it, but now I'm going to look into it and see what it's really good for.
That's why I want to mess around with certs. I would never have thought of playing with a command-line interface for SQL on my own. I pretty much dropped command-line interfaces for most of my computing when Windows 95 came out. I can still write .BAT files pretty well (too many years of DOS, though they were a long time ago), but I don't see much need for that kind of thing these days.
After seeing that on the test, and after reading many entries here, I have to ask myself, "how much else is there that I should know about but don't?" I can get the job done with T-SQL. I can tune the heck out of queries if given a little time. I can design and build a database that automates whole departments of a small/medium business. But what don't I know that might be tripping me up?
Another example is I never played with SQL 2005 synonyms until yesterday. I'd heard of them, but never used/created one. They definitely are convenient. But what are all the ramifications of using them? I don't have the faintest clue. But I intend to find out!
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
February 12, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Hi Brandie,
Your post is really very encouraging and refreshing! I almost start my current Job of DBA in similar ways like you. The most admirable message in your post is "Volunteer, Volunteer and Volunteer". Thanks for your article, it gives me the direction towards ,what actually I should do to make my job more intresting.
-Reecha Mishra
February 13, 2009 at 3:58 am
I'm glad you like it. Good luck with your new career! @=)
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