A couple weeks back I made my first attempt at the 70-433 SQL 2008 Database Developer exam. I was nervous, it was obvious to me and to those who know me best. It was the unknown that I was really worried about. I’ve been a database programmer for over a decade. People come to me…
Dating and Job Seeking
There’s two things I’ve noticed about the job search right now. If you’re employed your more desired than if you’re single unemployed. If you’re desperate, you’re less desirable than if your cool. This may sound odd to you, but the job hunt is a lot like dating. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been steadily…
SQL 301-BIDS, The First time around
In my last post, we used the Import and Export wizard to create a simple Load process. We loaded names.csv into a simple table. Let’s open Visual Studio 2008 (Also known as Business Intelligence Development Studio when you’re talking about the version that comes with SQL Server 2008 R2. Once you’ve started it, open the…
SQL 301 — SSIS Import And Export Wizard
OK, let’s dive right into the Import and Export Wizard. If you’re on Vista or Windows 7, hit start, then begin typing “Import and Export Data” It should find it for you pretty quickly. If you’re not on one of those two, look for your SQL 2005 or 2008 folder, and search in those folders…
Persuasion and The Interview
Persuasion is an art. But it’s an art form that can make your interview go completely differently. Getting the job is always a bout convincing the hiring manager you are the choice for this job. Some of these techniques are simple, some will take time to master. Let’s start with something simple Smile! You’d be…
SQL 301 – Introduction to SSIS
I’ve been getting requests to cover SSIS, so here we go. Over the next few months I’m going to give you a course that will help you go from knowing what SSIS stands for (SQL Server Integration Services) to being proficient. You’ll learn how to work in SSIS. I’ll teach you what many of the…
SQL 202-Locking and Blocking
At a recent Charlotte SQL Server Users Group meeting, one member asked what’s the difference between locking and blocking. I figured I’d cover that today. Locking When you work in your database, you’re not alone. There are other users connected hitting the same database as you, the same tables as you. You have to share…
Resumes and Objective Statements
Last week I saw a post on lifehacker on a new site called RezScore.com. First of all, if you’re questioning your resume in any way, definitely plug in your resume and you can get an automated grade. You can also opt-in to get assistance on your rewrite if you’d like. I submitted mine last week,…
SQL 202-Interpreting your Execution Plan
OK, I’ve explained how you can see the execution plan for your query (either the actual or the estimated). So now you can see your plan…Now what? What do you want to look for? Here’s the plan for the query I was running when I started this post. I was looking at the IO statistics…
SQL 202-Indexes with WHERE clauses
So I have this table in my new database that is used as the base table for more than 50% of the queries that are run on my server. It’s our product table. Along with all the basic information about products there’s a column that hold the status of that product, it’s either active or…