Sean Lange (8/31/2016)
GilaMonster (8/31/2016)
So, I got roped into doing a professional development session for the local SQL Saturday."Becoming a successful SQL Developer"
Never done a professional development session before. Not sure how to approach it, or what people attending will be expecting. Help? Please?
The job title sql developer is so incredibly vague. Having looked at numerous position postings it is hard to determine a consistent skill set. Some places expect you to be totally up to date in numerous aspects of sql server (SSRS, SSIS, query optimization, etc) while others expect even a bit more including BA type of activities. Then there are the places that have a lower requirement. It might be a good approach to cover what typical requirements are for that title, and I suspect they change from location to location making it more challenging. Then touch lightly on each technology to discuss as a fairly high level what types of things you need to do and the common toolsets needed to be successful. Training options shouldn't be too bad to discuss as those don't really change much across the board. But the career prospects portion...I have no idea what that even means. I would think that the career prospects for something like this type of position are fairly flat as those of us who truly enjoy getting our hands dirty don't usually have aspirations of climbing the corporate ladder. Now that doesn't mean that we might move in responsibility some over time but at some level you would likely always have your hands in the code somewhere. Interesting topic. I would be interested to see what you come up with and what others in the thread think of for topics to discuss here.
Part of the wide range of skills is size of the department doing the asking is some cases.
If you think back to when you started, pick out some of the key skills you needed out of the gate, and some that were added soon after.
Another thing you might touch on - some of the personal qualities you see in common with successful developers you see in the field.
Short amount of time, several areas to cover, including the unknown questions.
Maybe finding out who other panel members are, and see what they are thinking might help.
Unless you are the only panel.....
For training options, outlining a sample progressive path might work out.
If you cannot write a query, I don't think you should take a course on optimizing.
Some places will stop you, some might just take your donation.
A few book titles you found helpful for a couple topics would be worth sharing.