How to Become 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:

SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled

SQL Server Training Books and Tutorials I Recommend

• Recommended Books for DBAs – the books that should be on your shopping list.
• Free SQL Server Training Videos – podcasts, webcasts and videos you can get for free.
• SQL Server Compliance Guide – this ebook from Microsoft teaches you about PCI/HIPAA/SOX compliance issues that many DBAs face. Even if you don’t work in a big shop like that now, you can still learn a lot from this very well-written whitepaper.
• Primary Keys and Indexes – I explain these using a phone book as an example.
• Browse All Posts Tagged with “SQL Server Training”

How to Become a SQL Server DBA

• Should I Specialize? – lots of readers commented on this article about whether you should learn a lot of things, or just a few.
• Certifications Are the Icing on the Cake – wondering whether or not you should get a certification?
• 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.
• Take Ownership of Your Career – feel like you’re being treated unfairly by management?  Read this.
• What Should DBAs Learn in Their Spare Time? – how to prioritize what you need to learn at different points in your career.
• Tom LaRock’s “How to Get a Job as a DBA”

Soft Skills for SQL Server Database Administrators

• 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.
• Be the Porsche of Job Candidates – you don’t have to have an online presence to get a job – but it really helps differentiate you from everybody else.
• How to Become an MVP – wanna become a Microsoft MVP? This quiz will show if you’ve got what it takes.

How to Get a Telecommuting Job

I’ve been telecommuting off and on since 2000, and I’ve amassed a lot of tips and tricks along the way:

• How to Get a Telecommuting Job – first hint: look in cities with high costs of living where employees are expensive.
• How Telecommuters Stay Motivated – put the TV remote down and learn how to focus.
• How to Write a Telecommuting Status Report – show managers that you’re making progress and staying busy.
• How to Get Things Done while Telecommuting – I’m a big fan of David Allen’s tricks on how to stay productive.

My Recommended Links for SQL Server Training

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.