Question about what to study ??

[sqlcasey]

I am taking a survey. What are good skills for a SQL Server developer to have outside of SQL Server? Or even "inside" SQL Server, that goes above and beyond the "normal" day to day requirements?

I am just wondering because I have a little free time on my hands this week and would like to brush up in some areas.

I have been reading my "Guru's Guide to Transact SQL", and learning lots of cool tricks. But I am having a VERY hard time reading my "SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services" book - it's so incredibly boring to me, but I feel I should know this stuff. But I really hate learning about it. Is this a good skill to have for my next job?? Should I force myself to learn it?

Or would I be better off learning something else, with the hopes I never need to use Reporting Services... I can hope.

.NET seems overwhelming too, but I know it's good to know - but I don't really like web development. I did 6 months of asp programming and tired of it quickly.

What I really love is SQL, and SQL programming, scripting, designing databases, etc. When I did Oracle I wrote a lot of scripts in UNIX... maybe I would be better off learning Perl or something. I find a lot of Microsoft technologies cumbersome. I guess I am looking for career advice, in a sense... as to which way I should focus my energies.

Any ideas??

Thanks

 

[AlexCuse]

Reporting Services is probably a good thing. I am trying to get up to speed on that myself, and I know it can be kinda painful. For 2000 there is a book called Hitchhiker's Guide, not sure if there is an equivalent for 2005 yet. That book is great.

As it sounds like you would be better off trying to build skills for a position like 'Database Architect/Developer', you could probably study things like query optimization and tuning or advanced database design? I am not sure how advanced you are in these areas, but for most people (myself included) there is always room for improvement.

.net would be very useful as well, but it sounds like you are set against it. I suppose any language that can be used to build front end applications that interface with various database platforms would be useful to you, if what you want to do is learn a new language.

There are so many possible answers to your question that it is hard to tell where to begin. It sounds like you have a good idea of what you want to do though, and that will help you to choose from the many MANY possible routes.

Good Luck,

Alex

Ignorance of certain subjects is a great part of wisdom

 

[sqlcasey]

Yes, I think I would really enjoy development/architechture like you said... including data warehousing technologies (which of course ties into reporting).