Becoming a DBA
Want to become a SQL Server DBA? It’s a great career path and I recommend it highly. I’ve gathered some of my more popular blog posts here about how to get started:
Soft Skills for Database Administrators
- DBAs Need Confidence - why DBA job candidates need to be confidently firm.
- Eight DBAs Talk About Their Jobs - I got interviewed by Odin Jobs on why DBA careers rock.
- Meeting Other SQL DBAs with Twitter - a social networking tool that helps you meet other SQL Server experts and see what they’re working on.
SQL Server DBA Career and Job Choices
- Moving from Help Desk to DBA - a reader asked how to do it, and I gave a few ways to get started.
- Development DBA or Production DBA? - job duties are different for these two DBA roles. Developers become one kind of DBA, and network administrators or sysadmins become a different kind. I explain why.
- Recommended Books for DBAs - the books that should be on your shopping list.
- Ask for a List of Servers - DBA candidates need to ask as many questions as they answer during the interview.
- Are you a Junior or Senior DBA? - Sometimes it’s hard to tell, but I explain how to gauge DBA experience by the size of databases you’ve worked with.
- So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star - Part 1 and Part 2 - if you like my job, and if you want my job, I explain how to get it.
The Latest & Greatest: My SQL Server Links
I do a lot of reading & research as part of my job, and I try to stay current on a ton of blogs and sites. Think of me as your personal filter for SQL Server news and blogs.
- My bookmarks on Delicious - RSS Feed - Delicious is a browser plugin that automatically saves all of your bookmarks to their servers. You can spy on what I’m saving as favorites, basically. I tag stuff with terms like sqlserver, performancetuning, inspiration, funny, etc.
- My shared items on Google Reader - RSS Feed - I subscribe to a ton of SQL Server blogs, and basically I’m weeding out the crap for you. When I share something, it’s *really* good.
