1. Educating yourself will make a SQL career more fulfilling
Chris Wood
Educating yourself will make a SQL career more fulfilling

2. Educating yourself will make a SQL career more fulfilling

3. Agenda Who is Chris Wood Why Educate Yourself Daily Feeds Twitter
Lets Look at Bloggers
Lets Look at PASS
Local User Groups
SQL Saturday’s
Virtual Conferences
Online Paid training
MOOC’s
Books
SQL Training companies
Conferences
PASS SUMMIT
How to get value for your money
Questions
How do I plan a conference
Agenda

4. Why am I doing this?
I hear people say they cannot pursue training because of the expense
Professional training can be expensive but there are ways to make it happen

5. Who is Chris Wood I am an Englishman who emigrated to Canada in 1982
I started my DBA career on CA-IDMS in and in 1997 on SQL 6.5. I have been to 12 PASS SUMMITs , 2 DevConnections and a three-time Tech Outbounder. Helped organize 3 SQL Saturday’s and presented at 4
.com

6. Why Educate Yourself
We are in a rapidly changing IT world. What may have been a lifelong career could be replaced in a short period of time
Not many people know who I am. Some high ranking SQL people at Microsoft know me.

7. Examples
I am lucky to know Mala Mahadevan – look at her story years-of-pass-summit/
Jes Borland
egorized/help-my-company-wont-pay-for- training/
This is a story of my 11-year association with PASS, and the many ways it helped me grow as a person and in my career. And the many ways I saw other people grow. Tim Mitchell (b | t) asked me an interesting question: “What should you do if your employer won’t support your career development?” It’s a question I had to answer early in my career, and I am going to share my challenges and solutions. Make time for learning, and put a priority on it.

8. Examples
Eugene Meidinger eping-up-with-technology-a-guide-to- drinking-from-the-firehose//
I often ask people with more experience than me “How do you stay relevant in our field?”. I joke that I live in perennial fear of being replaced someday, by a 22 year-old with no family commitments. Really, it’s a joke. Really, it’s a fear.

9. Daily Feeds Brent Ozar Unlimited - http://www.brentozar.com/
SQLServerCentral -
MSSQLTips -
SSWUG -
Kendra Little -

10. Twitter Lots of SQL experts and bloggers use Twitter
Great way to find out about blogs and new products/features
Use #sqlhelp hashtag

11. Lets Look at Bloggers SentryOne - https://blogs.sentryone.com/
SQLSkills – Insider Newsletters -
Brent Ozar -
SQLBlog -
Microsoft SQL blogs
Lets Look at Bloggers

12. Lets Look at Bloggers - contd
Microsoft SQL Server Version List-
Ola Hallengren -
SQLHandle -
Voice of the DBA -
Niko Neugebauer-
Feedly for aggregation -
Lets Look at Bloggers - contd

13.
Kevin Kline, currently of SentryOne and one of the founders of PASS, told us a story about the founding of the PASS organization that I had never heard before. When they first started organizing PASS, 20 years ago, they had almost no funding. They wanted to put on an event, the first PASS Summit, but they had no idea how they were going to compete with much better funded events. Kevin then said that, while they can’t necessarily put on a better event, they can be better people. They would create a culture based on the concept of being aggressively friendly.
Origins of PASS

14. (P)rofessional (A)ssociation for (S)QL (S)erver has existed since 1999
Best known for PASS Summit
Offers many virtual user groups that hold a number of webinars
Now offers a Career Center
24 Hours of PASS
Lets Look at PASS

15. Local User Groups Lots of places have PASS user groups
I belong to EDMPASS that has existed since 2009
Most groups have regular meetings with local or remote presentations
SQLSkills offer presentors
A good chance to meet with other Data Professionals in your area
Microsoft offer speakers
Good opportunity to start speaking
Local User Groups

16. A local event that was created to give attendees an idea of what PASS Summit was about
Many of the #sqlfamily make an effort to present in the smaller locations
Some have become big, regular events (Louisville, Madison and Vancouver)
SQL Saturday’s

17. Virtual Conferences
Redgate – SQL in the City gate.com/hub/events/sqlinthecity/
Brent Ozar Unlimited – GroupBy

18. Online Paid Training PluralSight - https://www.pluralsight.com/
Global Knowledge -

19. MOOC’s - Massive Open Online Course
Coursera -
Khan Academy -
edX -
Udemy -

20. Books Mostly at a cost – could be free as a PDF
New book on SQL 2017 Admin

21. SQL Training companies
SQLskills -
Brent Ozar Unlimited -

22. Conferences
SQLConnections -
SQLIntersection -
Tech Outbound -

23. Conferences Connections and Intersection are multi product conferences
SQL section is just a part of the conference
Usually held once or twice a year in places like Orlando, Vegas, Dallas, San Francisco

24. Tech Outbound – was SQL Cruise
Currently happens on a cruise ship – will change to other locations
Needs cruise ship booking before registering with Tech Outbound
Classroom sessions mostly when sailing
Includes dinner meetings and photo shoots
Likes students to bring family – learning plus vacation
Supported by RedGate and SentryOne

25. PASS SUMMIT First held in 1999 Just had the 19th one in Seattle
12 in Seattle with experiments in other parts of the US
Most time its 2 days of pre-cons followed by 3 full days
Keynotes on at least 2 days
Keynotes used to announce new versions
Great for DBA’s originally but has certainly expanded into all that is in SQL Server now
Many different forms of sessions – General (75 Minutes) and Half-Day (2 ½ hours

26. How to get value for your money
There are three components to a conference
Registration fees
Travel
Accommodation

27. Questions

28. How do I Plan if I want to attend
Content
Location
Value – opportunity and contacts
Can this be a vacation
Would my wife want to go with me
How can I afford this
How easy is it to get time off