November 7, 2007 at 8:04 am
K. Brian Kelley (11/7/2007)
Also, there are always volunteer opportunities and short consulting engagements you can take on with SQL Server. Having the skillset is only a bonus, even if you don't actively use it day-to-day.
I agree with Brian here. Sometimes you have to look for the opportunity even within the company you work for to make MS SQL a logical solution.
I was in SQL 7 training when I was displaced from a job, subsequently the same company offered be a job in Y2K as a customer response clerk (customer asked a question I made a nice form letter and sent it back). We were tracking all of these items in an Access database along with storing a copy of the actually document. Early on thou I saw several issues which I got permission to fix in the database. After that I realized when everthing was over we had all this paperwork we had to fill out that realted to storing all the documentation offsite for legal purposes. I decided to, in my spare time, create the same form inside the database and have it populate the form for us. Since all the documentation was stored alphabetically it made it easy. When done we open the Access database form and fill a box until full, on the form we record the box id then afterwards print a report for the box, this saved many man hours.
Well during the course of this a group of folks were tasked with building a system for tracking the Y2K cutover changes for all systems in an area. The guys in that group knew what I had done and asked my manager if I could get involved with helping them since they wanted to use access to track across the footprint (across the US). I helped build dynamic forms in Access to allow setup and tracking of each event with a set of common tasks. However we were not the only folks tracking this info some areas had systems which had Oracle, Sybase and SQL Server backends. It was decided by upper management they wanted to consolidate all the information from all these systems into one and display on the intranet the relavant information to demonstrate how things were going during the cutover periods. I propsed using SQL Server because of DTS and quickly demonstrated how I could take data from the different systems and manage thru transformation bring the data to a common format with the required information. The idea was a big hit with everyone so they provided me a server license and I was both admin and developer but more importantly I was working with SQL 7 which I trained for. Thru this I met the group I went to work for after that and was admining SQL 6.5 and converting everything over to 7 then ultimately 2000. I was admin and developer for 4 years, now I mostly develope but a few SQL DBAs call every so often with questions about issues they see or how to approach a particular task.
Ultimately the certification will help you as it demonstrates you are commited to learning in addition to a specific knowledge. And if you take the job just keep your eyes open for opportunities that you can wedge yourself into and don't be afraid you might fail. In the long run you might even be able to create a job using SQL Server for yourself if you feel strongly enough.
November 7, 2007 at 8:46 am
To be totally honest i'm not thinking of packing in the certification just because i won't use it on a day to day basis, but it will be harder than using something day to day. I'm of the opinion that i'll keep it so if i wanted to go for a SQL Server developer role in a year's time say i could still demonstrate that I have the skills.
I have also thought about the fact that it is a growing company that I may be able to influence to switch to SQL Server should i see a compelling reason to do so that makes sense on a cost (for the RDMS and the developer time) basis.
Who knows what the future may bring, but keeping a borad range of skills wouldn't be a bad thing.
November 8, 2007 at 4:00 am
Hi there,
MySQL does not require a license for commercial use unless:
1. You want commercial support and the extras which you get with MySQL Enterprise.
2. You want to sell a solution which contains MySQL.
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