Please take me under your wing and guide me.

|tera|

|tera|

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Hello devs.

I'm a System Administrator by trade and have been in IT for the past 15 years. Let that not give me any credibility though, I have a hell of a lot more to learn.

I am currently diversified as a admin and tech mostly in a support and maintenance role and I want to get into development, but.

I am not a fool either. I'm not going to corrupt my mind with the wrong methods of programming and wrong languages, wrong styles, wrong paths etc.

That's where I need your help.
My goal is to be proficient in SQL and if possible MySQL and similar databases, everything from queries to development, reports, the whole works.

Reason is that I've got a love for Business processes and work flow and I'd like to be a sort of Business Analyst, even if not fully qualified.

If you have suggestions on another route or language I should aim for, please suggest it.

Also. If I am completely missing the plot, forgive me and guide me. Show me where to start and guide me on the path to make a success of this. My intentions are good.

I'm currently codeless within my mind, so I am capable of learning and forming skills.

Thanks.
 
Pegasus is right, a degree / formal education is always good. I wish I did that. I've been programming for about 11 years now, and there is still so much to learn.

But, if your main aim is SQL, why not install a copy of SQL Server 2012 on your PC and start playing around with it? I bought this book, about 5-6 years ago, and it opened up so many possibilities for me. http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596527990.do - they really have hundreds of real world scenarios and examples and reports that businesses always ask for, and they explain it so well, you will understand it super easily. They also give you the code for SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle - so you get to grasp all 3 big DB systems in one shot. Try it.
 
Thank you for the advice so far. I will look through the options provided and see what I can do. The formal education part is a bit difficult, since I have a bit of a difficult history with regards to my educational background, so I might not be able to do that.

I can however take the routes provided and teach myself and be as clever as any formally educated person, that has never stopped me in life.

Concerning the SQL Route. As I said initially, I'm a bit skeptical of just picking up any learning material and starting it, since I want the correct foundations from the start. Am I incorrect with this perception?

Thank you.
 
|tera| said:
Thank you for the advice so far. I will look through the options provided and see what I can do. The formal education part is a bit difficult, since I have a bit of a difficult history with regards to my educational background, so I might not be able to do that.

I can however take the routes provided and teach myself and be as clever as any formally educated person, that has never stopped me in life.

Concerning the SQL Route. As I said initially, I'm a bit skeptical of just picking up any learning material and starting it, since I want the correct foundations from the start. Am I incorrect with this perception?

Thank you.
Click to expand...

Software development has become a every saturated industry, especially with new entrants with very limited or no experience. This coupled with the fact that the industry in South Africa is relatively small and dominated by Microsoft tech, is going to make it harder.

In other countries, the industry is more diversified allowing new entrants to get into jobs with some less conventional technologies.

Without a formal college or university degree, its going to be really hard for you.

Regarding foundations, the best foundation would be college. There isn't really a good alternative. Yes, people have made it without, but they have been lucky or started when the industry wasn't as saturated as it is now. Unfotunatly, as has already been pointed out, your CV isn't going to make it past the first reading stage without some kind of post-school education.
 
I saw a SQL book on google play but I can't remember if it was free.
 
zippy said:
Software development has become a every saturated industry, especially with new entrants with very limited or no experience. This coupled with the fact that the industry in South Africa is relatively small and dominated by Microsoft tech, is going to make it harder.

In other countries, the industry is more diversified allowing new entrants to get into jobs with some less conventional technologies.

Without a formal college or university degree, its going to be really hard for you.

Regarding foundations, the best foundation would be college. There isn't really a good alternative. Yes, people have made it without, but they have been lucky or started when the industry wasn't as saturated as it is now. Unfotunatly, as has already been pointed out, your CV isn't going to make it past the first reading stage without some kind of post-school education.
Click to expand...

maumau said:
I saw a SQL book on google play but I can't remember if it was free.
Click to expand...

Let me put it to you this way. I'm not looking for work or a job or looking for better prospects at an alternate employer. I'm happy with my current job. I'm happy to do the work I do and I won't trade it for anything else. I'm doing this for myself and to enrich my own life and own self worth. I'm doing this to better myself and my skills & knowledge within IT. If at the end of the day I can look back and see all of this was worth it then why not? Google Play books and sarcastic comments or not, it's what I'd like to achieve, this is my life.
 
I think that coming from an admin background and going into dev can be a really good thing.
I went the other way round and because of it I can add tons of value with projects.
See dev's dont always understand enough about the technical aspects and admins dont know enough about dev, if you know both then you are valuable.
 
You start where you have the opportunity. If you want to do analysis then get a good book and start doing it in your spare time. Take the systems you work on and define all the diagrams do all the workflows, UI's, normalizations etc etc. Give these to your manager along with your recommendations for improvements and see what happens. If they see potential in you then they will guide you further if they dont then you need to try another approach.
Like the others have said a degree will help and if you are over 25 getting into UNISA may be as easy as getting a matric exemption for age.

As for another suggestion you can also have a look at BPM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_management

Good luck all it takes is a bit of hard work.
 
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