ITCareerCoach Training - Coaching » Database Report Writer http://www.it-career-coach.net How To Take Your Career To The Next Level Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:09:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Oracle Or Microsoft Access, Which Is Better? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/17/oracle-or-ms-access-which-is-better/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/17/oracle-or-ms-access-which-is-better/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:14:10 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3105

Oracle Or Microsoft Access, Which Is Better For Me?

Oracle Or Microsoft Access, Which Is Better For Me?

Are you matching your strengths to your opportunities or are you just being ideological … interested only in following your own ideas even when they won’t get you any results?

Here is a situation that illustrates the challenges of being ideological versus being results oriented. It is a situation that illustrates the challenges of learning an enterprise software like Oracle compared to a poor man’s database like Microsoft Access.

Are you wondering about who this situation involves? You are safe my friend because today, I will mainly be talking about me :-)

When I started out in the industry, my first priority was to get my foot into the door.

My goals were:

  1. To transition my career without incurring a lot of additional debt
  2. To learn a marketable skill so that I could get a job quickly
  3. To get myself into a position where I would be in high-demand by delivering excellent results

There were a number of career paths that looked promising and I looked into them all. Here a few of them:

Business Analysis

The business analyst career path was mostly available to systems analysts or management consultants people or poorly defined.

By poorly defined, i mean that it depended on the whims of hiring managers (it was subjective and depended on the employers needs or definitions) and so, there was no very clear or direct path to becoming a business analyst (this was in the ‘90s).

Network Administration

I had worked in network administration in an internship job right after college. My duties entailed helping support a Lotus CC:Mail/ Novell Netware Network

Based on my own first-hand experience, I ruled out computer networking primarily because I realized that I was not passionate about that industry.

Systems Programming

While in college, I had tried to learn C/C++ and I also decided that it wasn’t my thing because it took a long time to develop a fully functional software using C/C++

Based on experience, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to master C/C+ in a few months or get a job easily.

My finding was that it would take a number of years to become really expert or highly skilled at C/C++.

I was also certain, that even when I became highly skilled, I still won’t be able to deliver stellar results based on C/C++.

In case you’re interested, read my thoughts on choosing C/C++ as a programming language here…

Enterprise Database Software

I investigated getting an entry level job in SAP / Oracle / IBM or some other enterprise software since that is where it seemed that the big bucks where being made. In the 90’s, the major database players included IBM, Oracle, Microsoft.

Oracle was very popular in the enterprise database computing circle. However, learning Oracle was no small feat.

I mean that installing Oracle on your own local computer for learning purposes was not an easy proposition even for experienced oracle professionals because companies hired senior / experienced Oracle consultants just to install and setup Oracle correctly on their servers.

In addition to that, Oracle was targeted at the enterprise buyer which meant that purchasing a full-featured Oracle license for an individual like me without corporate sponsorship … was simply beyond my budget!

In addition, even if I raised the money to buy an Oracle License, I would have to spend additional weeks installing Oracle correctly by myself or else hire an Oracle database consultant to install it (Oracle database consultants billed anywhere from $60/hr. to $120/hr.)

And assuming that I overcame the hurdle of buying an Oracle license and then installing Oracle, I would still have to figure out one more thing about Oracle … how to learn Oracle!

You see, Oracle was one of those complex enterprise software application that had a really high learning curve.

The chances that I was going to learn or master Oracle in time enough to get a job was very low because professionals who had been working with Oracle for years where still struggling to understand it … it was that complex!

So, tell me, what will you have done if you were in my shoes?

Did I fixate on learning Oracle … even though I knew professionals that worked with Oracle for years were still struggling to get to a comfort level with it?

Absolutely not! One of the Oracle professionals that I was personally acquainted with had started working with or learning Oracle while we were still in college.

By the time I was evaluating learning Oracle, this professional (a lady based in the United Kingdom) was just getting comfortable with Oracle … and that is after working with it for 8 to 10 years!

So, I decided that the Oracle database and many of the other popular enterprise software applications available at that time had too high a learning curve!

Yes, I know that everyone’s situation is different and yes I understand that “what is good for the goose is not always good for the gander“.

But my situation was that I was married and I had to pay my bills.

Even though my wife was willing to support me, I wasn’t okay with asking her to take care of all the bills while I went on a multi-year learning trip.

Not only that,I had been out of college for a few years and didn’t want to risk taking another 8 to 10 years to learn a new career!

And I definitely didn’t want to start a career that would require such an expensive re-training that I would have to go deeply in debt!

Put yourself in my shoes and tell me what you would have done if faced with my situation keeping in my objectives which were:

  • To learn a marketable skill in a short time: I had to learn a marketable skill so that I could easily get a job and get out of unemployment.

  • To be prudent or save money: I had to pay my bills and account for all sorts of living expenses, while paying for my own re-training.

  • To get into a line of work where I could easily become competent: I needed to learn a skill that I would become an expert at in a reasonable short time.

What will you have done in my shoes … because I choose Microsoft Access!

In those days, a lot of professionals looked down on Microsoft Access as a sort of poor man’s relational database even though Microsoft Access had a lot going for it at that point in time.

Low Cost of Learning

Microsoft Access was available as part of the Microsoft Office family of products.

The cost of a Microsoft Office / Access license was as low as $300. And I budgeted an additional $100 for buying Microsoft Access textbooks from the local seller … Barnes & Noble. I would never forget the price that I paid for my very first Microsoft Access Book … just $49.50.

So, for less than $500, I was guaranteed that I would learn or master Microsoft Access … which was great news for me as an unemployed newbie IT professional!

Low Learning Curve

It took me between 30 and 60 days to study or master Microsoft Access from textbooks. After which I spent my remaining time, taking Microsoft Access practice tests and building relational databases.

In my first job interview test administered by a local staffing agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I scored above 90% and got hired into the systems / data analysis department of a local e-commerce firm with a starting salary of $15/hr.

Accelerated Time To Market

By my third month of working with Microsoft Access, I had completed a project that was estimated to last about 6 weeks in 2 weeks.

Because I could achieve those sorts of results, the IT Manager called a recruiting firm without my knowledge or permission and advised them to find more challenging work for me … which they did!

By my third month, I was billing $76,000/yr. and my billing rate continued to increase with time!

Dear Friend,

What I have learnt is that the only thing that stops us from achieving the results we want is our limiting belief systems or self-imposed mental boundaries.

So, what works and what doesn’t?

  1. Don’t hang your career on getting a recognized certificate or diploma

    That is so old school! The only thing that matters is your ability to perform on the job … and no accredited degree or diploma or program can confer that to you.

    In other words, you either learn or know how to get the job done or you don’t.

  2. Don’t get stuck learning any vendor’s software

    Because I got my foot in through the door, I have since had the chance to learn or work with Oracle and IBM enterprise databases at the employer’s expense!

    Learning Microsoft Access first actually made it easier for me to learn or work with SQL Server, Oracle and IBM databases later on.

    Remember that you are the one that makes the job work and not the software, vendor or qualification.

    I have seen professionals who want to become business analysts get stuck on learning an enterprise requirement management software like IBM Rational RequisitePro.

    These good folks forget that many employers can’t afford the licensing costs of the same software that they are hung up on and they also forget that requirements management is first and foremost a set of principles or techniques and not a software!.

    If you learn requirements management techniques you can for example document requirements using Microsoft Office or your employer can purchase any of the myriads of requirements management software in the market.

    So why are you so hung up on learning IBM Rational RequisitePro as if that makes you a business analyst?

  3. Learn a marketable skill

    One of the biggest challenges facing professionals is the right choice of a career. I know that because I get asked that question every day

    I’ve seen professionals get stuck with programming skills that are not marketable like mainframe programming or C/C++.

    In one instance, a C/C++ programmer with a computer science college degree after being unemployable for 3 years got the very first job he interviewed for … after I coached him on C#, ASP.NET and .NET Framework.

    His mistake that of failing to learn a marketable skill. The good news is that it only cost him a few months to rectify that mistake. And, once he fixed that, his career was back online again!

Here is my last advise to you on this point, make sure that you are pragmatic and not ideological about your career choices.

If it is looking like you are getting stuck on the path you are on, carefully evaluate all the other alternatives available to you.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/02/17/oracle-or-ms-access-which-is-better/feed/ 6 What Personality Types Are DBAs? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/12/what-personality-types-are-dbas/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/12/what-personality-types-are-dbas/#comments Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:03:52 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3067

What Personality Types Are DBAs?

What Personality Types Are DBAs?


This post about the personality types of database administrators (DBAs) is in response to Sandra’s question.

Sandra, thank you for taking the time to tweet a number of my posts, I appreciate you :-)

Personality types like the Jung Myers-Briggs Type are used to describe the psychological characteristics of an individual.

For example, the famous Myers-Briggs has 16 personality types grouped as: Extroversion vs. Introversion, Intuiting vs. Sensing, Thinking vs. Feeling, and Judging vs. Perceiving.

In this post, I will describe some of the personality types of database administrators (DBAs).

  • Detail Oriented

    DBAs need to pay detailed attention to the performance of all their databases.

    This attention is required because production databases need to be monitored constantly for changes in performance, security holes and reliability.

    For example, if a DBA publishes a script without reviewing its performance, the production database may slow down unacceptably or even crash!

  • Reliable

    DBAs have well-established work habits. They typically come to work early and leave late.They often support the production system on evenings and weekends.

    The entire organization may depend on the DBA to support and keep their databases running at all times, so DBAs have to be reliable and available especially when they are on call.

    Finally, DBAs are timely or punctual and they plan their work out into the week because they often have a routines or a series of tasks to perform on a daily or weekly basis.

  • Protective

    DBAs are protective of their charge and they dislike other non-DBAS running scripts directly on their databases without their supervision.

    DBAs will go to lengths to protect the integrity of their data. They will execute manual scripts in transactions, carefully verify the results before they commit results or rollback their database operation.

    DBAs may get quite upset if someone performs an unauthorized action on their database even when that action is harmless. In other words, their database systems is protected turf or off-limits!

    DBAs take the view that if anything that can go wrong, it will go wrong … so they are always taking extra precautions or backups before making changes just in case something goes wrong on their database!

  • Analytical & Handson

    DBAs are very handson and pragmatic folks who are not afraid to get their hands dirty by any chance.

    In answer to a problem, challenge or threat facing the database systems, they will often roll up their sleeves, formulate a hypotheses and start researching causes by querying log files, executing sql scripts, restoring and analyzing backups etc.

    DBAs typically review all the stored procedures or sql scripts submitted by database developers or computer programmers for compliance, performance or safety considerations.

    Imagine poring over the equivalent of 90 pages of printed stored procedure scripts on a daily basis?

  • Strong Technical Mastery

    DBAs have strong technical mastery and are highly skilled at relational database design, database development, database maintenance or administration, server or network administration and programming.

    DBAs frequently have to write custom database stored procedures or scripts using languages like C/C++, Perl, Python, C# or VBScript!

While these are not all of the personality traits of a DBA, it is time to an informed guess as to the personality type of a DBA using Myers-Briggs.

The personality type of a DBA is: ISTJ Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging).

Let’s take a look at what this means on the Myers-Briggs scale:

  1. Introverted – likes to work alone, seeks to understand the world, prefers depth over breadth
  2. Sensing – trusts facts and data, accepts the world as it is, prefers practicality
  3. Thinking – is detached, logical, factual, causal, consistent and follows a given set of rules
  4. Judging – gains control through planning, focuses on results

If you are interested, click here to take the Myers-Briggs personality test.

What is your personality type on the Myers-Briggs scale or any other?


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/01/12/what-personality-types-are-dbas/feed/ 0 The Entry Level Requirements For Database Jobs http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/08/24/entry-level-requirements-for-database-jobs/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/08/24/entry-level-requirements-for-database-jobs/#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:09:12 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2985

in demand database jobs

in demand database jobs

This post answers a question submitted to [Ask IT Career Coach], a Career Advice Column that offers practical answers, help or solutions for your most challenging career situations.

What Are The Entry Level Requirements For Database Professional Jobs?

A reader from Rockville, Maryland wants to become a database professional and is concerned about age-based preferences, discrimination, educational qualifications and entry level hiring requirements for database professional jobs!

What is your opinion regarding online it degrees? More specifically, Master’s degrees in database technology?

Eons of time ago, I took a bunch of Y2K programming courses in college (Assembler, COBOL, PL/1 and the like) and almost became a computer programmer.

As life has it, I pursued a different career. Now towards the twilight of a profession that is in decline, I reconsider working in IT again.

My degrees are in Psychology, not computer science, but I am considering an online master’s degree in database technology as an efficient way into a field with growth prospects.

My principal concern is regarding employers: 1) with multiple non-computer degrees in Psychology combined with a Master’s degree in an IT field be seen as competitive against computer science graduates?

2) Is there a preference for younger, college graduates in entry level jobs rather than 2nd career baby boomers?

What Are Employers Looking For In Entry-Level Database Jobs?

Educational Requirements for Entry-Level Database Jobs

The question is: “how do non-IT degrees compare to computer science degrees“?

My answer is that the primary concern of employers is not your number of IT degrees or non IT degrees but your practical ability to work with databases.

In other words, you are asking the wrong question because getting more database degrees does not satisfy employers. What satisfies hiring managers is practical database development or management skills.

Practical database development or management is not the core focus of computer science or information technology colleges. Because these institutions focus on teaching the abstract science or passing on the theoretical knowledge.

However employers are not hiring for theoretical knowledge because that is mostly relevant in the academic world!

What employers are hiring for is extensive hands-on practical skills and experience in modern database management software including MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server or Microsoft Access.

Age-based Requirements for Entry Level Database Jobs

Your age can only stop you from getting hired if you are incompetent at what you do!

If you are just average, you will get a job regardless of your age. If you have excellent skills or hands-on experience, you will be able to market yourself at a high billing rate regardless of your age!

Besides, focusing on your age is a sure way to waste your time or energy because there is nothing that you can do about your age!

However, there is a lot that you can do about your skills or your level of competence and that should always be your primary focus!

Just so you know, the Information Technology (IT) Industry is a talent driven, performance hungry, skills intensive field.

In other words, your only concern should be to keep your skills relevant, sharp or marketable.

Just do these things and you will always be employable in the database or technology world!

Database Professionals Career Advice Column

In this post, I answered the question of what employers are looking for in entry-level database professional jobs.

If you have any question about this, be sure to post it as a comment on this page and I would answer it for you.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/08/24/entry-level-requirements-for-database-jobs/feed/ 2 7 Top Database Careers In High Demand http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/23/top-database-careers-in-high-demand/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/23/top-database-careers-in-high-demand/#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:23:44 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2852

database careers in demand

database careers in demand

The 7 Top, In-Demand Database Careers

Database skills are foundational to jobs in the IT Industry.

By that, I mean whether you’re a business analyst, software tester, project manager, software developer or even a web designer, you’ll be using relational database and sql query writing skills at some time in your career.

Database or SQL skills are also important because they position you for multiple careers paths ranging from that of the database developer to the data mining professional.

Career Paths for Database Professionals

Here is a comprehensive list of database career paths and their respective roles, duties, responsibilities and skill sets.

  1. Relational Database Developer Career

    This is one of the foundational database careers in the sense that you can hardly qualify for other database career path without a strong relational database design & development foundation.

    Database developers are responsible for designing, architecting or developing relational databases using a database development tool like Microsoft Access, SQL Server, MySQL or Oracle.

  2. SQL Developer / Query Writer Career

    This is the another foundational database career in the sense that you will need strong SQL query writing skills regardless of your role, job or designation in the IT Industry.

    SQL Developers or Query Writers are typically responsible for updating, deleting, creating or manipulating the data contained in relational databases using a database programming or query language known as SQL.

    There are several dialects of SQL marketed by database vendors and each dialect is executed in the database using an administrative front-end tool like SQL Server’s T-SQL Management Studio.

  3. Database Administrator (DBA) Careers

    DBAs are responsible for keeping the database up and running for the company’s operations.

    DBAs are also responsible for installing, configuring and maintaining the entire database infrastructure or platform in their organizations.

    In addition, DBAs secure their databases from unauthorized access, manage the storage available on databases and optimize their performance.

    DBAs are found in organizations that store and maintain their own data in-house using relational database management systems like SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL.

  4. The Report Writer Career

    Report Writer Career paths are equally important in the database industry.

    Report Writers need to have strong relational database and SQL query writing or development skills.

    The Report Writer’s responsibility includes designing, developing, scheduling and distributing database reports.

    Report Writers utilize tools like Crystal Report Writer, Business Objects, Microsoft Access or SQL Server Reporting Services for their work.

    Report Writers also tend to spend a good amount of time collecting requirements or presenting their reports to stakeholders, executives, management, business analysts or software developers.

  5. Data Analyst Career

    The Data Analyst career is frequently confused for a purely statistical career path.

    Data Analysis roles actually utilize SQL query writing, relational database development and statistical data analysis skills.

    In the IT industry, the information accessed and analyzed by data analysts resides in relational databases. So, data analysts have to also master the relational database and sql query writing path of their careers as well … and not just the statistical skills.

    A lot of people struggle with the distinctions between purely statistical careers and the database analyst careers … don’t be one of those!

  6. The Data Warehousing / Business Intelligence (BI) Career

    BI and Data Warehousing careers require skillsets that are almost opposite to that of the relational database developer.

    While traditional database developers focus on their normalization skills, data warehouse / BI professionals do the exact opposit by developing enterprise, de-normalized databases.

    Another key difference is that while traditional database developers typically create Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) databases, data warehousing / BI professionals focus on building Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) databases.

    The BI / Data Warehousing professional’s responsibilities also include creating and delivering multi-dimensional reporting tools using Business Intelligence tools like Oracle’s Business Intelligence (BI) or Microsoft’s SQL Server Buisness Intelligence platform.

    From a responsibility standpoint, the data warehousing / BI professional is responsible for aggregating the data from multiple corporate databases (developed by database developers) into enterprise, corporate databases.

  7. The Data Mining Career

    Data Mining careers require a rigorous background, education or training in specialized computer-based data mining algorithms or techniques.

    Data Mining professionals run algorithms like Neural Networks, Classification, Regression, Segmenattion, Association or Sequence Analysis algorithms on large databases.

    Traditionally, data mining professionals had to have a strong background in mathematics, statistics and computer science because they often had to create data mining algorithms from scratch!

    But these days, vendors like Microsoft are placing analytics and even data mining within the hands of every motivated database professional through out-of-the-box data mining algorithms like those of SQL Server’s Data Mining Suite.

The foundational skills required for database careers are taught in the SQL Boot Camp and the additional statistical data analysis requirements for data analysts taught in the Data Analysts Boot Camp.

If you are interested in gaining one of the most verstaile IT career skills, you should register for either the SQL Boot Camp or the Data Analysts Boot Camp (which includes all the courses in the SQL Boot Camp and additional statistical, data analysis training.)

The only thing left … is to take your SQL / Data Analysts training knowing that relational database development, SQL query writing and statistical data analysis skills will help advance your future for a long time!


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/23/top-database-careers-in-high-demand/feed/ 3 Database Careers – Why Learn SQL Or RDBMS? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/10/27/database-careers-why-learn-sql-or-rdbms/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/10/27/database-careers-why-learn-sql-or-rdbms/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:04:08 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2650

Learn the Right Way!

Learn the Right Way!

Database careers are a mystery to those on the outside! This is partly because the work done by database professionals is not as visible as that done by professionals like business analysts or project managers.

So, in this series, I will discuss database or SQL careers by answering questions such as:

  • What do database / SQL jobs involve?

  • What is the database / SQL industry like?

  • What are the career options for database or SQL professionals?

  • What challenges do database or SQL professionals face?

  • Why would anyone recommend database or SQL careers?

I would start by recommending that you master working with relational database and SQL

Why Do I Recommend Learning SQL / RDBMS?

  1. Shorter Learning Curve – SQL and Relational Database careers in Microsoft Access, MySQL and SQL Server have a shorter learning curve compared to business analyst or computer programming careers!

    So, if you are just entering the workforce and you don’t have strong software development or business analysis or project management skills, I recommend that you start learning SQL.

    Click here for more information on how to learn SQL or Relational Databases.

  2. More Portable Skill – SQL or Database professionals are employed in most industries because databases are essential to business operations.

    SQL professionals are usually not restricted to a specific industry or domain. SQL skills can also be ported from one platform like MySQL to another like SQL Server in a reasonable amount of time.

    One good thing about mastering SQL or Relational Database is that your knowledge stays relevant over long periods of time.

    That’s why participants in the SQL Boot Camp build strong relational database skills as a foundation for their long-term SQL or database careers.

    Click here for more information on the career portability.

  3. Constantly In Demand – My consulting career accelerated when I mastered a relational database product known as Microsoft Access in the nineties!

    Microsoft Access made database design and development so easy that everyone including office users, business analysts, data analysts, project managers and business users all started creating databases.

    The databases created by these power users worked for a while until they started failing because of poor relational database design.

    That is when I usually got called … to clean up the mess made by everyone else!

    Now the database industry has changed. Microsoft Access is no longer the de-facto office database because corporations now store data in enterprise databases like SQL Server.

    So, you need a strong understanding of relational database design and development for enterprise database jobs.

    So, click here to start learning proper relational database design and development principles.

  4. Lighter Technical Skill – SQL or Relational Database skills are sometimes required for business analyst job openings

    SQL / RDBMS skills are also considered required skills for software development, data analyst, report writing and business intelligence jobs!

    SQL / RDBMS are either a “nice to have” or required skill because tech workers are expected to manipulate or interact with databases without asking for assistance!

Note that, lack of good SQL or Relational Database skills can create problems for your career because it’s a frequently used technical skill! So, click here to get started … why waste more time?


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/10/27/database-careers-why-learn-sql-or-rdbms/feed/ 0 What Is The Job Of A Report Writer? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/08/03/what-is-the-job-of-a-report-writer/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/08/03/what-is-the-job-of-a-report-writer/#comments Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:14:09 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2142

Ask IT Career Coach

Ask IT Career Coach

Can one make a career or earn a living out of just writing SQL Reports?

Considering that there’s more to the SQL Report Writer’s job than just writing reports, the answer is yes!

The following question was posted by a report writer who is trying to get a handle on the duties, roles, responsibilities or functions of a SQL Report Writer.

Can I Make A Career Out Of SQL Report Writing?

Can one make a career out of just writing SQL Reports?

If so, do you think corporations are getting lazy by overpaying SQL Report Writers $65K+ just for writing Reports.

I develop database documents, flow charts, append revisions.. When approved i create the sql, the error checking, import required data for setup… Move on to programming … building database connections, run load performance tools (custom built).. modify tables as needed, modify documentation as needed.. bench mark the sites and move on to the next…

I failed to mention the part where i build custom reports based on the clients needs, exporting to csv/excel/data dumps for other programs/complex dump algorythms

Does the SQL Report Writer have to care about the semantics of database design or the value of the data stored?

The Job Of A SQL Report Writer

The SQL Report Writer’s role is often misunderstood as just writing reports.

The reality is that a SQL Report Writer’s job is often more involved!

The Report Writer has to know the value of the data, where it is coming from, how to get at or extract it, how to clean it and verify that it is accurate and how to present information correctly using charts, graphs, aggregates, statistical computations, etc.

  1. The Report Writer’s duties includes optimizing or fine tuning slow running reports. The performance of a report may degrade over time as additional data is loaded into tables or as more tables are joined to get at the required data.

    A report may degrade in performance over a period of time or run slowly because the joins are inefficient or because the sql statements need to be optimized or because the data structures (indexes) used in the tables need to be optimized or for other reasons.

    Whatever the situation, the Report Writer is responsible for monitoring the performance of reports and taking corrective action to optimize or improve the performance of the reports when necessary.

  2. The Report Writer’s job role includes reconciling discrepancies between the expectations of data managers and information presented in their reports. A report writer has to spend part of their time validating or proving to decision managers that the data presented on their results are valid or accurate.

  3. The Enterprise Report Writer is responsible for writing the reports needed for different teams, managers, decision makers or departments.

    Some of the reports may use computed or aggregated columns (averages, sums or statistical computations) and the report writer has to write subqueries, nested queries and complex sql statements to present the required data.

  4. The Report Writer may have to access, import, extract, transfer or load data from heterogeneous data sources (Oracle, AS/400, SQL SERVER, TEXT FILES, Microsoft Access).

    As enterprises grow, they collect data across a network of legacy mainframe applications, geographic boundaries, time zones, and corporate divisions, data warehouses and databases.

  5. The Report Writer’s job description includes presenting timely, up to date or current data. This is especially important for time sensitive reports or nightly reports that need to run successfully before the day shift starts or reports that are compiled at the end of a quarter or business cycle.

    Time sensitive reports include monthly statements (bank statements) or reports that need to be printed or mailed by a certain date or reports that need to be available early in the morning for a trading / securities desk or financial / investment team.

Yes, there are lot of reasons why a company will hire dedicated SQL Report Writers and Pay them Well :-)

This post answers a question about “Making A Career Out Of SQL Report Writing”!

If you have any Question about your career, Post IT as a comment on this page and I will be sure to answer it for you!


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/08/03/what-is-the-job-of-a-report-writer/feed/ 0 How To Become A SQL Report Writer http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/07/16/how-to-become-a-sql-report-writer/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/07/16/how-to-become-a-sql-report-writer/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:09:57 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2050

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The report writer as a key member of the database, sql or data analytics team is responsible for creating, validating, distributing and documenting the reports required by an organization.

Report Writers work with various types of relational databases, sql query writing and report writing tools because they need to retrieve, aggregate and present data from different databases including Oracle, SQL Server or ODBC Compliant Databases.

Since it is not practical or feasible for Report Writers to learn or master all the available database reporting tools, they specialize in a few and then learn any additional reporting tool come along on the job!

Report Writers can port report writing skills from one Reporting Platform to another because Reporting tools are based on these major components:

  1. Report Writing Databases:  Report Writing Databases act as repositories of the company’s reporting data. The data needed for report writing projects may be stored in data warehouses, proprietary databases, relational databases or ODBC compliant databases.

    Report Writers usually have to create Reports based on data distributed across multiple databases or tables. Because writing all the SQL queries, sub queries, joins, aggregate queries, rollups, etc. can get quite involved, they need to have strong SQL Skills, database skills and data analysis skills.

  2. SQL Queries: Report Writers have to identify the tables that contain the required data based on the reporting requirements handed to them.

    After identifying Reporting Requirements, they may have to write complex SQL queries to extract the information, trends, or patterns contained in the data. The final query is often saved for re-use as a stored procedure.

Report Writer Duties

Report Writers work closely with end-users, stakeholders or management to gather and document reporting requirements and to test or validate their reports after.

Here are some of the roles and responsibilties of Report Writers:

  1. SQL Data Retrieval: Report Writers need to write SQL code for extracting, summarizing, aggregating or presenting data from one or more database systems.

  2. Data Validation: Report Writers need to validate the results of their SQL Queries with the end users because of discrepancies that may exist between what the reports say and what the users expect!

  3. Data Presentation: Report Writers present their results in the form of tables, pie charts, bar charts and other plots or diagrams. The data presentation duties of a Report Writer is facilitated with Reporting Tools like SQL Server Reporting Services, Crystal Reports or Microsoft Access Reports.

Report Writer Careers

Report Writers use tools that they are familiar with to retrieve data from different databases including Oracle, SQL Server or ODBC Compliant Databases.

It is important to note that a Report Writer who is skilled in one tool like SQL Server Reporting Services and strong in the essentials of relational database design, development and sql query writing can connect to most databases (Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft Access, AS 400, JD Edwards), retrieve the data to SQL Server and then write the Reports.

Since it is not practical or feasible for Report Writers to learn or master all the database reporting tools out their, all that they need to do, is specialize in a few reporting tools and then learn any new reporting tools for their specific job situation.

A skilled Report Writers can be placed in a variety of positions including:

  1. Sql Server Reporting Services Report Writer

  2. Ms Access Report Writer

  3. Crystal Report Writer

  4. PL SQL/Oracle Forms/Report Writer

  5. SQL Report Writer

  6. Hyperion Report Writer

  7. Cognos Report Writer

  8. IBM COBOL Report Writer

  9. Visual FoxPro Report Writer

  10. Database Report Writer

  11. AS400 Report Writer

Report Writer Training – How to Become a SQL Report Writer

Report Writers may choose only one of these two training options, based on their career aspirations or job requirements.

  1. SQL Boot Camp: The SQL Boot Camp provides you with all the database development and sql query writing skills needed for Report Writing jobs.

  2. Data Analyst Boot Camp: The Data Analyst Boot Camp provides you with all the database development, sql query writing, data analysis and statistical analysis skills needed for Report Writing jobs.

In this article, I discussed the skill requirements, duties, roles, responsibilities and career paths available to Report Writers.

If you have any question about becoming a Report Writer, go ahead and post it as a comment at the end of this post and I will be glad to answer it for you!


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