“New year, new start” – I’ve heard that saying several times and it could mean the start of many different things.

A new diet, a new fitness regime, a new job or complete career change. Giving up a vice, a new qualification, a new life – there will be others I’m sure.

I don’t usually do new years resolutions but this year I have set myself some new targets and they are related to my profession as a DBA.

SQL Server Certification

I wrote about this before in my posts on SQL Server 2012 certification

Whether you agree or disagree as to whether there is any benefit to certification is your opinion and I have certainly changed my mind on many occasions. I have decided that one of my goals this year will be to study and sit the exams.

Whether I do all of them this year remains to be seen. There are five to pass if I want to get to MCSE but I would hope that I can at least get to MCSA status this year and complete to MCSE the following year.

At the time of writing this post, there seems to be a delay with the release of the exam guide from Microsoft Press for exam 70-461. I have started to look at 70-462 instead as the exam kit is available to buy and I really wanted to get some material that contained practice questions that I could test myself with.

If you are working towards certification yourself or have experience with another SQL Server qualification, it would be great to hear from you. Any tips on approaches to study and revision would be gratefully received. 🙂

Blogging at DBA Diaries

My blog DBA Diaries is now a little over a year old and on a personal front, it has been really enjoyable building it and watching it grow. Traffic to the site is increasing month on month and its been really great to engage with readers who have found my site and commented.

I’m very keen to grow the site in this coming year and have a big list of things that I want to do with it. As well as ensuring that I contribute regularly, I wanted to give the site a new look. I use Thesis which is a great theme for WordPress but I have only touched the surface with what it is capable of.

Writing SQL articles for other sites

I’m looking for sites that I can write articles for. I’ve found the blogging experience really enjoyable and I want to write more and contribute to the SQL community in other ways.

Why have I written a blog post about this?

It’s part of my approach. If I write things down then I am more likely to do them instead of procrastinating over them. The fact that I am broadcasting it puts that little bit of pressure on me to work through it.

Everyone is different and this is me trying to ensure that I am focused on the goals I have set myself. I do fear that I may have given myself too much to do but we will see. The important thing will be to have a clear plan and be organized.

So what about you?

Have you set yourself any personal goals for your career this year? I’d be really interested to know what those are.