Hi To all - hoping for some good advice !

[jmdrake]

Hi All Jon here.
I have been reading some old posts and there seem to be a lot of people with good advice.
I have been in IT for about 20 Yrs now and was recently made redundant and am looking to change path.
I have mainly been an Infrastructure Technician dealing mainly with hardware and network support.
I fancy training to become a SQL developer / programmer and was contemplating going on a MCTS in SQL Server 2005.
After reading the course material I feel its a little out of my depth as I have not used it commercially in any depth.
can anyone give me some sound advice as the way forward I could consider and what courses might help.
I have been looking for jobs where I can get experiance but they are few & far between.
I have been looking at doing a Writing Queries Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 with Transact SQL as a starting point?

[jk2447]

Hi and welcome to Cert Forums. DMarsh will be able to give you good advice mate, Jim

[BosonMichael]

It'll be more difficult to break into SQL administration without any SQL administration experience. Still, you do have quite a bit of other experience... have you considered a network administration job where you do SQL administration as part of your duties to build up your experience level?

[jmdrake]

Hi mike .
thanks for your reply - i thought i was in one where i was but after 10 years didnt get the chance - I have been trying to get a job which as similar to what you mentioned but the only ones I have seen also require VWware which again we didnt use so I dont know where to go now ?

[wagnerk]

Hi & welcome to CF

The candidate profile for the MCTS in SQL 2008 would be for people already working with the product, see here. However MS in the DB field is only one of the many companies there, there is MySQL and the CMA track for entry level personnel. There's also the intro exams from Oracle, the 1Z0-007 and the 1Z0-051. For a more general, non-version specific, qualification... There's always the college/Uni route.

Saying that, I do not specialize in databases (I do work with SQL 2005).

-Ken

[jmdrake]

i'm a little old for college & Uni now - been there and got HND back in 96 need to be working again to support the family and i wanted to get into SQL development / programmer side of things now

[wagnerk]

Originally Posted by jmdrake

i'm a little old for college & Uni now - been there and got HND back in 96 need to be working again to support the family and i wanted to get into SQL development / programmer side of things now

Mate,

1. You're never to old to go back to Uni &
2. There are part-time/distance learning courses available from both the local Uni/college and from the OpenU...

-Ken

[Notes_Bloke]

Hi & welcome to CF

NB

[dmarsh]

Rudimentary SQL is not that hard to pick up and SQL Server is very user friendly.

The course material for MCTS 2005 is pretty straightforward, sounds like you need to do more studying about SQL and SQL server then. Buy a couple of non certification books and work your way through them along with the product.

You could look for SQL courses at local colleges, they tend to be reserved for enrolled students though. The OU has some DB modules. Both at the masters and undergrad level.

In reality most places will not give you a job on the basis of knowledge of rudimentary SQL, you either have to be a hard core DBA, progammer, infrastructure guy, or something else.

Learning Microsoft SQL Server 2008 with Transact SQL is the obvious starting point.

Most developer jobs however will expect far more, .NET, C#, XML, LINQ, ADO .NET, and probably a whole lot more.

If you really want to be a programmer I'd probably learn C# first. Developer jobs will be thin on the ground in this climate though, especially for people without experience.

Best of luck !