Self Study Update October 2024
I am working really hard on updating my skills and getting ready for the next step in my career. There is so much to learn. I am finding though some payoff as some of the ideas I am being exposed to have immediate application to what I am doing professionally. There are instances though of wishing I’d known some of these sooner, as having more context on past decisions would be helpful. I am making good progress though trying to spend time every day on reading a chapter of my book or working through one of my online courses. Here is what I am working on right now.
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 T-SQL Fundamentals – I first purchased this book while a DBA some decade ago. I never read it. I am working through it now and it’s filling a lot of gaps in knowledge that I didn’t realize I was missing, or elaborating on things I needed to learn the hard way. It’s difficult to read technical manuals without doing it also as you’re just reading details that are impossible to remember without practical application. One of the more important lessons I’m coming across right now are windows. I even purchased a specific book on windows that I am going to read next. Being able to reference other data into a single step query is incredibly helpful. It’s unbelievable the hoops I’d jump through on some of these analyses that I’ve done.
Data Pipelines Pocket Reference – I wanted some exposure to other ETL solutions out there. I think I’ll need to deep dive Apache Spark and learn how to build DAGs. I purchased a book to read about this next. I did learn about CDC, or Change Data Capture, and how that is used. I definitely need to get my Python skills up to date. This also lead me into reading more about Enterprise Data Lakes.
Enterprise Data Lake – I do some basic work in Data Warehousing and I wanted some exposure to more advanced and modern DW architectures. The best concept I came across is self-service. I used to use business objects and wow what a waste of time. We were constricted by what the IT department deemed we needed access to and was responsible for creating it, and they were never even close. I had to jump through incredible hoops to get the data out and then scrub it so it was useable. Part of that was from a lack of resources in the enterprise and a lack of conviction that people in finance could read and interpret data.
