Gary Varga (12/23/2013)
BWFC (12/23/2013)
I'm very new to the world of SQL and BI and I'm certainly interested in getting some form of qualification under my belt. The situation at my place of work at the moment is extremely uncertain, but there is a training budget that my boss is keen to use. The problem I have is that I don't know which qualification or training would be best to do. There's a lot of courses out there but I don't know how which are the best ones to do at an entry level. They all seem to lead to Microsoft certification, but the word from the boss is that I could do some kind of nationally recognised certification such as an HNC\D or NVQ (I'm in the UK) and the company may well pay. Could anybody give me some advice please?I am from the UK too so have a good understanding of where you are coming from. I did an HND in the 90s so understand that qualification type as well.
Bearing in mind that your situation may be a little bit precarious then, personally, I would be more tempted to go down the route of MS certification. You can do an exam at a time and each one will be of immediate value on your CV (a half completed HND less so). But the big caveat is that to make it worth your while then you will be best focusing on the exams which you will both learn something AND be able to apply it thereby it providing value to both you and your employer. I guess the editorial title says it all!!!
Thanks Gary. I had a feeling that was going to be the case. It wasn't that the boss had said I shouldn't go for the MS certs, just that I should look at other options. The difficulty is finding the right exam. We're pretty much pure BI, in that we do very little database administration and maintenance, we just(!) query what somebody else has provided. When I looked in to the MS certs it seems that there's a lot of stuff that, for want of a better phrase, I don't need to know right now. That's not to say having the exam on my CV won't improve things, but I could find myself in the situation where I have the knowledge but not the opportunity to use it. That said, if the worst does happen, having the qualification will be better than not. I'm becoming aware though, of how experience can count as much, if not more, than paper qualifications in many cases. I'm definitely in the position of knowing enough to know how little I know!
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