Hi all,

I am new to the database world, and I am happy to find this site!
I am currently an IT/CIS student and had the opportunity to take some database coursework and loved it. I even plan on going to grad school to get some more hands on experience in this area. I can model a database using ER diagrams, and I have Access SQL experience, but I don't believe I scratched the surface yet I also work with smaller excel and access databases at my university, which is allowing me to become more familiar with data collection/manipulation. I was wondering if anyone could recommend good reading materials for someone just breaking into databases? I also understand that Oracle and Microsoft SQL are the two most popular systems right now. Unfortunately I only have enough time to become proficient in one of these systems. Are there any objections to becoming proficient in Microsoft SQL? Also, are there any programming languages I should become familiar with that will aid me in the database career world? I know basic java, javascript, and visual basic at the moment, not sure if these have any application or not.

Any advice or information is greatly appreciated!

- Josh

It all depends on what you want to do where you think you will go
if you want to stay purely in the db world there's various roles including analyst, developer and so on, there's also the db specific role of Data Base Administrator.

languages you would neeed to learn if you want to be a developer.

but in all honesty I'd say the best grounding ofr any developer (porgarammer or analyst) is actually commercial experience.. not int he IT world but in the real trading commercial world. undertand a bit of how business's work. In my books there's far to many peopel int he IT world who do not understand business or work outside the IT world. ferisntance I worked on a system whose initial designers decided that you only ever needed a single sales tax rate, int he UK at the time there were 3 sales tax rates (admittedly thoise rates were exempt (effectively 0, 0, and 15%) but they made assumptions that there wold never be different actual rates charged). the designers hadn't thought out how they were going to handle chanegs in sales tax. in short they used a simple yes/no flag indictign a lack of understanding about the commercial world.

yes ANalysts are supposed to understand these sort of issues and handle them as part of the design.

if you want to work in IT then Access isn't neccesarily a good thing ont he CV, it is say on leaving college if it shows you can design and develop but its often sneered at.

choose one development environemnt and learn the ins and outs of that,most IT employers are single shop, either they are Microsoft or DB2 or Oracle, say as DB, either they are Microsoft or Java as development languages. its rare you will find say a Microsoft language shop to employ a Java developer

consider doing the accredited training courses in Java or Microsoft or whatever products.. it demonstrats to the employer that you are serious and competant and its not all talk. Heck ask propsoective employers if they will help you with auch accredited training

Thanks for the info! I was leaning more towards a database analyst assuming there would be more design involved, however im not opposed to administration. What is the differnece between an analyst and developer? Without having experience in either position it is hard for me to get a grasp of which one I prefer

Is it possible to start as an analyst and become an administrator/developer?

traditionally there was separation from the analyst and prigrammer
the analyst looked at the problem, designed a solution and handed that desin over to ta programmer who coded the design

then you had programmer / analysts who did a bit of both

then a more generic term was coined 'developer' which covers a mishmash of roles / repsonibilities in delivering software.

analyst is a tricky 'first step' as the key thing required with an anlyst is that they understand the business and they are able to interact with developers and the outside world to excapusalte the design requirements. I'd argue that a good analyst needs to have a good business background or very very inquisitive to understand the business requirement and succesfully translate that into a specification / design vbried that can be coded. some people can make that transition many can't yet they are still analysts.

Thanks for your reply, that definitely clears things up a bit. Where does the database administrator come in, is he more involved with maintenance, backups, and performance?


The reason I ask is I have 2 options for graduate school. One is Computer Science- Database Systems, which involves some additional database classes including a hands-on 1 year database project.

The second is MBA- Database Administrator

This also includes database classes, but is very buisness focused.. Management accounting etc.

Which would you recommend?