ITCareerCoach Training - Coaching » online report development training 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 Learn How to Make Knowledge or Skills Work http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/24/learn-how-to-make-knowledge-or-skills-work/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/24/learn-how-to-make-knowledge-or-skills-work/#comments Fri, 25 Mar 2011 01:55:38 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3147

Make your Knowledge or Skills Work

Make your Knowledge or Skills Work


There is such a wealth of information out there that it can be overwhelming to someone trying to figure out what they need to learn.

I mean, when you look in your local bookstore you will see a huge section of books to help, but what you won’t find is the insider information that teaches you exactly the most profitable techniques or what you absolutely must know.

You also won’t find any resources that will give you the inside information about what you need to know so that you stand out from the crowd.

You also won’t find the inside information about what to expect at information technology job interviews and more importantly – how to answer them!

Our online online career coaching or online training classes provides this information and more.

And not only that, but it is structured in such a way that it is easy to learn. Each step builds on what you learn in the previous step so you never get overwhelmed.

Here is how we help make knowledge and skills work.

Learn Whenever – Why Not Learn At Your Own Time?

You may login to our learning management system (LMS) and take your training at a time that is convenient for you.

And you don’t have to worry about following our timetable or rearranging your schedule to meet our class schedules ever!

Open Enrollment – Let the Scheduling Work for You

Registration for our online classes is always open and because of this, you may enroll at any time.

This is quite unlike other vendors that force you to enroll on specific days or restrict enrollments to their own schedule.

Pause & Resume – Take A Break When You Want

You may pause or resume your training at will and you will never be penalized for doing that.

Use this to catch up with pressing work or life commitments and for taking vacations or time off.

This is in contrast to rigid classroom training that forces you to start or finish your at the same time as everyone else!

Progress Monitoring – How Are You Doing?

As you complete learning activities like quizzes and assignments, your grade is recorded in real-time on an online report card that doubles as your virtual transcript.

Your online report card gives a measurable, objective assessment of how you are doing at a glance.

Virtual Coaching – What Do You Want To Learn?

Your ability to post questions for your course instructor as you learn or progress through your material differentiates our training from other vendors that dump videos on you or leave you to figure it out by yourself!

Our instructors do not walk away because online collaboration is built right into our learning management system (LMS) as part of our core service offering and not as an afterthought!

Real Learning – Resources For Work

Did you know that you still retain login access to our learning management system even after your training is completed?

This access allows you to watch your training videos as often as you want or use those videos as a reference resource on the job!

For Utter Beginners or Experienced Professionals

Our classes take you from novice or utter beginner to advanced level topics in a step by step fashion with each lesson building on the topics taught in previous lessons so you don’t feel overwhelmed or dumped on!

We make no assumptions about your background and that is why we also teach all the pre-requisite knowledge as part our classes.

Practice Tests – Better or More Effective Online Learning

Use the online quizzes integrated into our learning management system (LMS) to improve your retention, comprehension or recall for work or job interview purposes.

Retrieval based tests have been scientifically proven to boost your ability to learn new information and that is why we recommend or use them.

In other words, taking our practice tests will help reduce the learning curve typically associated with mastering new concepts.

Assignments – Bridging the Gap Between Knowledge and Practice

We provide assignments similar to those performed on the job so that you get handson practice at solving problems.

Assignments matter because they help you practice putting your knowledge or skills to work in a safe, virtual environment before you tackle them in the real world.

Bridging that gap between what you know and what you can do, helps you become better, more confident and successful at work!

Comprehensive Learning – Stay Ahead of the Technology Curve

Information Technology (IT) skills easily become rusty or out-dated because of the rapid pace of technological change.

Besides, information changes so quickly and so often that keeping up with is a challenge for everyone.

But now, with our comprehensive online curriculum, you may enroll and catchup with what you really need to know just by signing up for a class!

Social Learning – Research Best Practices

While our private discussion groups are for you and the course instructors only, our public study groups are for you and other participants registered for the same course.

Use our public discussion groups for researching best practices employed at other organizations or for learning from other participants who may contribute helpful solutions challenges or problems facing you at work.

Affordable, Convenient & Effective Learning

Our online coaching or training offers are all based on the same premise:

Anyone (regardless) of their background should be able to learn from any location in the world at any time of the day or night that fits their geographic, life or work commitments.

  • We make learning more affordable by combining the information you need including both entry level and advanced topics in one course.

  • Our private, web-based, learning management system allows you to enroll when you want or pause and resume your training at your own convenience.

  • Using practice tests which have been scientifically proven to boost your ability to retain, recall or understand new material, we make your learning more effective.

Right now, we are fulfilling coaching and training services for a world-wide information technology audience which includes course participants from USA, Canada, UK, Australia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, South Africa and several other countries … so why don’t you join us?

Let us help make your knowledge or skills work. Our secret is the sequence: what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and for how long, so that it all make sense.

So, why not enroll right now in an online career coaching or online training class and learn how to make your knowledge or skills work?


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/03/24/learn-how-to-make-knowledge-or-skills-work/feed/ 0 A Step By Step Guide For Creating SQL Reports http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/03/15/a-step-by-step-guide-for-creating-sql-reports/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/03/15/a-step-by-step-guide-for-creating-sql-reports/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:21:10 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2875

A Step by Step Guide

A Step by Step Guide


While a fair amount of the work that goes into creating, maintaining or optimizing databases is hidden from decision makers, the work that goes into creating reports is immediately visible to management and so, must be given a good deal of attention.

This post is written as a guide for creating SQL based reports. It helps ensure that high quality, valid, reliable reports are created by report writers.

After reading this post, you would have a formal process for creating SQL reports and a step by step guide for reporting on data contained in AS400, Oracle, SQL Server, Microsoft Access or some other database platform.

A Step By Step Guide For Creating SQL Reports

Here is a step by step process for creating SQL Reports …

  • Step One: Gather and Document the Requirements for your Report

  • Step Two: Find out where you will be pulling your data from (AS400, Oracle, SQL Server, etc)

  • Step Three: Write the SQL Queries for extracting your data from the database

  • Step Four: Present and format your SQL Results in a Reporting Tool

  • Step Five: Distribute your SQL Based Reports to the end users

Gather Or Document Requirements

Considering the complexity of reporting requirements, you may need to first document the requirements of your project before you start developing the reports.

Writing a requirements document would help you ensure that you understand your users, their reporting needs and the operational or business environment.

A requirements document will also help validate the robustness of your reporting solution upfront … before you start developing the reports.

How To Access Reporting Data From Heterogeneous Databases?

Many organizations store there data in more than one type of database which poses a challenge from a skills stand-point.

If your organization uses AS400, Oracle and SQL Server to store data and you’ve been asked to write a report that draws from all of them, you may find that challenging because each type of database uses a different flavor of SQL.

If this is your situation, then you need to start with the database that you’re the most familiar with (Microsoft Access, SQL Server, etc.) and see if you can connect to all the other databases from that.

Note that many database systems like SQL Server or MS Access offer you the ability to access the data contained in other types of databases easily.

How To Design Or Format Reports?

If you are asked to design a SQL based report that presents data in tables or charts with formatting of page titles, page numbering, column headers, sub-totals, totals, page breaks or more … here is what you can do

  • You can choose a reporting tool like Crystal Reports or SQL Server Reporting Services or Microsoft Access.

    Out of these three, Microsoft Access Reports may be the easiest to learn or use in formatting or designing your reports.

  • You can develop or code your reports as a web-page. Note that coding or developing your report using a web-development language like PHP or ASP.NET is a flexible but skill intensive approach to creating reports.

    Using a web development language like ASP.NET or PHP, you can execute SQL statements on a database and then return the results formatted into tables, columns, charts, etc, on your web-page.

    You can also paginate the results or add advanced searching or filtering options. When you write all the code yourself, you have complete control over what you can do or create with your SQL reports.

How To Deliver Or Distribute Reports?

Depending on the organization you work for, you may have to distribute your reports based on the preferences of your users.

For example, while some business users expect their reports to be printed and placed on their desk, others may prefer that their reports be distributed by e-mail.

You can choose between the several possible types of report delivery options including PDF, Microsoft Excel or even deliver your report as a HTML web page.

How To Schedule Reports?

Finally, you also have to decide what reporting frequency will be most appropriate for your situation (daily, weekly, monthly, end of year), etc.

Some reports take a while to prepare or consume a fair amount of server resources, so they need to be done nightly or on weekends.

Others like tax or payroll reports may need to be prepared weekly or monthly.

The takeaway is that you need to be mindful of each type of report and verify when or how often you need to prepare it.

So, now you have a set of steps for preparing reports. Start by gathering your reporting requirements. Next, determine the sources of data that will be presented on the report. Then create the reports using SQL. Finally, format and distribute the reports to the appropriate users.


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]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/03/15/a-step-by-step-guide-for-creating-sql-reports/feed/ 2 Giving Effective Feedback to IT Professionals http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/01/10/giving-effective-feedback-to-it-professionals/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/01/10/giving-effective-feedback-to-it-professionals/#comments Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:06:42 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2756

We Give Feedback!

We Give Feedback!

One of the challenges of self teaching, self learning, CBT courses or traditional class room training is the lack of personalized, one on one performance review or feedback.

Training courses where both instructors and trainees can post or respond to questions are few and far in between.

This is the case even when you pay thousands of dollars for traditional class room training!

This is because training providers typically have an in-flexible curriculum and a set amount of training time to communicate their message!

  • Restricted Training Time: In traditional training courses, you have to learn all the information in a few days.

    Though the trainers may answer a couple of questions daily, they cannot take questions from everyone and also hope to cover their entire training curriculum by the end of the week!

    The good news is: we don’t have the restraints of an inflexible training curriculum or a set training time :-)

    You can login to our Web-Based Learning Management System and post questions or discussions on your own time and our course instructors can answer them on their own time.

    Our course instructors are not trying to rush you through the entire training curriculum in a week, so they can afford to engage your questions on a one to one, personalized basis!

  • College Tutoring: In traditional colleges, instructors get to know their students personally and they review student assignments before assigning grades.

    We have adopted the same learning process in our web-based, online learning management system.

    Each of your hands-on assignments are reviewed by a live, human course instructor before they are graded!

    In our web-based, online learning management system, the instructor may choose to post a discussion, comment or review of your assignment … just for you and not for anyone else.

    • Why Do We Incorporate Feedback In Training?

    So, the question is: knowing that feedback is expensive and time intensive, why do we still choose to include it in our training … at no additional cost?

    • We Make Training Interactive: we believe that more interactive training makes for a better experience.

      We emulate the learning that happens in the real world, where you are always receiving feedback from your bosses, co-workers, customers or friends.

    • We Make Training Effective: we believe that personalized, one on one training makes for better learning … especially in the information technology industry.

      Passive learning like the type you find in a lot of CBT (computer based training) or even information technology text books are usually too boring or tedious to be effective.

    • We Make Training Useful: we believe that IT professionals need more real-world feedback during training … before using their skills on the job!

      It is usually better to receive feedback in training because that is the only time when you are 100% certain that you can ask for feedback and improve or act on it without any adverse consequences!

    This post discusses how we make our online, web-based training more effective, interactive and useful by incorporating one on one personalized feedback or performance reviews.

    If you have any questions about our courses or online training services, be sure to contact us and we will answer it for you!


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    ]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/01/10/giving-effective-feedback-to-it-professionals/feed/ 0 Knowledge Workers Accept The Challenge To Be The Best Or Why IT Professionals Feel UnderValued http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/12/02/knowledge-workers-accept-the-challenge-to-be-the-best-or-why-it-professionals-feel-undervalued/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/12/02/knowledge-workers-accept-the-challenge-to-be-the-best-or-why-it-professionals-feel-undervalued/#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:38:35 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/12/02/knowledge-workers-accept-the-challenge-to-be-the-best-or-why-it-professionals-feel-undervalued/

    How you value knowledge tells me a lot about who you are … because knowledge capital is the most important resource in any organization.

    In the digital age, what makes one employee more valuable than the next employee is simply stated … the amount of knowledge, skill, expertise, training and learning they have managed to acquire and put to use.

    Now, managers are not interested in employees that know it all … only in employees that constantly put their knowledge capital to work by solving corporate problems or challenges … those employees are the gold mines in any organization.

    Now, think about it for a moment, if you are a trained, knowledgeable, competent, skilled Information Technology (IT) professional, your resume would display your accomplishments, success stories, skills, training and technical mastery. And because you have all these, you can send your resume anywhere in the the world … and be instantly hired! … just because you are very good at why you do … and you can prove it!

    The singular reason why you, as an IT professional may feel undervalued or wasted in your career is that for some unknown reason … you have made the unconscious mistake of not investing enough of your personal time in improving your skills!

    Here is why technology or software development professionals lag behind in their career:

    Managers Have A “Show Me Proof” Mindset:

    Managers tend to follow a show me proof strategy .. .simply put, you have to demonstrate that you have acquired or mastered a new skill … before you will get a break or the next promotion on the job. So, your manager will pay you more money when you show tangible proof that you have learnt a new skill, you have attended a new training or course, you have mastered a new technology or software development process like UML, Use Cases, Requirements Analysis or Object Oriented Software Development.

    Without tangible proof that you are constantly improving or learning … you may not only be bypassed for new or important opportunities, you will also be more likely than others to be back-burned or fired in a recession.

    Adult To Adult Relationship:

    Several years ago, I was hired first after college into a Fortune 500 company as a Process & Technology manager. During the employee training sessions, I heard a great word that has stuck with me throughout my career … that word is “Adult – To – Adult Relationship“.

    What that word really means, is that your employer wants to forge a new relationship with you, where you are treated as partner or co-business owner even though on paper .. you are just an employee. In the light of this, your employer wants you to take personal responsibility for your career, personal development, initiative or the contribution only you can make to the company … and that is where you may miss the boat!

    Taking personal responsibility for your career means that you need to sit down and draw up a career roadmap of where you want to go in the next 1 year, make a detailed career plan for achieving your career roadmap … and then follow through.

    You need to specify how long it will take you to master each skill or competency needed to perform your job 1 year from now and then personally ensure that you acquire the knowledge, expertise, skills, training or experience needed.

    Some employees fall off the grid at this point by making the mistake of waiting on their manager to take personal responsibility for their IT Training and skills development.

    You Are Only As Valuable As What You Know:

    In today’s competitive digital economy, nobody gets ahead based on their good looks or their family connections or the type of college they attended! Even if you manage to get your foot in the door by “repeating the name of your alma mater three times” at the interview or getting your dad or mum to pull some favors for you … you will only last as long as the next round of corporate cost reduction / cost cutting a.k.a downsizing / layoffs.

    So, there is no getting around it, you simply have to know what you are doing or strive to be the best on your job or just simply play the sorry, loser on your team … the butt of off-handed, not so subtle remarks on the need to shape up or shape out.

    So, what is a knowledge worker to do?

    The Attitude Of A Knowledge Worker:

    Start by recognizing that knowledge is one of the core prerequisites for wealth, personal empowerment and career advancement. Tell yourself this “without knowledge I bring nothing to the table , no usefulness to my team or manager and therefore I may not have a job … and you will being to get the big picture.

    To Be The Best:

    Accept the challenge to be the best … you simply must accept the challenge to be the best at what you do, whether you are a business analyst, a computer programmer, a project manager, database developer or you wear a myriad of hats on the job!

    The problem with individuals who do not accept the challenge to be the best on the job is that, they constantly allow themselves to under-perform because they don’t hold themselves to a high-standard! This may be due to a poor self-image or a feeling of incompetency or a “I could never be that good” mindset.

    Unfortunately, this has a way of proving itself right. If you lower the bar for yourself, you will fulfill the expectations set for under-performers or inevitably shoot yourself in the foot. The saddest part of it is that you cheat yourself by losing out on the opportunity to discover that you are in your own unique way, a gem, a virtuoso, a top performer … who can achieve just like anyone else!

    Take Your Training:

    You have heard it all … you are only as valuable as the knowledge you bring to your team or manager … take personal responsibility for your career development … accept the challenge to be the best at what you do … so, what next?

    No one ever achieved anything much without the help of other people … that is why I’m referring you to these great resources for becoming the best, the most competent professional, the top dog and not the under dog on the job!

    We are now accepting registrations for the next batch of INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BOOT CAMPs … Early Bird Registration Discounts Are Available … Register Now And Use This Discount Code: EarlyBirdCoupon For A Special Discount

    To Register for the Business Analyst Boot Camp Training … Click Here:
    To Register For SQL BOOT CAMP Training (Database Developers, Data Analysts Or SQL Programmers) … Click Here
    To Register For Software Developer Boot Camp Training … Click Here.

    In addition, if you haven’t already done so, read How To Learn Or Master Computer Programming Fast – Book OR How To Learn Or Master Business Analysis Fast – Book.

    If you enjoyed reading this post, you may Click Here To Follow Me On Twitter: when I make the next blog post.


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    ]]>     http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/12/02/knowledge-workers-accept-the-challenge-to-be-the-best-or-why-it-professionals-feel-undervalued/feed/ 0     How To Become A Data Analyst Or Report Writer Or Database Developer http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/11/17/how-to-become-a-data-analyst-or-report-writer-or-database-developer/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/11/17/how-to-become-a-data-analyst-or-report-writer-or-database-developer/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:58:21 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/2008/11/17/how-to-become-a-data-analyst-or-report-writer-or-database-developer/

    Three Different Job Roles

    The database developer job, data analyst job or report writer job are related job roles that may be performed by the same person depending on how the size of the organization.

    In most organizations, the business analyst or software developer starts out performing all three types of jobs. As demand multiplies and the individual begins to feel overwhelmed, the jobs are split … and as time goes … into the three (3) different type of jobs.

    For this reason, anyone performing the duties of a business analyst, software developer, database analyst, report writer or database developer needs to have a strong understanding of each of these job responsibilities as well as the areas of overlap.

    Here is a summary of the responsibilities of each role:

    1. The data analyst gathers, analyzes or models data with the goal of identifying useful information, trends and patterns which may be directly used by management, decision makers or stakeholders.The data analyst works extensively with SQL within the context of the relational database system (RDBMS).

    2. The database developer creates the logical data model comprising of entities and relationships or implements the physical model using the tables, views, queries, stored procedures or relationships needed by the relational database model.

    3. The report writer develops reports used in presenting information queried from one or more tables or databases. They report writers report development is achieved using SQL, relational database development skills and tools like SQL Reporting Services, Crystal Reports, Business Objects or HTML for Intranet / Extranet Online Reporting Solutions.

    The rest of this post presents the tasks or activities typically performed by database developers, database analysts or report writers.


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