• Home
  • Contact

John Sansom

SQL Server DBA Blog

  • About
    • The Blog
    • John Sansom
    • Contact
  • Ebook
  • Archives
    • Start Here
    • Popular Posts
    • All Posts
    • SFTW
  • Becoming a DBA
    • What it’s Really Like
    • Interview Tips
    • Certification
    • FAQ
  • Books
  • Resources
    • Blog Tools and Technology
    • UK Events Schedule
    • References & Resource Lists
  • Subscribe

Yes! You Can be a DBA Too

March 4, 2014 by John Sansom 1 Comment

Start Engine Button

I received an email from a reader the other day, asking for a spot of advice. You know, that highly sought after and dangerous free stuff. Our SQL community chum posed some rather splendid questions, some of which you have likely pondered too. Since a chap only has so many keystrokes in life, I’m sharing my thoughts […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerPedia Syndication

Top SQL Server Forums of 2014

February 4, 2014 by John Sansom 6 Comments

Top SQL Server Forums

There’s a lot of valuable information on the internet. The astute among you will have also noticed that there’s a fair amount of crap out there too. Whether you’re browsing forums, web sites or blogs, knowing what the best sources of SQL Server information are and more importantly which one’s you can trust, can be tricky. […]

Filed Under: Professional Development Tagged With: Forums

What’s the Best Path to Becoming a DBA?

January 7, 2014 by John Sansom 9 Comments

Best-Direction-For-A-New-DBA

I received a blog comment from a nice chap recently, concerning a subject that I’m often asked about and I wanted to share my thoughts with you here. I only have a finite number of keystrokes left in me after all, so I’m blogging my thoughts and replying to the comment with a link to this post. Hi John, […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication

The Year in Numbers 2013

December 31, 2013 by John Sansom Leave a Comment

numbers

All in all it was a successful year here at John Sansom dot Com. In terms of traffic, the blog had almost 400 thousand page views. I know. I don’t understand why either – but I’ll take it! This years page views were more than half of all the total page views in the 5 […]

Filed Under: Blogging

DBA JumpStart – A SQL Community Ebook for DBAs

December 10, 2013 by John Sansom 8 Comments

DBA JumpStart Ebook

If you could give a DBA just one piece of advice, what would it be? I asked 20 successful and experienced SQL Server professionals this exact question. You can find their answers inside DBA JumpStart, a unique collection of inspiring content just for SQL Server DBAs. Just Another Blog Post It’s hard to believe that […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: ebook

What’s the Age Limit for Becoming a DBA?

October 1, 2013 by John Sansom 52 Comments

Sunset on the Bosphorus

I received an email from a nice chap recently, concerning a subject that I’m often asked about and I wanted to share my thoughts with you here. Since I only have so many keystrokes left in my life, I am blogging my thoughts and emailing a link. Dear Sir, I am 37 years old. I’ve never worked in […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Featured

10 Habits of Successful Senior DBAs You Can Use Today

August 27, 2013 by John Sansom 17 Comments

Senior Database Administrators (DBAs) through experience develop and practice a variety of habits that become key contributors to their success. Here are 10 habits of successful DBAs that you can begin to put to work for you right away. Habit #1: Use Free SQL Server Tools What if I told you that you can get […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Featured

The A, B, C — and Ds — of Career Advancement

July 16, 2013 by John Sansom Leave a Comment

Greg Masuda shares advice for pursuing career advancement that’s applicable to all professionals in this guest post.

Filed Under: Professional Development

Your Community, Your Voice, Your Forum

May 21, 2013 by John Sansom 2 Comments

Lion Roaring

For me, one of the most rewarding things about blogging are the conversations we have together. The opportunity to connect, share and grow with passionate people from all over the world is a great privilege. I’ve met so many wonderful people through our community, learning something from each of you about technology and even life.

That’s why I started the SQL Brit Community Forum.

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication

What You Need To Bring to SQLBits

April 23, 2013 by John Sansom Leave a Comment

With only a few days to go before SQLBits kicks off, here’s some last minute tips on what you need to bring to ensure you have a fantastic experience.

Filed Under: Professional Development Tagged With: Community, Events, SQLBits

How To Be An Expert At What You Do

March 20, 2013 by John Sansom 2 Comments

How To Be An Expert

Experts are always in popular demand and they come in all manner of different flavors.

In this post we look at exactly what it means to be an expert and how you can develop into the expert that you want to be.

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Expert

Career Growth and How You Can Achieve Explosive Results

March 5, 2013 by John Sansom 20 Comments

Bench Press

Continued investment in your professional development for career growth is hard. It’s also essential to being a successful Data Professional.

Discover out how to achieve dramatic career growth and results from your professional development efforts.

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career, Career Growth, Career Progression, Featured

Multitasking A Ridiculous Workload – How I Do It

February 19, 2013 by John Sansom 4 Comments

EatThatFrog

There’s no such thing as multitasking. At least, not how most of us think about it. By using the task management system that I share here, you can keep an accurate track of workload, prioritise and ensure that you spend more of your time delivering on what’s really important.

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Multitasking, Time Management

Overconfidence – How it Almost Cost Me and What You Can Do to Avoid It

February 5, 2013 by John Sansom 10 Comments

Overconfidence can have serious consequences for Data Professionals. Guard against overconfidence and avoid complacency by thinking defensively.

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Complacency, Overconfidence, Replication, Thinking Defensively

Are You A Technical Expert or Manager?

January 29, 2013 by John Sansom Leave a Comment

The Thinker

Effective leadership is about being mindful of how you engage those around you.

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication

How To Win Career Gold

January 22, 2013 by John Sansom 6 Comments

Team GB medal winners

The start of a new working year is often a time for self reflection. This is a great thing, it’s the first step toward you achieving growth, improvement and ultimately better results.

The value of investing in your own professional development is clear. I encourage you to take the time to devise your plan and you will achieve fantastic results.

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career Progression, Community, Goals, Mentoring, Reading, Training

Step Up and Take More Ownership

January 8, 2013 by John Sansom Leave a Comment

TSQL Tuesday Logo

This post is part of the T-SQL Tuesday Meme, this month hosted by Jason Brimhall. His chosen theme, to come up with a story where you “stood firm” and relate it to these words: resolve, resolution, or resolute.  Regular readers will know and tell you that I’m resolute in my philosophy that the Best DBAs Automate Everything. So […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Leadership, Replication, Responsibility

Your Top 10 Posts of the Year

December 17, 2012 by John Sansom Leave a Comment

Stacked records

Short and sweet today, here’s what you enjoyed reading the most this year on the blog. No accounting for taste then. How To Become a SQL Server DBA My Guide To Passing Exam 70-432 Top 10 Junior DBA Interview Tips The Database Administrators Primary Responsibility Performing Fast SQL Server Delete Operations 10 Character Traits of […]

Filed Under: Blogging, Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication

The Great DBA Getaway

December 12, 2012 by John Sansom 1 Comment

It’s holiday season which means it’s a time for you all to buy me gifts super busy time for Data Professionals! Bosses are keen to take of advantage of the opportune downtime to get maintenance done and your colleagues are abandoning the office in droves. Leaving their troubles and work behind them, most likely for you to […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Planning, Time Management, Work-life-balance

A Journey To SQL Authority

October 9, 2012 by John Sansom 60 Comments

I am delighted to welcome to the blog someone who is without a doubt one of the biggest names in our SQL community.  A name that I am sure many, if not all of you will recognise, they’re one of the very first bloggers that I myself began to follow. A SQL community champion, this […]

Filed Under: Blogging, Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Becoming a DBA, Guest Post

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »

Popular Articles

  • Top 10 Free SQL Server Tools
  • Performing fast SQL Server delete operations
  • How to identify the most costly SQL Server queries using DMV’s
  • Top 10 Junior DBA Interview Tips
  • The Database Administrator’s Primary Responsibility
  • Your Road to Becoming a DBA: Laying a Strong Foundation
  • Top 5 SQL Forums
  • SQL Server Memory Configuration, Determining MemToLeave Settings
  • Script SQL Server Agent Jobs Using PowerShell
  • Using sys.dm_os_ring_buffers to Troubleshoot Connectivity Issues

Categories

  • Administration (38)
  • Blogging (8)
  • Customer Service (5)
  • Disaster Recovery (5)
  • DMVs (4)
  • Index Optimisation (6)
  • Interviews (1)
  • Link Posts (243)
  • Memory (2)
  • Performance Tuning (15)
  • Professional Development (70)
  • Reporting Services (5)
  • Reviews (1)
  • SQL Server Community (144)
  • SQL Server Tips (11)
  • SQLServerCentral Syndication (112)
  • SQLServerPedia Syndication (116)
  • Tools (7)

Copyright © 2023 · Santech Solutions Limited · Powered by the Genesis Framework · Privacy Policy