August 20, 2010 at 11:56 am
On my website this month (www.bradmcgehee.com), I am running a monthly contest that asks: "What types of continuing education do you use to keep up with being a DBA?"
If you enter the contest, you could win a $50 Amazon.com gift cetificate and a free license to SQL Virtual Restore. The winner will be selected from random.
Visit the following URL to enter the contest.
Brad M. McGehee
DBA
August 20, 2010 at 12:22 pm
For my own career, ... I've been making an effort to improve my skills by working more with the new aspects of SQL Server, blogging about them, and then building additional presentations that I can give at events. That is a way that I'm looking to improve my own skills
This sums it up pretty well for me.
I would add to that list that I am trying to be a lot more active in PASS, the community and with my local UG.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
August 20, 2010 at 12:38 pm
In the last year
-I studied for and passed 2 certification exams
-I bought 6 books. So far read about 2.5
-I always read and answer the QoTD, and usually the explanations as well.
-I ask questions in the forums.
-I answer questions in the forums, sometimes from general knowledge, sometimes looking something up that I can't do without poking around for a bit. This definitely reinforces and improves my skills.
-I just made a proposal to my boss for next year's PASS. If he gives me the tickets, I will do the airfare (frequent flier miles) and lodging.
-I keep a folder of code tidbits titled by function so I can always look up a solution to a past problem or challenge.
My biggest problem is finding the time to do all of this. But I keep pushing, I want to become a top shelf expert in the MS BI stack
One of the most important things to learning and career management are goals. It is important to set and pursue goals. It is a great way to keep yourself on track.
August 20, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Massive Data Archiving. Most people I interview have not done this at all, and it is a must at most companies sooner or later. It's a great thing to have on your resume and people notice it too, believe me. 😀
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
August 20, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Hey Steve,
If I remember correctly, a few months back you mentioned you were learning PowerShell. You should add that to your list.
I also have been learning PowerShell, in addition to Team Foundation Server for VS 2010; I had been using other systems previously (MKS, PVCS, SourceSafe, ClearCase).
I also believe that most of us true computer nuts are always trying to learn more, its our life.
August 21, 2010 at 5:50 am
TravisDBA (8/20/2010)
Massive Data Archiving. Most people I interview have not done this at all, and it is a must at most companies sooner or later. It's a great thing to have on your resume and people notice it too, believe me. 😀
I'm interested in how you get a project like that sponsored. Do you demonstrate the cost to the business of having too much irrelevant (or sensitive) data on hand? Is it just something you know needs to be done? How do you demonstrate the benefit?
Sounds challenging. I need to get me one of them thar Massive Data Archiving doohickeys on my CV 🙂
James Stover, McDBA
August 23, 2010 at 2:48 am
James Stover (8/21/2010)
TravisDBA (8/20/2010)
Massive Data Archiving. Most people I interview have not done this at all, and it is a must at most companies sooner or later. It's a great thing to have on your resume and people notice it too, believe me. 😀I'm interested in how you get a project like that sponsored. Do you demonstrate the cost to the business of having too much irrelevant (or sensitive) data on hand? Is it just something you know needs to be done? How do you demonstrate the benefit?
Sounds challenging. I need to get me one of them thar Massive Data Archiving doohickeys on my CV 🙂
James,
Well it depends. Many things can drive the need for you to do it. Sometimes it's a matter of available disk space left, while other times it's a matter of performance and other times it's other reasons like the need for smaller backups, faster restore times,etc. I have demonstated this in the past by calculating these benefits in disk savings, query response times, execution plans, etc. How you approach it depends on what you need to archive and how your database is laid out (referential Integrity). Also, you have to examine the legal requirement as well, some shops have no data retention requirements while others require 7 years. Make sure you understand your requirements first and then design a solution. You also may need to meet with the users to understand how they use the potentially archived data and if it is archived how the applications will need to change. If you are not responsible for your application development, make sure you meet with the development team to ensure the changes are feasible in the first place. Archiving is not an easy task and it can involve many steps before and after the process, but sooner or later you will probably be required to do it. There are tools out there to assist you in this and I am giving you a link to one of them:
http://eyearchive.codeplex.com/
Also, there is a good article on this that will assist you in the many things you will have to take into consideration before archiving:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Advanced/dataarchivingproblemsandsolutions/1729/
Let me know what you think of the information. Data Archiving is an essential DBA task and it should be something you have done in order to be considered an "Exceptional DBA" as Brad McGehee defines it 😀
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
August 23, 2010 at 3:01 am
I am learning new things on Stock market trading....which is totally different of IT but interested.
I like it because it need the deep analysis like DBA work and if invested correctly get good results and benefits. I have my own database, which I am updating with all my transaction in trading. So inter-relating myDBA work with trading.
As well in case if you loose the job, you can still be earning and boss of your own.
Also the alternate after retirement as there is no age to start or stop in trading.
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Ashish
August 23, 2010 at 9:02 am
What have I done to learn new things in the past year? Let's see . . .
No matter how much (or how little) I think I know, I'm of the opinion that there's always room for improvement!
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Check out my blog at https://pianorayk.wordpress.com/
August 24, 2010 at 8:43 am
I use MS OneNote for just this. Keeping virtual notebooks on all the different areas of responsibility. Each 'notebook' having sections, etc. Extremely handy.
August 24, 2010 at 8:45 am
Sorry, my previous post was in response to LightVader's post.
August 25, 2010 at 6:27 am
Kevin Drysdale (8/24/2010)
I use MS OneNote for just this. Keeping virtual notebooks on all the different areas of responsibility. Each 'notebook' having sections, etc. Extremely handy.
I haven't used OneNote, but that sounds like a good idea.
I've recently decided that I'm going to start keeping one notebook for each of the systems I work with. In my mind, this will serve a couple purposes. First, I've been at this company less than a year so this will help me get to know the systems. Second, I'm getting more responsibilities with these systems, so I can keep my assumptions, findings and updates in one place. Third, if I leave the company or move to a different position, I can leave the systems notebooks to whoever replaces me. I think with OneNote this will become even easier because I can always keep a copy for myself for future reference.
August 25, 2010 at 7:40 am
LightVader,
OneNote can help you with separate notebooks. It makes it fairly easy to bind pages into tabs, and tabs into notebooks. Took me a few weeks to get used to it, but it works well for me, and can handle images, links, etc.
Plus, no CTRL+S. It auto saves constantly.
One thing I also do is I sync my notebooks with LiveMesh across multiple machines, that way I can edit them wherever I am.
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