Where to start for newbie?

JVSquilla

Hi,

I am currently a student pursuing a degree in Management Information Systems. I have no real world IT work experience, but want to get into the field of databases. Would studying SQL be a good place to start? Any advice?

RobertKaucher

Here is my advice from a Microsoft perspective:

Learn the fundamentals of Windows Server Administration.
Then start to learn the fundamentals of SQL Server administration.

Once you get that done consider certification. After you have a few certs start expanding your knowledge and growing your career. You will need to learn more details such as OS internals and SQL Server internals and how these relate to performance. At this point you are getting into things like how the OS and SQL Server manage memory and actually put the bits down onto the hard drives.

JVSquilla

Thanks for the advice, when you say start with Windows Server, I'm guessing I should start with 2008 first then? Also I'm wondering would I need a background to build on before I started studying Windows Server? Would it make sense to study for any of the basic CompTIA certs first?

RobertKaucher

A+, Net+, Server+ would be a good place to start. I don't generally suggest that people actually take the CompTIA exams. IMO, they aren't worth it. But the material is well worth the study. Then go on to the Server 2012 certs - I suggest the new MCSA certs. Again, maybe you don't need the actual certification but the material will be important.

Finally start the SQL server 2012 MCSA track. I think by that time you might know where to take your studies. A lot can change in that time period.

DoubleNNs

I'm assuming the MS SQL Server Admin certs do teach you SQL query?

I took a database class in University and they taught us the basics of Relational Databases, SQL Query, and then we used MySQL to implement all the theory we learned thru group/individual projects.
Would the MS SQL Server certs include any of this material?

JVSquilla

You have no idea how much your advice has helped me. Thank You, I will look into your advice.

RobertKaucher

DoubleNNs wrote: »

I'm assuming the MS SQL Server Admin certs do teach you SQL query?

MCSA SQL Server 2012 Certification the 70-461 is all agbout querying.

DoubleNNs wrote: »

I took a database class in University and they taught us the basics of Relational Databases, SQL Query, and then we used MySQL to implement all the theory we learned thru group/individual projects.
Would the MS SQL Server certs include any of this material?

A lot of what you learned would be very applicable. The main difference is going to be these will go into much more detail and be T-SQL/SQL Server specific.

One thing I would highly caution you regarding is thinking that with this background and a few weeks of study you can knock all of these out. Perhaps the 461, but the 462 and 463 will require some serious work and time.

DoubleNNs

No, I have no false notions that an essentially intro to databases class would teach me enough to bang out the certs.

However, I'm diff from the OP. I don't think I want to go down the Database route - rather networking.
(Or so I say that now...)

RobertKaucher

Back when I was studying for the SQL Server 2005 exams I thought fell for the idea that I could study for the SQL Server exams like I did for the Server 2008 Enterprise Admin tests... Boy was I wrong! I spent probably close to 6 months but most of my labs were all around queries and the like. I did next to nothing on clustering or HA of any sort.

I had the TestOut for the SQL Server 2005 tests and it was exceptionally good for things like backups, etc. TestOut was the only reason I scored a smashing 700!