Oracle SQL Developer is the Oracle Database IDE. A free graphical user interface, Oracle SQL Developer allows database users and administrators to do their database tasks in fewer clicks and keystrokes. A productivity tool, SQL Developer's main objective is to help the end user save time and maximize the return on investment in the Oracle Database technology stack.”
(Source: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/sql-developer/what-is-sqldev-093866.html)
Becoming a SQL developer is not something we see very often. There is not so much talk about SQL developers on the internet, so, people who want to become one might get lost.
How do you become a SQL Developer?
Watch this video and find out!
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Transcript Of The Video
John Sonmez:
Hey, what's up? John Sonmez here from simpleprogrammer.com. I've got a bit of a different question this time about getting a SQL job with an IT networking bachelor's degree. This question is from John and he says, “I was wondering. What is the best way to get into SQL administration? I'm getting a bachelor's in IT networking and wondering what is the best way to learn and get into this field. I was also wondering if this is even a good idea and should I focus on networking?” He goes on to talk about that his plan is to work in a networking field for a while and then move into SQL. He heard that the networking field will not be in demand in the future since everything is becoming software based and there's little demand for them since everything is moving to the cloud and not in-house. He thinks moving to SQL will be a better job security wise.
I'd have to say this is kind of an interesting one because a lot of the advice that I give for software developers in general or software development in general isn't really going to apply here because you're not necessarily going to be able to do some of these things as far as SQL. I mean you can create some of the stuff, but as a SQL administrator or even a SQL developer, you can't create a portfolio of stuff. Right? You can't be like, “Ah, these are the databases that I created and administered.” It's a little bit tougher. It's a little bit different, right? As a software developer. I'm going to give you the advice and say, “Hey. Well, go out there and create some stuff. Right? Create some projects. Write some code. Put some apps in the App Store,” but if your focus is going in a SQL administration or become a SQL developer, it's a little bit different.
Here's what I would suggest in this case. Well, first of all, I have to ask you this question which is are you sure that you want to do this or you're just looking for like some job that pays money? Are you really interested in becoming a SQL administrator? Because if you don't really have any interest in being a SQL administrator but you really are interested in networking, go the networking route. Don't try to predict the future. Yes, things are going to the cloud, but I guarantee there's always going to be non-cloud infrastructure. Where do you think the cloud comes from? Do you think that that's just like magic? There's buildings with networking. There's data warehouses where it's more complex network or they've got their setup. There's always going to be that network engineer role. It's just may have morphed and it may look different.
If your passion is actually the networking part of it, then go down that road. Forget about the SQL. Don't just do that because it feels like something that you should do and it feels like something you could jump to from there. I mean maybe that's the plan and maybe you do that, but I wouldn't—try not to plan too much for the future by predicting the future on things like this. Plan for things that—it doesn’t matter which way it goes. Don't plan on a specific technology.
So many developers plan on technology going away. A lot of times they're wrong. A lot of times technology doesn’t go away. Right? I did this video on Cobol in which it's still there. It's still there and it will be there for a long time. A lot of people say it's growing. I don't know if it's growing but it may be right. Don't count on technology is going away.
With that said, practical advice for becoming a SQL administrator or SQL developer, the best thing, I think going into the networking and starting there is good. In this case, I would actually get certifications, right? I've done some videos on certifications. Should I get certifications? You can check it out here, but there's a couple of networking like database certifications that I would get. There's definitely a Microsoft one out there. I think there's a couple other ones out there. I haven't looked in the—you know, I actually had my MSDBA. Is that it? MSDBA. I think that's it when I was getting my Microsoft certification. I was a Microsoft Certified Database Administrator, but I didn’t really put that to much use. I just figured I'd get it anyways since I had—I only like take one more test and it was interesting to me, but that's what I would do. That's going to prove that you actually have some competency and knowledge there, and then, really, there's not really like a good stepping stone. I mean I would say that, again, you can't create the portfolio, but you can create a blog.
Do that. Market yourself that way. All this time, I talk about marketing yourself as a software developer is going to work. All the portfolio stuff is not going to work. You're not going to be able to demonstrate your ability, but you're going to be able to demonstrate your competency by what you write about. Write about SQL administration. Write about all these topics, right? It's going to be hard to do without being a practitioner, but you can at least like read books and talk about this. Maybe you can create a side project. I mean maybe you can team up with a developer and you can work together to create a project, or maybe you can join an open source project and you can do the database part of that. You're going to have to be creative and look for opportunities here.
Yeah. That's what I would say about that and it's hard. Like I said, to get your first job, if you had a job already and you're trying to improve your career, I could give you a lot more on that because you could get on podcast, you can market yourself. Right? I wouldn't even say that my How to Market Yourself course is really going to benefit you much here because you don't have practical experience. Your authority on speaking on something is not going to be very great because you're not actually doing it and it's hard to be doing it because you actually have a real production environment. It's kind of meaningless if you're administering a database server on your home computer. I mean what does that prove? It doesn’t prove anything.
A hard one here, but really consider whether this is what you want to do. From your email, it doesn’t seem like you want to do this. It seems like maybe you just want to go into networking. If you want to do that, go for that.
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