Re: Adding to database skillset

An Access certification from anyone but Microsoft would be, IMNSHO, not
worth much and Microsoft has not offered an Access developer certification
in the last several years. An Access certification, regardless of its
source, is not going to be much help in getting a job these days. As has
already been said, there are few jobs that are "pure Access" as there were
back in the mid-1990s.

I apologize that I was not clear -- I was talking about a certification from
the server DB vendor for whatever server DB looks promising to you.
Probably the most widely-used commercial server DB is Microsoft SQL Server,
but Sybase, IBM, Oracle, and others are popular. The more popular the DB,
the more jobs there will be, but the more competition there will be for the
jobs, too. If you'd like to use your Access, however, the Microsoft SQL
Server certification would likely provide a better opportunity.

Lyle has astutely observed that Microsoft is trying to cast Access as a
"database for the masses," which will further demean the standing of Access
developers in the workplace. He is also correct that "fixing" some
databases is a frustrating waste of time; I have turned down jobs after
determining what the client already had and that the clients were not
willing to start over. I hope that I did it politely, but better
not-so-polite than to wade into the quagmire and then be blamed for the "pig
not being beautiful despite my trying to apply lipstick to it."

NOTE: If you haven't been "initiated" to this sort of situation, it's often
proposed as "The database is 90% done, just needs to be finished and a few
reports added -- shouldn't take you over a couple of weeks." (And they'd
often like you to commit to a time deadline or a fixed price, by the way.)

Careful questioning often reveals that the requirements (what the DB should
do) were never documented, so any "percent complete" is totally wishful
thinking as no one has the remotest idea what "100% complete" would be, and
that it is almost impossible to determine what has been completed and is
working (if anything) even if you did know what it was supposed to do.

Whenever I am approached about such a situation, I find that I "have other
commitments that prevent my taking on any additional work just now" and
"don't know anyone who I'd recommend for the job." You can translate the
last statement, more accurately, "I don't know anyone _to_ whom I'd
recommend your project." <GRIN>

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP




<tjmoses@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1154521724.144968.139820@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Larry Linson wrote:
<tjmoses@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote

> Do entry level SQL Server jobs exist,
> or this another skill that you might
> pick up along the way while doing
> another job?

I am not a "great believer" in "certification" being a valid indicator of
being well-qualified in particular areas (it does tend to be a valid
indicator of being at least _minimally qualified_ in the area certified).

Microsoft Certification in Microsoft products (e.g., MS SQL Server) can,
however, sometimes open doors to jobs that might otherwise remain closed.

Access not only is good for little stuff as ManningFan states, but makes
excellent client applications for server DB backends -- even those with
enormous numbers of records. Thus, it won't hurt your chances at all that
you are at least intermediate level in Access. In fact, SQL Server may
be a
good approach to getting into Access development "by the back door,"
rather
than vice-versa.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

I actually completed a Access Certification from Learning Tree, and
have been working with Access for about 6 years now. The amount of
Access development work (other than basic queries) in my current job
has completely gone away. So ultimately I was trying to gauge if this
is still a marketable skill, & what are the next systems I should try
to learn.

Thank you for your help.



.

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