Sharpening my technical skills has been an ever-present goal since I started assembling computers for a guy named Dale around 1990. Over the years, some work better than others. There’s definitely nothing that can compare to hands-on experience, but that’s often a Catch-22. You have to have the knowledge to do the work to get the knowledge. So it falls to other means. At one time, I used Microsoft certification exams to put my learning on a schedule. Sign up for the exam, and I was suddenly under the gun to study for it. I’ve also read quite a few books over the years (see my last post for a few of my favorites). Conferences have helped – a couple of TechEd’s back in the day, and now I’m a regular at the PASS Summit.
But one of the most effective has been SQL Saturdays. I present at them semi-regularly, and I always make a point to be an attendee there as well, not just hide away in the presenter’s room until my turn comes around. If you’re in a line of work that would benefit from better knowledge about SQL Server and related technologies, and you haven’t already been to one, seek them out. I think it’s well worth the time and definitely worth the minimal expense.
Thanks to Brent Ozar, where I get a lot of tidbits like this, I have one more thing to share: A reflection on ten years of SQL Saturdays by one of the founders.
Godspeed.