I got a question from a junior SQL Server DBA who wanted to make his way up to expert level. He wanted to know if it would help his career to learn the free/express versions of other database platforms – MySQL, Oracle, Postgres, etc – or if it would be a distraction.
I have mixed opinions on this. I don’t think it hurts, and I think you should pursue whatever you’re passionate about. If you’re dying to learn more about other databases, then you should do it, because it won’t feel like work. It’ll feel like fun, and the time will fly by.
On the other hand, if you’re doing it to get ahead in your career, I’d do two things. First, decide how much time per week you’re going to spend learning new things. Different jobs and different personal lives can end up with very different learning times per week. If you’ve got a hectic day job and a full family life, you might be lucky to squeeze in ten hours a week of learning. In that case, every hour counts, and you may want to hone the skills you need to use every day.
If you’ve got the luxury of a lot of time on your hands, then the second thing I’d do is make a list of the technologies you want to learn, in the order you want to learn them. Look at what skills your coworkers and your seniors are using, the skills you wish you had in your arsenal, and think about when you would use those skills.
For example, I don’t know jack about PowerShell, and it’s got a lot of good buzz. I’d like to learn it – but with what I do right now, I’m just not going to use it very often if at all. Interesting technology, but for my priority list, it has to sink down farther.
If I was a junior DBA today in a small shop, making my way up to a larger shop or a senior position, my priority list would look something like this:
- Business intelligence (because it’s really hard to find people who are good at it, and it’s a lot of fun to show the boss things you discovered in BI)
- Performance tuning T-SQL code (because it’s never fast enough, and you can look like a hero when you speed up code)
- C# (because it helps you work better with developers who rely on SQL Server)
When I was a senior DBA in the field last year, my list looked like this:
- Storage area networks (because SANs really drive SQL Server performance)
- Virtualization (because it’s coming at us like a freight train, and more SQL Servers will be virtualized every year)
- Policy-based management (because I couldn’t get enough help, and I needed to automate more proactive checks)
While I’d love to learn more about other database platforms, it just wasn’t high enough on my priority list. Your mileage may vary. I’d be curious to hear what’s on other DBAs’ priority lists though!
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The hours one is a big deal, and one most people forget. Because either you well spend too much and other things will suffer, or you will not prioritize your learning time and less important things will eat away at the time you should be spending in learning.
I completely agree with you and Mr Kelley – keeping track of your time is key to making sure you maximize your learning potential (can't believe I just typed that phrase).
In addition to some of the things you mentioned above, I've been slowly building up my knowledge of set theory and trying to get my brain around the mathematical underpinnings of the software we work with. Admittedly, I'm not trying to become a master of such things, just gain a better understanding so I can formulate better queries.
Yes, Jeremiah. The math is actually fun. It's an important piece of it and maybe someday you can be like Celko ;-P. Seriously though, Brett's list is excellent:
Knowing SANs is invaluable in a large environment for two reasons #1) You know what to request and how the DB is interacting with it and what is happening underneath and #2) Your infrastructure and storage team can't just "yup yup" you and pull the wool over your eyes when you request dedicated storage and get slices that are well shared on a SAN with a cache not optimized for SQL.
I wish I learned more BI in my younger DBA days as I am now on a BI team and having to learn some things from the beginning.
I would say the basic skills are important also. The soft skills. How to deal with people, how to do things in a methodical way, how to troubleshoot and test anything you are unsure of as you have time. Try and learn something from the inside out when you can.
Spend some time with your family and non-work pursuits though!
PowerShell, Policy Based Management, C# – these are all high on my list right now. That, combined with managing the balance of personal versus business, which is probably the harder thing to learn. It can be easy to slip into playing with some new piece of technology, like a new toy at Christmas, and forget to tend to your personal life, married or single.
Like you and Mike, I'd love to have a better BI base – that has such a huge future, especially for a junior.
your first 2 of BI and perf tuning are the top of my list as well, c#, not up there yet for no other reason than i need to focus on my top 2.
being able to return to the office with something that can save someone some time or give them a new perspective can certainly help in getting some office time to study these areas further, the difficulty in showing a return on investment on something that is not seen as a priority by others can be a hindrance, hence the need to show early results from work in your own time first.
one key thing i find for getting time is of an evening to have dinner and then head straight into the home office, if you get settled into the tv too early you can really lose the entire night.
As an aspiring DBA I can sympathize with the theme, so much to learn and so little time. My targets at this time are T-SQL code optimization, C#, and SSRS. I already have a good BI background with experience in Crystal Reports, but of course I want to replicate that in SQL Server.
For me without a MS certification yet, I am reaching there for the MCITP DBA for SQL 2005
Sometimes I also think it helps to focus on non-SQL related stuff in spare time to get a different perspective, perhaps Project Mgmt, Business, HR, etc….
I am a junior DBA and would like to know where(books/tutorials) I should use to learn about the following, I would appreciate any help:
•Storage area networks (because SANs really drive SQL Server performance — I am currently working in a SAN environment though I struggle to understand due to a lack of experience. — Where can I learn about SAN storage, “3 Pars” etc
•Business intelligence ?? Book or Tutorial
•Performance tuning T-SQL code — The best book for a beginner when performance tuning? NOTE:I have a good base knowledge of t-sql having worked on cursors, troubleshooting stored procs though none on performance tuning.
Hi, Aspiring.
For storage, your best starting point is the documentation for the gear you’re currently using. Check with your SAN admins for the make/model, and then get the documentation for it. Many vendor documentation is available here: https://www.brentozar.com/go/san
For BI, you’ll need to narrow the scope down a little. What are you trying to do?
For performance tuning, check out the book list at https://www.brentozar.com/go/books – they’re organized by topic and seniority level.