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dwinn86
Starting Member
1 Post |
 Posted - 2012-02-03 : 04:07:02
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| Hi Everyone,Apologies if this is the wrong forum but I am not 100% on where to start.I am currently a Software Developer, with experience in SQL Server development.I am about to take my MCTS 70-433 Database Development exam.I want to eventually be a Senior SQL Developer and then potentially go on to fulfill the position of Database Administrator.I was wondering, therefore, what it would take for me to get to that position.I am starting by getting my MCTS exam behind me but are there other things to consider?Again, apologies if I am in the wrong forum but any advice/hints/tips will be very greatly appreciated.Many Thanks,Dan |
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RickD
Slow But Sure Yak Herding Master
3608 Posts |
Posted - 2012-02-03 : 06:01:20
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Dan,Try to get as much experience as possible, take on those projects that involve a lot of SQL. Coming from the a software development background, you will first probably port across to SQL Development, so for this I would make sure I knew T-SQL very well (forums like this are a great resource for learning) and also knew how to read an execution plan.Therefore, in your current position, take on those projects that are very SQL heavy or if possible (if you have them), get in with the current SQL Developers and learn as much as you can from them. If they do some work for you, make sure you understand what they have done and why that piece of SQl is written the way it is written.Getting the experience is the key. Everything else comes second, at least to start with, then slowly they catch each other..  EDIT: Oh yeah, while you are learning T-SQL and its surrounds, make sure you have a peek into the admin side of things as quite a few SQL Developers seem to lack this and (I think) it subtracts from their usefulness when things don't go to plan. |
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Transact Charlie
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
3451 Posts |
Posted - 2012-02-03 : 07:49:21
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| All gold advice above...One thing though..I don't necessarily see it as a natural progression of:Database Developer -> Senior Database Developer -> Database AdministratorThey are two quite different disciplines that just happen to have a lot of overlap.Also -- it's easy to get blinkered and start to assume that any data tasks needs a database or a particular data problem fits a database based solution. There are many, many, emerging technologies which are generally targeted at tasks that a traditional Relational Database finds difficult. For example Apache SOLR, with it's faceting, fulltext, search. Or products like Reddit or Membase for extremely high key value based concurrency, Message bus systems like RabbitMQ which provide easy separation and flow of data.... many others..On the subject of exams... When I interview someone for a database development position I just don't care about them - I don't value them at all.What I'm looking for is:1) Enthusiasm -- this is a must. If you don't seem to care about your work I don't want to hire you.2) Personality3) A decent level of competency. I'd expect a candidate to know about normalisation, table design, indexing, querying: be able to discuss tradeoffs of one design over another. The standard answer when you ask any database professional anything is "It Depends..." and for good reason because there is almost always a trade-off to be made somewhere.You can't teach someone enthusiasm or personality. You can teach someone to be a better developer but only if they have the enthusiasm and personality to listen and learn.Charlie===============================================================Msg 3903, Level 16, State 1, Line 1736The ROLLBACK TRANSACTION request has no corresponding BEGIN TRANSACTION |
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