July 9, 2009 at 7:44 am
I have taken a class in college on SQL and I loved it. The only thing I learned however was your basic queries going up to some tougher queries. But there is still a lot more to SQL than queries. And I want to learn it!
My ultimate goal is to be able to get a DBA job as that is what I would like to do for a career. With that said, where would you guys recommend I begin? I've been looking at doing the Microsoft certifications, but I've read a few articles saying they aren't what they are hyped up to be.
So I'm thinking I will just study and possibly just do the certifications for my personal satisfaction to prove to myself that I do know what I'm doing.
Ok, enough of my rambling. Where would you guys recommend I start? What books do you think are the best for the dollar?
Software is not an issue as I have all of Microsoft's products.
Thanks,
Tyler
July 9, 2009 at 7:55 am
if you can spare the time, dump a request to some local businesses asking for an unpaid intern position sitting with their SQL DBA. volunteering a few hours a couple of days a week, and working with someone on real queries goes a long way towards building your knowledge foundation.
The other thing to do is trying all the code posted here on the forums.
find a forum post that catches your eye, and either try to solve it yourself, or actually copy/paste the posted answers to your SSMS; by reading and then executing the code, you can start grasping the concepts preesented.
in my opinion, reading the forum posts is not enough, it's when you grab code and execute it, that's when you are really given the opportunity to learn something from here.
I have a suite of snippets that I've saved from the forums, and i go back to them constantly.
a great example/model might come along in some post, and I save it for the future.
Lowell
July 9, 2009 at 8:07 am
Great idea, but that will not work for me as I currently hold a full time job doing .Net developing and IT Support. So my days are pretty well booked.
The best way for me to learn is by picking up books and studying them. As well as doing what you mentioned and going through the forums and trying to solve the code snippets.
July 9, 2009 at 8:10 am
Learning consists of doing. Studying is just a precursor to that.
So, I recommend working out some way to DO database work. If writing/tuning queries is your thing, check for database developer jobs, and so on.
You might be able to get some sort of internship. You might be able to get opportunities to volunteer for local charities. You might be able to get an entry-level position solely on the strength of a degree (it happens).
Best thing to do is to ask around at local businesses, churches, charities, etc. Someone is likely to need something.
- 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
July 9, 2009 at 8:28 am
Few issues with that is...
1. I do not feel I have enough knowledge right now to even take an internship. I want to build my knowledge base first.
2. I cannot get an internship. I hold a full time position as a .Net developer / IT Support.
This is my reasoning for falling back in books and such while I build my knowledge. I'm guessing that for the next 2 years, I'll be learning as much as I can and going from there.
July 9, 2009 at 8:43 am
U said you dont hv problems getting microsoft products. I'd suggest install sql server developer edition and start learning by yourself to get yourself to some beginner level.
You can pick on topics like architecture, database structure, backup recovery concepts.. so on an so forth. Read from BOL abt the topics you've chosen to master and refer to numerous articles you get on net. You'll get broader ideas abt the product. The more you study, the more number of doubts/queries that will arise. Try getting answers to those by finding materials.
Of course you can come to this site for any specific issues and experts here will help you out.
July 9, 2009 at 8:58 am
Thank you ps.
EDIT: Nevermind. Answered my own question.
July 9, 2009 at 9:04 am
BOL=Books Online. It is the sql help book that is installed with the sql server for all editions except express edition. It's installed locally and is the best place to start learning.
Online version of BOL is also present at MSDN site.
if you don't have it, you can download it from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=BE6A2C5D-00DF-4220-B133-29C1E0B6585F&displaylang=en%5B/url%5D
July 9, 2009 at 9:10 am
tylerlaude (7/9/2009)
Few issues with that is...1. I do not feel I have enough knowledge right now to even take an internship. I want to build my knowledge base first.
2. I cannot get an internship. I hold a full time position as a .Net developer / IT Support.
This is my reasoning for falling back in books and such while I build my knowledge. I'm guessing that for the next 2 years, I'll be learning as much as I can and going from there.
Build a hobby database in that case. Something you can work on for yourself in your spare time.
Volunteer stuff for local charities/churches won't interfere with a full-time job. I do both. (I don't do IT stuff for my church, but I do a lot of volunteer stuff. Like 4 hours last night after work helping run a community event.) If you can get a gig doing database stuff that way, it'll take as much time as you want to put into it.
- 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
July 9, 2009 at 9:12 am
ps (7/9/2009)
BOL=Books Online. It is the sql help book that is installed with the sql server for all editions except express edition. It's installed locally and is the best place to start learning.Online version of BOL is also present at MSDN site.
if you don't have it, you can download it from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=BE6A2C5D-00DF-4220-B133-29C1E0B6585F&displaylang=en%5B/url%5D
Thank you for the link!
July 9, 2009 at 9:14 am
GSquared (7/9/2009)
tylerlaude (7/9/2009)
Few issues with that is...1. I do not feel I have enough knowledge right now to even take an internship. I want to build my knowledge base first.
2. I cannot get an internship. I hold a full time position as a .Net developer / IT Support.
This is my reasoning for falling back in books and such while I build my knowledge. I'm guessing that for the next 2 years, I'll be learning as much as I can and going from there.
Build a hobby database in that case. Something you can work on for yourself in your spare time.
Volunteer stuff for local charities/churches won't interfere with a full-time job. I do both. (I don't do IT stuff for my church, but I do a lot of volunteer stuff. Like 4 hours last night after work helping run a community event.) If you can get a gig doing database stuff that way, it'll take as much time as you want to put into it.
I'm tossing around idea's about how to do a "hobby database", the problem is coming up with enough data to where a database is even useful lol.
July 9, 2009 at 9:24 am
Hobby databases I've seen:
Cookbook
Game-related data (loot data in World of Warcraft, that kind of thing)
Baseball cards
Music collection
Video collection
Geneology
DBA-related data (links to discussions in SSC, that kind of thing)
Political promises
Any of those can provide hours of work, or years.
- 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
July 9, 2009 at 9:30 am
GSquared (7/9/2009)
Hobby databases I've seen:Cookbook
Game-related data (loot data in World of Warcraft, that kind of thing)
Baseball cards
Music collection
Video collection
Geneology
DBA-related data (links to discussions in SSC, that kind of thing)
Political promises
Any of those can provide hours of work, or years.
Thanks for the stepping stone! I'm going to create a hobby database on Hockey stats for a local hockey team here in town.
Thanks!
July 9, 2009 at 9:34 am
some of the hobby databases that I've done in the past , to help me really understand SQL:
1. gathering lists of city/county/state/zipcode, and breaking them up into parent-child tables: makes you learn FK relationships, scripting, importing from different sources. lots of free files on the net, which you use as a datasource. did the same trying to relate airport codes (i.e. "MIA" = Miami, FL) to city/state as well.
2. Grabbed a list of "Funny Names", like bart simpson used for crank calls(Hugh Jazz). then i created a job to insert one of those names as a new login and then a new user in test database. makes you learn logins, roles, permissions,etc
3. Took the free Gutenberg dictionary, and turned it into a SQL table. makes you learn how to parse long lines for substrings of code, data cleanup and more. Later you can use it for Full Text Searches and stuff.
4. wrote a program and stored procedure to insert every file and path for whatever is on my C:\ drive into a table in SQL server. Searching for a filename in SQL server, after it is a table and indexed, is a zillion times faster than letting the OS scroll thru all the files each time you want to look for something.
maybe some other folks can offer some hobby project ideas as well.
Lowell
July 9, 2009 at 9:42 am
Great input! Thank you! I would never have thought of things like that haha.
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