Home Forums Career Certification Is it worth to pursue a C# cert for a SQL Dev focused career path? RE: Is it worth to pursue a C# cert for a SQL Dev focused career path?

  • April 28, 2015 at 11:38 am

    #1794042

    Getting a cert should not hurt you in any way. That said, I learned C# about 12/13 years ago because, at the time I wanted to be a .NET web developer. I changed my mind and have been a DBA/SQL Developer/BI developer since and C# has done very little for me. I had to use it once in SSIS in the past say 5 years and have had to debug some C# here and there.

    I do, however, have to write PowerShell a lot (I'm actually taking a break from it right now) and my .NET training has helped me get up to speed with that.

    A good tip for understanding what skills are required for a SQL Developer job is: go to indeed.com or dice.com and do a search for "SQL Developer" jobs. The hot skill for SQL Developer jobs right now seems to be SSIS and SSRS. It may be a better use of your time to focus your energy on those. PowerShell seems to be growing in popularity too.

    Lastly, to state the obvious, if you really want to be a SQL Developer learn T-SQL. Study it, master it - there is a real shortage of T-SQL talent out there. I have been doing/learning T-SQL for 15+ years and feel like I have so much to learn still. It's easy to learn but takes a lot of time and effort to learn how to do very well.

    "I cant stress enough the importance of switching from a sequential files mindset to set-based thinking. After you make the switch, you can spend your time tuning and optimizing your queries instead of maintaining lengthy, poor-performing code."

    -- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001