I earned a degree in math and very slowly grew my career into being the DBA I am today. I started out programming Excel using VBA, then moved into Access and simple .Net apps. I was very fortunate to have a ton of downtime in my first job (although I hated it for the long days), and taught myself a great deal doing tutorials and training during work. From this experience I can say that working on real-world problems is the best way for me to learn. I think that if an individual has the correct motivation (i.e. to be a master at his/her craft), he/she will take the time to learn the necessary intricacies.

I learned the most early in my career by helping people with real problems, mainly at ExcelForum.com.