New Bulgarian University Archives

Another Group of DBAs Trained

February 28, 2015 By Boris Hristov 1 Comment

Last Saturday the 4rd group of DBA students (and 5th group just from New Bulgarian University) completed their 40-hour DBA training. I have to say(once again) that I am extremely proud of the group! Their motivation for learning(during some of the days we were working for more than 7 hours – they were just not going home…) was almost second to none. Those guys are all actually database professionals – some of them are system engineers who also work with SQL Server, some of them are reporting specialists and some of them are doing both Oracle and SQL Server on a day-to-day basis. It’s always a fun experience for me as trainer to have such a wide variety of skills because it’s not only them that learn a lot. I do too! So huge congratulations to them for taking the course. I feel privileged that I was their trainer and what’s more I am happy that I made them join our SQL community in Bulgaria. That’s 5 more seriously knowledgable people who are going to participate in the user group meetings, come to events and probably decide to speak at some one day! So much great things, huh? 🙂

Another month,
Another SQL Course

October 8, 2014 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

This year is going absolutely great! I have visited and spoken at almost 10 countries, delivered courses for both students and organisations and now I am pleased to announce that I am delivering one more course! This time the focus will be on SQL Server Development. 12 people already enrolled and we will fire this up on 18th of October. The course will be a 40-hour fun, but intensive experience in which the students will learn many, many things ranging from how to write simple queries and stored procedures to how to actually optimise code and make it run fast. Really fast.

Can’t wait to see my new group already! However, there’s quite some work to do before that, so wish me good luck for my session at SQLSaturday #311 in Sofia which is this Saturday and stay tuned for 2 SQLHangouts that are coming in the next 10 days!

Cheers!

Update: A few hours the course ended – an update. I had great time with my students! In those 4 weekends we learned a lot (I also learned a ton from them, trust me) – we started from the basics – what are databases and what TSQL actually is and ended somewhere in the concurrency and performance tuning topics. That is quite a journey and I am extremely proud and happy that we went through it successfully! Now, we all have to move on. I hope and I am sure they will all do well and I am starting my recordings for my second course for Pluralsight. More information soon…

My third group of students!

May 11, 2014 By Boris Hristov 1 Comment

In the last three years I have been honored to have a small group of students(that’s not the university classes that I teach at Sofia University) that I teach in the basics (OK, not only the basics) of SQL Server administration! This year the course passed so quickly it’s mind blowing! 40 hours of quite an intensive training are now behind our backs and I have to say I am really happy with the results accomplished. We started from the basics and ended somewhere in the HA territory which gave the students quite a broad knowledge and experience of what they can do with SQL Server and how they can help their current or future customers/organizations.

Looking forward to next year already.

T-SQL Tuesday #42 Stuff that made me progress

May 12, 2013 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

It’s strange, but I’m loving the fact that my post for T-SQL Tuesday #42 will be so close and related to my previous one for #tsql2sday. So what is technology “X” that had influence on my development in the last years? Hm… let me tell you a story about a technology and a skill that I was relying heavily on(and I still am…) in the last couple of years and that led me to where I am now!

During my years at the university I was a top student! I even won an academic scholarship that freed me up from the not that small university fees. However, when I was in my second year of studies and because I was spending quite some time in seminars, conferences and various events, I noticed that I am missing a core skill set – how to present in front of an audience.

It took me quite some time (and I am always improving…), but I gained serious presentation skills. I even presented at Microsoft on how to deliver technical presentations in the proper way. Meanwhile, I was already making my first steps in the SQL Server world, inspired by Magi Naumova, who is a SQL Server Certified Master, with whom I just recently presented in the local user group. So, I think you can feel where this is going:

SQL Server and Presentation skills – The Technology and The Skill.

Whenever I am asked how can someone really progress in his(/her) career (be that DBA path or not), I always answer the same way:

Know the technology and teach it to people!

In my opinion if you are actually DOING both of these, you are already in the right path to success and I(and I am sure you too) can always spot the difference between someone that is good at something and someone that is good at something, but is also teaching that to others. It’s just that the one that also teaches is at a different level! The reasons for that are many and I don’t want to discuss them here in detail, but they can easily be summarised this way – better soft skills and deeper knowledge on the subject.

So that are the technology and the skill that helped me get to where I am and to do what I do at the moment(and I am loving it!). What’s more fascinating to me though is that both of these – SQL Server and presenting – are no ending areas of study and paths for improvement, which means that all of us will always have more to learn. And one more thing – to all of you who are still not getting their hands dirty with delivering presentations or trainings – start doing it…NOW! You will be amazed what a benefit this is for both you and your company or clients!

Wendi, thanks for the great topic and for hosting number 42! I can’t wait to see all other blog posts! And… I am sorry I did not mention anything about bacon, but I’m a vegetarian… 🙂

The second group of SQL Server DBAs is ready to roll!

April 7, 2013 By Boris Hristov 2 Comments

It was a start of the year full of teaching! After the incredible success of our(HP) course on SQL Server at Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Sofia University, I trained the second group of SQL Server DBAs, who enrolled in the course in SQL Server Administration at New Bulgarian University! After the success this course had last year, when I trained the first group of SQL Server DBAs, I now went even further and trained the group on a lot more new and fancy stuff!

The course was led every Saturday and Sunday for a month (40 hours all together) and we covered a lot of topics – from what SQL Server actually is to HA, isolation levels and dynamic maintenance solutions! The focus, though, was on actually DOING all of these and I think we did a pretty amazing job in that, because we spent enormous amount of hours of “playing with the product”!

All in all, I believe this course went fantastic! Some of the students actually were almost continuously reconfiguring their production SQL Server instances during the course and I believe that when a trainer is faced with the “When is your next course” question, everything is going well… really well! However, there is one special feedback that I just want to post here though, because it really represents what I am after and how I want to be recognised as a trainer:

“One of the best teachers i have ever had. Very dedicated and responsible. He is one of these teachers that stimulate you to learn more and more. He was so passionate and real that he got us into a total different level of addiction to the technology. The course was also full of demos which really helped us understand the material better. He managed to spare time during lectures for colleagues who had difficulties. He always came early for lectures and stayed long after the end of them to answer more questions and help for better understanding of material. I am really looking forward for his next course! – Tzvetan Triov”

Thank you, Tzvetan! This really means a lot to me! … and yes, I am already preparing the next course!