May 10, 2011 at 6:07 pm
Nice article Craig
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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May 10, 2011 at 10:07 pm
yan-160997 (5/9/2011)
Craig,I have been working for a financial company for over 10 years as a system analyst. During those years I have managed many SQL server both in production and dev environment. I have done the followings: installation, upgrade, backup, restore, create maintaiance plan, create queiries, sp, gereate reports, database tuning, system troubleshotting....etc. I want to concentrate on SQL Server as a true SQL DBA rather than a system analyst who does many other tasks. I know that I need to gain more knowledge to be qualified as SQL DBA, but it is hard for me to swich from System Analyst to SQL DBA because interviewer read my resume and question my position: "you are system analyst not dba? we need SQL Server expert" What should I do?
Thank you
Yan
Hey all. My apologies, I came down with a bad case of flu so I fell off the internet for a bit. Allow me to catch up a bit with y'all... and thanks for the well wishes.
Yan, your best bet here may be what they call a skills based resume. Instead of describing your duties at each job, you list your skills first, and then do a job listing that you highlight certain items at that position for. In this case, you'd list your SQL skills in the primary position (and only those), and then (bluntly) bury your system analyst title into the 'where I worked' area under it. In that area, try to highlight one or two things you did for SQL at each company to help the interviewer with talking points.
If they ask about the titles or the system analyst work, downplay it, and try to slide the topic back to sql server. Never lie, but you can manipulate the resume. Remember that leaving something OFF a resume is perfectly viable. Your resume can have nothing but your name if you choose. It's only when you start adding things you didn't do that you can get in trouble.
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
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May 10, 2011 at 10:10 pm
Peter Trast (5/9/2011)
One of the most important things I have done is to create and maintain a LinkedIn presence. I get so many inquiries because of that site. I have my ACTUAL job experience and resume information. You would be surprised how many recruiters are looking there. Even with my relatively low experience (compared to the people who frequent this site) I regularly get called for decent and even some high end positions. So there is definitely a web marketing aspect but just be as honest as you can. Many people over or undersell themselves.
An excellent suggestion, and one I tend to overlook. I need to get more involved with LinkedIn. When it started I had expected it to be just another social site so I completely bypassed it for a number of years.
Many people will disagree with me about certs, but they work well IF you can back them up with real skills.
I would disagree with you here, Peter. As you say, certs are a powerful way to show booklearning. The problem is the number of crammers who use braindumps who devalued the power of a proper certification. If you can back them up with real skills, they are absolutely a great tool.
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
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May 10, 2011 at 10:16 pm
Craig-315134 (5/9/2011)
Good article, Craig, thank you.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.
I do have what I hope isn't a 'stupid question', please. To be a competent SQL Server DBA, how good should my T-SQL skills be? I know some DBAs gravitate more toward development work, which I imagine would require good T-SQL skills. But what about DBAs who are more on the admin side? Do they still need to be reasonably proficient at T-SQL?
It depends on how that company handles DBA work, because the title DBA is far too generic these days. In a large shop, knowing T-SQL isn't as important if you're merely doing the rollout work for the development teams and the majority of your administrative job is to handle all of the background maintenance. Reindexing, backup/restore testings, etc. If however there is a call for Optimization, which isn't unusual because your devs simply can't see Production most of the time, and certainly don't have access to the necessary tools, then you're going to need some solid background in T-SQL optimization. Knowing execution plans, concurrency issues, index methodology, etc. There's really no way to avoid it.
However, most DBAs end up optimizing without the level of knowledge as the development teams do about the data. You simply can't know that much about that many servers and databases. So it's more a generic methodology which you'd send back to the developers if necessary.
In smaller shops, you're going to be doing a lot of everything. If you want to specialize like that, you almost have to go for a very large shop. The good news is in larger shops, they can more easily afford junior/mid to 'take a chance on' in the business.
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
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May 10, 2011 at 10:43 pm
Anipaul (5/9/2011)
Good article. I think a few more sample questions would have help the freshers more.
Anipaul, what do you mean by sample questions here? I didn't provide any sample interview questions or the like, so I'm not sure what you mean.
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
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May 11, 2011 at 7:08 am
Craig Farrell (5/10/2011)
Anipaul (5/9/2011)
Good article. I think a few more sample questions would have help the freshers more.Anipaul, what do you mean by sample questions here? I didn't provide any sample interview questions or the like, so I'm not sure what you mean.
Your topic coverage is fine. I just said if you could provide some SQL topics from where a candidate most likely could face some questions in Interview then this article would become more helpful to freshers.
May 11, 2011 at 11:39 am
Anipaul (5/11/2011)
Craig Farrell (5/10/2011)
Anipaul (5/9/2011)
Good article. I think a few more sample questions would have help the freshers more.Anipaul, what do you mean by sample questions here? I didn't provide any sample interview questions or the like, so I'm not sure what you mean.
Your topic coverage is fine. I just said if you could provide some SQL topics from where a candidate most likely could face some questions in Interview then this article would become more helpful to freshers.
Look for the blog of MVP Pinal Dave, he has some SQL questions for beginners.
Need an answer? No, you need a question
My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
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May 12, 2011 at 12:59 am
Koen Verbeeck (5/11/2011)
Anipaul (5/11/2011)
Craig Farrell (5/10/2011)
Anipaul (5/9/2011)
Good article. I think a few more sample questions would have help the freshers more.Anipaul, what do you mean by sample questions here? I didn't provide any sample interview questions or the like, so I'm not sure what you mean.
Your topic coverage is fine. I just said if you could provide some SQL topics from where a candidate most likely could face some questions in Interview then this article would become more helpful to freshers.
Look for the blog of MVP Pinal Dave, he has some SQL questions for beginners.
Yeah, it is exhaustive list...
May 13, 2011 at 4:30 am
Hi nice article, can you help me.....???
I have done DBA cerification in SQL 2005 in 2009, my bachelor degree will be done by june of this year, i want to do some higher course (i want in-dept knowledge in sql) from a good university or some good institution,,,, so what shall i do now????????
Plzzzzzz reply
THanks
[font="Comic Sans MS"]Rahul:-P[/font]
May 13, 2011 at 11:05 am
Rahul The Dba (5/13/2011)
Hi nice article, can you help me.....???I have done DBA cerification in SQL 2005 in 2009, my bachelor degree will be done by june of this year, i want to do some higher course (i want in-dept knowledge in sql) from a good university or some good institution,,,, so what shall i do now????????
Plzzzzzz reply
THanks
Honestly, I'd talk to your professor(s). They'll be in the best position to know about follow up courses in your area to continue your education. I don't know of any college/university that has "SQL Server DBA" as a graduation item. You usually have to do it on your own, tracking down training and the like.
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
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May 26, 2011 at 2:14 pm
First off, apologies in advance for the long rant, but this is from spending two years largely on the bench (albeit the last 9 months phasing out into something far more lucrative).
No insult at all to Steve/Craig, but the article quite honestly makes me feel sick. Back in the late 90's agents would FIGHT over us, we would have several gigs lined up a couple of weeks ahead of leaving our existing one. We had respect, authority, and back then, the "A" part in DBA really meant exactly that - WE were the authority, not the PM, not the Developer, and hell, often not even the client.
"Don't piss off the DBA!!" was the cry. We were on £550 a day and nobody DARED argue our rates.
Then things got tighter with the financial crash. The contracts dwindled to nearly zero. My last gig in September paid the princely sum of 2k, for 4 weeks work, which involved a pressure-cooker environment, a client whose morals were just a couple of notches above child-molestation, having to re-write 400 lines of code for the 10th "emergency" that week, last thing on a Friday night, when most of the management were in the pub.
Nowadays we get a dozen emails per week in our inboxes, dressed up as "Opportunities", telling us we need to plough through the latest 50page article that will keep us current with our competitors. Articles telling us, "Don't worry about going on vacation and being jobless 1 week later when they realise they don't need you". We get agents telling us, "Sorry, we had another candidate with 10 days more experience" or "He lives 10 minutes closer than you". "Sorry, the other guy has experience supporting the same suite of apps you do, but in addition he used to write Macros in Excel.
I've been asked for experience configuring Cisco Routers, for Christ's sake!
You don't see Lawyers, Doctors or even Teachers fighting for jobs. Back in the day you could tell a girl in a bar, "I'm in IT", and she'd coo and be all over you. Try finding another tech in a bar on a Friday night these days! A friend of mine teaches IT to 7-11 yr olds, and while being a Teacher was always an ardous task, he has not spent a single day unemployed these last 4 years. While I don't begrudge him his "success" (and in fact, I've given him many a shoulder to cry on during that time through a messy divorce), it's a bitter thing that I know 10x what he does, yet he has stayed paid and I haven't. What really annoys me is that the pimps who recruit us often earn more than we do, and don't get me started on management, especially PM's...
I'm lucky, I don't have a wife/kids, and although I don't want them, that's not the point. It's every man's absolute RIGHT to be able to provide for a family, and there's no damn way I could have provided for one after 2007.
Yes, I'm aware of the financial crunch, doh. Yes, I'm aware that many of the repetitive DB tasks have been (foreseeably) offshored to countries where techs live with their parents in houses that cost less than my car until they die (usually the parents I mean, but with our profession that's certainly no given). But ours is a profession that requires us to study MORE than Doctors, and we shouldn't be made to feel like the fools we are for making a quarter of what they do.
Personally I'm getting the hell out of it all. I'm sick of T-SQL, sick of SQL Server, sick of DB management, and sick of IT, at least, what it has morphed into these last 3-4 years. Lest I be accused of being bleak, things are looking better than ever, I just got back from 10 days on the Caribbean, I was buyin OTHER people Bellini's again, the smile is well and truly back on my face at last, but that's NO damn thanks to IT.
😛
May 26, 2011 at 2:36 pm
Jake Shelton (5/26/2011)
First off, apologies in advance for the long rant, but this is from spending two years largely on the bench (albeit the last 9 months phasing out into something far more lucrative).No insult at all to Steve/Craig, but the article quite honestly makes me feel sick. Back in the late 90's agents would FIGHT over us, we would have several gigs lined up a couple of weeks ahead of leaving our existing one. We had respect, authority, and back then, the "A" part in DBA really meant exactly that - WE were the authority, not the PM, not the Developer, and hell, often not even the client.
No insult taken, I don't know you. 😀 However, I'm not sure why an article in helping people get involved in databasing and ways to prove their skills to potential employers when they're new would strike up this reaction from you.
I've been asked for experience configuring Cisco Routers, for Christ's sake!
Yeah, some shops can be like that...
You don't see Lawyers, Doctors or even Teachers fighting for jobs.
I would be forced to disagree here, due to a few reasonings. Most teachers don't get paid enough that there's an overwhelming desire have their jobs. Doctors, good ones, are constantly trying (and probably falling behind, like the rest of us) to stay up to date on the newest techniques and findings to help their patients. Lawyers are required to take a certain amount of paid-for training yearly.
Back in the day you could tell a girl in a bar, "I'm in IT", and she'd coo and be all over you.
Apparently I'm too young to remember this. "I'm in IT" usually got me "Wow, you can actually party and you're fun to be around. Are you sure?"
Try finding another tech in a bar on a Friday night these days!
C'mon down to Phoenix. 🙂 Try finding me home on a Friday night. 😎
What really annoys me is that the pimps who recruit us often earn more than we do, and don't get me started on management, especially PM's...
That's a matter of not going through headhunting firms and doing your own work towards it. I know that the recruiter doesn't make more than me off the top of my personal billings, but add them up and they can. I don't begrudge them that. A good recruiter/headhunter can open a lot of doors and they keep me well employed. And paid.
But ours is a profession that requires us to study MORE than Doctors, and we shouldn't be made to feel like the fools we are for making a quarter of what they do.
Think that through for a moment. Really. Now think about the volume of college and studying that a doctor has to do before he can hang up his placard. I've been in IT about 11 years, and never had to pay for the proof of education. I wouldn't even be out of my doctorate if I was a doctor, most likely. Nevermind starting up a practice, paying for nursing staff, etc. Half of what a doctor earns at first goes back to the edumacation system. Sure, there are superstar plastic surgeons and the like out there, but think more about your local dentist or general physician. That's the majority of them. Comparing the leading sports doctor to them is like complaining what Buck Woody or Paul Randal can bill compared to you.
Personally I'm getting the hell out of it all. I'm sick of T-SQL, sick of SQL Server, sick of DB management, and sick of IT, at least, what it has morphed into these last 3-4 years. Lest I be accused of being bleak, things are looking better than ever, I just got back from 10 days on the Caribbean, I was buyin OTHER people Bellini's again, the smile is well and truly back on my face at last, but that's NO damn thanks to IT.
Well, that's your choice. I haven't really seen much change across the last 10 years, but that may be simply my perception. I've been gaining traction as I go, and have improved tremendously. It may simply be the perception from where you were and came into this economy, and the fact that I've fought my way through it, having only two years in when 9/11 rolled around and started the ball rolling.
I wish you well, good luck! At least you've found another option you prefer.
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
For better assistance in answering your questions[/url] | Forum Netiquette
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May 26, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Hi Craig, glad you replied and I was pleasantly surprised you were around to do so as quickly as you did. I'm not setting out to justify my experiences in any way, I'm simply reporting them. I'm also glad you've had more luck with databasing in the last 3 years than I've had. Given how things have gone here during that time, I'd have every right to be bitter, but I'm not. I'm just glad as I am to be getting into something so much better.
Phoenix? The one in the US I presume? 🙂
I ask (partly because I'm poking fun at your very american presumption I'd know what nation Phoenix is in!!) partly because your economy varies from state to state, even county to county, let alone from ours. IT has been in utterly dire straits here in the UK since '07, and although in the last few weeks there is a recruiting upswing in progress at the uppermost levels of the Investment Banking sector, you still need skillsets longer than my schlong to benefit from it.
Doctors, Actuaries etc commonly make six figure salaries here in the UK (GBP), but barely 5% of DBA's do, yet we must study a lot more on an ongoing basis (and that is a cost not merely in materials but mostly time). Doctors still organise soiree's amongst themselves so they don't end up marrying gold-diggers. We DBA's don't go to balls so we can pair up with other DBA's (thank God!). People were gonna have heart attacks whether in 2006 or in 2010, but the number of people hiring DBA's, the number of projects signed off, the number of billable hours the self-employed among us enjoyed fell of a damn cliff in that time.
Now, all that said - you claim being a DBA is working out for you, and if that's the case, more power to you. Hey, if a good DBA assignment comes up NOW, I will take it - but it's gonna be my very last, and not for more than 3 months, likelier 2. All I can say is - if I were to stay in IT long term, I'd move to Phoenix, take you out for "Beer, wings and pool" on those Friday nights when I'm not on the prowl, and plod happily on for another couple of decades.
And as long as you're HAPPPY doing what you're doing, that's all that counts.
May 26, 2011 at 4:08 pm
Jake Shelton (5/26/2011)
Hi Craig, glad you replied and I was pleasantly surprised you were around to do so as quickly as you did.
I cheated. I get notifications when this thread is responded to, along with the ones in my other articles. 🙂
Phoenix? The one in the US I presume? 🙂
I ask (partly because I'm poking fun at your very american presumption I'd know what nation Phoenix is in!!) partly because your economy varies from state to state, even county to county, let alone from ours.
Yep. PHX, AZ, USA. I do make that assumption though. When your fat butts take up half a continent, you forget others don't. 😉
IT has been in utterly dire straits here in the UK since '07, and although in the last few weeks there is a recruiting upswing in progress at the uppermost levels of the Investment Banking sector, you still need skillsets longer than my schlong to benefit from it.
Ah, a shame. I hadn't heard much about that but then I don't track the foreign IT markets. You're quite right that our economy has almost its own ecosystem, and it does vary widely.
Doctors, Actuaries etc commonly make six figure salaries here in the UK (GBP), but barely 5% of DBA's do, yet we must study a lot more on an ongoing basis (and that is a cost not merely in materials but mostly time).
Same here, actually. Actuaries are CPAs to us. However, having a family member who's a CPA, another brother in trial law, a buddy in defense law, and a few doctors in training still trying to finish up... one of them owes me mightily on beers, by the way, the cheap student he is... We don't have anywhere NEAR the volume of enforced training they do. You know what you need to do to get a job (not keep, just get) as a DBA? Show up and con the interviewer. If you pull off the job, to keep doing your job you need to do... absolutely nada. There's no official boards. No certs. No malpractice suits. If your company is happy with you sailing along with 20 year old tech... you're good to go.
My brother spends 10k+/year to keep his licenses current, because of mandatory training. That's not new things, that's showing that he remembers what he says he does. CPAs have 2 (or 4, if it's important I'll go find out for sure) cycles where they have to go through the motions with the government to keep their status. I know some of that is paid coursework, most if it is keeping up with new tax laws and changes. I can still write SELECT * FROM table without caring what a cross apply is. If they don't know that I have to pay a new economic charge for not having my water hooked to my solar panels and I still deduct, we're both in for a world of crap.
We're not gods. We're workers, code monkeys. We handle the day to day data loads for the applications the end users need... like CPAs, Doctors, and Police (who get paid the worst of all four of us, and get shot at). We need to be good at what we do, sure. But noone's sitting on us. If you want to prove you're better, sure, you need to go do that. For 3 years I didn't pick up a book except as a reference, I just sailed along training while I was working.
Now, all that said - you claim being a DBA is working out for you, and if that's the case, more power to you. Hey, if a good DBA assignment comes up NOW, I will take it - but it's gonna be my very last, and not for more than 3 months, likelier 2. All I can say is - if I were to stay in IT long term, I'd move to Phoenix, take you out for "Beer, wings and pool" on those Friday nights when I'm not on the prowl, and plod happily on for another couple of decades.
You wouldn't be happy then here, either, except for the fact that you could find work. The doctors and CPAs still make more then I do. 😉
And as long as you're HAPPPY doing what you're doing, that's all that counts.
I like the (legal) money, the happiness is secondary. It's what I do.
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
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May 26, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Hi Jake,
From what I read you have gone through quite some frustrations, and I'm sorry to hear that. Just one or two things. You said
Doctors, Actuaries etc commonly make six figure salaries here in the UK (GBP)
I'd tend to disagree with Doctors earning that much. I am assuming you are talking annual take-home? That would be somewhere between 8000 and 80000 GBP per month gross (quite a big spread)? I can't imagine that the high-end bracket is very realistic except for a very few specialists that are in high demand because of their reputation and (hopefully) track records. My wife is a private Paediatrician in South Africa (more than ten years in private practice), and she struggles to make 50000 Rand a month. Now multiply that by twelve to get to annual and divide this back by twelve to get to annual GBP? Now that compares quite well with what doctors in the UK earn when they are working through National Health.
Hey, if a good DBA assignment comes up NOW, I will take it - but it's gonna be my very last, and not for more than 3 months, likelier 2.
You mentioned "I'm just glad as I am to be getting into something so much better". But you are still entertaining the thought of going back to a DBA job? Why? Why would you take up a 2-3 month job as a DBA for some company, unless it is a fire fighting job that can be solved within that timeline? Why not bite the bullet and go for that other golden opportunity? And come to think of it, why would an employer give you a permanent job if he knows beforehand that you are only going to stick around for two to three months in the first place?
But as you said yourself
And as long as you're HAPPPY doing what you're doing, that's all that counts.
So get the positive attitude back, you once were there, and I'm sure you can get back to it.
PS: Yes, Phoenix is in Arizona, US of A. And no, I'm not American.
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