Getting Certified
Brian spends a lot of time in our forums helping out. Based on a recent question from a reader he put together some tips he used when he was preparing for the MCSE exams. Interesting reading!
2003-04-30
9,904 reads
Certifications
Visual Studio 6 MCSD's Eligible to Take 70-300 Free
MCSD's who certified using Visual Studio 6 are eligible to receive a free exam voucher for the 70-300 exam. You must register for the voucher and take the exam before Sep 30, 2003. Follow the link or visit the MCP secure site directly to register. It takes about a minute and you'll receive a code to prevent to your test vendor when you schedule the exam. Thanks, Microsoft!
2003-03-27
1,330 reads
Certification Tips
This article by Andy Warren offers some suggestions to help you get ready for your first Microsoft exam.
2002-06-21
6,649 reads
Results of MCDBA Survey
Ever wonder who an MCDBA helps? Andy has posted the results of a recent survey of MCDBA's conducted by Dr. McKillip of Southern Illinois University. It's interesting reading. If you have time read and add your comments to the discussion!
2002-06-06
6,816 reads
DBA Certification – Is It for You?
"Certification mania" has hit IT, big-time. Many employers look for certification in potential employees and especially in IT contractors. If you're a data administrator or DBA, you have to consider: could DBA certification enhance my career? Would it deepen my knowledge and increase my value to my company?
2002-04-12
1,812 reads
Point-Counterpoint - Why You Should NOT Certity.
Andy Warren thinks certifications are worthless. That's opinion came after he obtained his MCDBA and MCSE certification. Find out why he thinks you should not be certified in this debate with Steve Jones.
2001-11-13
277 reads
Point-Counterpoint - Certification Debate
A new series on SQL Server Central - Two of our regular columnists take opposing looks at certification. In our first of the series, Steve Jones takes on Andy Warren in a certification debate.
2001-11-12
142 reads
Certification Should Be Required
Steve Jones presents his case for why certifications should be required. Read this and the counter point article by Andy Warren to hear the other side of this argument - then post your comments
2001-11-04
5,627 reads
Certification Counterpoint - Why You Should NOT Certity
In this article, Andy Warren presents his views on why obtaining certification is not a good idea. Read this one and the one by Steve Jones that supports certification - which has the more compelling argument
2001-11-04
6,211 reads
New Certification - MS System Administrator
Microsoft has announced a new certification for system administrators. This is below an MCSE, but includes an elective which may be SQL Server.
2001-10-18
1,223 reads
Blogs
Claude Code Helps Analyze Test Data Manager Log Files
By Steve Jones
I had a customer ask about analyzing their Test Data Manager (TDM) usage to...
PowerPoint to HTML with Claude AI
By Steve Jones
I had an idea for an animated view of a sales tool, and started...
Don’t Miss Out – SQL Server Query Tuning Fundamentals Starts Next Monday!
Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...
Forums
Is it uncommon for Dev's to have a data model of the source data
This is a generic question. To the moderators, I wasn't sure where to place...
ROLLUP to calculate Month total for all Categories
Good Afternoon, I have built a table with four columns: Period(Month), Category, Numerator, Denominator....
Level 28: DAX Text Functions: The DAX Extract & Modify Functions: LEFT(), RIGHT(), MID(), REPLACE(), SUBSTITUTE()
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Level 28: DAX Text Functions:...
Question of the Day
Creating JSON I
On SQL Server 2025, what happens when I run this code:
SELECT JSON_OBJECTAGG( 'City':'Denver') GOSee possible answers