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A couple of days after I got hired at my current job, they informed me that the contract required that the person filling the position have a MCDB certification. Well, that cert is no longer offered, so the closest thing to it is MCSA. It's pointless bescause MCSA is a certification for SQL Server 2012, and the database servers were upgraded to 2008 R2 just before I got hired. (this is the reason I said the cert was pointless).
I have no heavy experience with SQL Server, knowing only enough to be slightly less than dangerous, so I suppose we'll see how it goes. I have no interest - and see no value - in getting MS certs, and I see it as nothing but a money grab on the part of MS, so I already have a negative attitude about the whole thing.
In any case, I have to have my cert before the end of November, and I'm scheduled to take the first of three tests on Thursday.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Well, basically I agree with you, but some companies or orgs need it to "judge" the skill, I mean how they know if we have the skill without "that piece of paper" from "some well known" companies or orgs?.
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I largely agree with your sentiments; having a piece of paper does not indicate a level of knowledge - it indicates an ability to pass a test.
Having said that, as long as you are an employee, you will have to work within the confines of your employers requirements.
Since you said, 'the contract requires', that implies that your employer is having constraints put on them as well.
So... pass the test, or look for employment elsewhere, or become the employer; all of which are within your ability to do.
And, I trust you will pass with flying colors.
Tim
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As long as you do not pay for it - do it!
I once done a security clearance check for a project - and that involves a few looooooooooooooooooooooong interrogations (no physical pressure) at the police...
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is. (V)
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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote: A couple of days after I got hired at my current job, they informed me that the contract required that the person filling the position have a MCDB certification. Well, that cert is no longer offered, so the closest thing to it is MCSA. It's pointless bescause MCSA is a certification for SQL Server 2012, and the database servers were upgraded to 2008 R2 just before I got hired. (this is the reason I said the cert was pointless).
Just because your employer (your customer?) are living in the stone age doesn't mean that MS is. AFAIK they don't have any certs for W7 any more either despite how many more people are using it than W8. 
PS I assume your car refit is finally finished? Before I went on vacation you'd posted a video of your first engine test run; and I couldn't be bothered to read 2 weeks of back posts when I got home; and haven't seen anything posted since.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Dan Neely wrote: I assume your car refit is finally finished? Before I went on vacation you'd posted a video of your first engine test run; and I couldn't be bothered to read 2 weeks of back posts when I got home; and haven't seen anything posted since.
Hmmm, I thought I posted this:
Here ya go[^]
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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You probably posted it while I was having fun at Dragoncon.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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It is irritating, it is mostly pointless (I knew guys with lots of certs that were clueless about how to get work done), BUT you can take it to your advantage by using it as a means to find an exhaustive view about all the possible features that are available for troubleshooting and developing (many of them should be backwards compatible to 2008).
You probably won't use most, but you might find a few nuggets of wisdom.
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Create your own cert and a sign it as Dean, School of Outlaw Programming and Ass Kicking. 
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List of Alumni:
Chuck Norris
John Wayne
Clint Eastwood
Steve McQueen
George Patton
Pretty much every U.S. Marine to ever have existed.
Everyone listed above took the core courses associated with kicking ass, and skipped the programming stuff, but that's okay because they've since been busy kickng ass - and loving it.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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SQL2008 R2 and SQL2012 are very similar so what you learn about SQL2012 will at least still be relevant for SQL2008 R2. And if the Company ever upgrades to SQL2012, you won't have to get recertified....
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I'm fully aware of all of that (and there's no requirement to get recertified). Certs are pointless in and of themselves. Have I learned anything I didn't already know about SQL Server in the course of studying for these exams? Well, yeah, because I'm not a DBA - and I don't want to be. It's like VB. Do I know VB? Well, yeah, but that's not what I want to do as a programmer, and I actively ignore job postings that say I have to know VB.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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I can't work out whether this is a nice idiosyncratic quirk of the UK government, or just plain inefficient. Probably the former.
As a bit of background, it is technically impossible for an MP to resign, what they need to do is effectively get a
another position which barrs them from being an MP[^]
List of Recent Stewards[^]
Alberto Brandolini: The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.
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So they become Stewards in order to get Barred.
Is there not a requirement to be a complete and utter Barred Steward before becoming an MP?
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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You should know as prospective tory candidate for Luton Desolation
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Agree wholeheartedly, plus what Nagy said 
Alberto Brandolini: The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.
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So the manager and the boss are yelling at one another this morning. This is like, got in an argument as a kid yelling at one another. Letting it all out like a bad marriage. I went in to stop them, but I didn't really know what to say (and they never noticed I was there). So I just came back in my office and listened a bit.
Wonder what's going to come of this. I'm not sure if this means I should leave, or wait and see if I get promoted. Either way, there needs to be some sort of change now. They may want it to go away after they calm down, but it's not going to.
Elephant elephant elephant, sunshine sunshine sunshine
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loctrice wrote: o the manager and the boss are yelling at one another this morning.
I wonder if they are attracted to each other. Sometimes attraction manifests itself in opposite-like behavior. 
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Is the office about 18' by 18'? That is kind of the minimum for a good kick boxing bout.
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At least, should it escalate violently, you'd be the one to have arguments.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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I was just going to record it if the fight broke out. I don't think any of them are silly enough to come at me.
Elephant elephant elephant, sunshine sunshine sunshine
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My kid was watching "Pirates of the Carribean -- At World's End" the other day. You are describing the scene where Jack and Barbossa are arguing over who's captain. 
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I *hate* when a website thinks it has to display content in a language based on my current location. If I am typing "google.com", I want to search with "google.com" and not "fr.google.com or de.google.com". If I read a document in English that links to an online english resource, I do not want that this resource be displayed in German or French.
If it is, it should not be a PITA to get it in another language, please without having to reload the page every time I go to another page.
AND I want the site to remember I do not want to change to local language, because I do not want to redo all the language change everytime I have to browse this site.
Rule 1. Web sites should not try and think in lieu of their users.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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I know exactly what you mean. Every time I go to a Microsoft KB article or sometimes when I look something up on MSDN, it provides me with this crappy mechanical Bing translation, on MSDN also in form of a popup that shows the translation of a paragraph when you hover over it, which can be really annoying if there is a link inside you'd like to click but is covered by the popup.
I don't see the value in localized MSDN content anyways. I mean, every serious programmer should be familiar with the english language and be able to read and understand the stuff without translation. Translation by hand can be good but takes too long and is hard to keep up to date, and translation by a program always reads weird every other sentence.
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On the other hand, the Bing translation might accidentally correct the mistakes in MSDN.
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