SQL Server 2022 Administration Inside Out

SQL Server 2022 Administration Inside Out is now available for pre-order from Microsoft Press. 

This book is far more than a quick update. We've rewritten and refreshed large portions of the book, with applicability for modern security and Azure integration features. We reorganized content especially around Azure SQL DB and Azure SQL MI and all the new performance features and integrations.

Biggest of thanks for countless personal hours of deep edits and rewrites go out to Randolph West. Major contributions from the book team: Joseph D'Antoni, Louis Davidson, Meagan Longoria, Elizabeth Noble, and Melody Zacharias. Thanks also and congrats to technical editors William Carter and Josh Smith for their first big book experience. And thanks for infinite patience and tireless updates from our Pearson editor Loretta Yates.

The book should be on shelves and available in digital formats on May 8.

https://www.microsoftpressstore.com/store/sql-server-2022-administration-inside-out-9780137899883

30 Interview Questions for a Database Administrator and Developer

This blog post summarizes the type of technical questions I would ask candidates for a Microsoft SQL Server data platform administrator and database developer role.

Hopefully this helps both candidates and managers prepare for interviews. I have no qualms in providing the brief answers because your interview, like mine, should be: 

• behavioral: based on scenarios, not multiple choice answers.
• open ended: ask for an explanation, not a single word answer.
• conversational: testing how the candidate would explain this to a client or colleague.
• applicable: only ask questions relevant to your environment and in the job description.

When I was the manager of a SQL Server managed service provider and a principal consultant at a consulting company, I interviewed and hired database administrators to be consultants, remote DBAs, and database developers for our app dev internal projects.

I've divided the 30 questions into four categories.

Exam Cram with DataWeekender talk - Think Like a Certification Exam

Fresh off of a two-part, co-authored blog series on certification exams and test-taking prep, I've got a fresh batch of fun sample questions for the January 2023 Data Weekender Exam Cram series. Looking forward to discussing the recently-released Microsoft Azure certification prep resources too at 5:30pm Irish time or 9:30AM PT. 

Register to attend at: https://www.meetup.com/DataWeekender/events/289815767/

Azure cert prep materials are also receiving quite a bit of investment in new resources: career guides, test sandbox, live Azure resource sandboxes, free practice assessments, and more. I'll look forward to discussing those!

You can find the .pptx for my presentation here on GitHub. Questions? Comments? Reach out on LinkedIn.

A video recording of this session is available: