The next time you need to look for a job, I’ve got some bad news for you.
A lot of other people are gonna stand out from the crowd and get way, way ahead of you in the line.
- They’ve learned how to save their companies money.
- They’ve learned how to use powerful free tools.
- They’ve learned – in depth – about new features in SQL Server 2016 and 2017 even though their employers may not be running databases on ’em.
- They’ve proven their skills under fire.
- And their employers have already seen their databases go faster.
I know because they’ve left public reviews of my classes saying just that. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if these students put my courses on their resume, too, because when you go apply for a data professional job, your prospective manager is going to be impressed that you’ve gone through my classes and learned to use the First Responder Kit the same way I do.
When employers look at your resume, and see that you’ve attended one of my training classes, they’re going to notice because employers recognize this site. Your next employer Googles for SQL Server stuff just like you do, and probably subscribes to this very blog. By saying you’ve been through my Mastering classes, you’re going to command more respect than someone who found a braindump and passed a $50 Microsoft certification on XML queries.
Don’t just take my word for it – let’s read some of the recent reviews:
Learned a lot and can’t wait to review the recorded class after reviewing a few things in my production environment. There were a few concepts I need to take a planned approach to. For those thinking about this class, do it and see how you can make your database faster. Mine is, already. – Joe McBratnie
That’s so important to me: I work hard to focus on things that will really matter to you the moment you leave the classroom. In fact, I hear from a lot of students that they actually work directly in their production environments, applying what they learn as they go!
This is an excellent course as is the Mastering Query Tuning course. Brent’s teaching style is effective, efficient and entertaining. I learned a lot and have already put things I’ve learned to use in my job. I really like that he answers questions posted in Slack as well. The format is very interactive and has a similar feel to an in person class with other students. I highly recommend this course. – Laura Beranek
During class, the students hang out in a Slack channel to ask questions, chat with each other, and turn in their lab homework. While I’m doing demos and labs, I even show the Slack channel onscreen so that it sticks with the recording:
It’s really fun during the labs because as students suggest changes to the queries, I can make ’em live right then and there. Students sometimes even copy their own recommendations in the form of exact T-SQL in, and I can run ’em onscreen to show the rest of the class how they perform (or don’t perform, and I can then explain why.)
This live collaboration is one of my favorite things about the class – it even leads to fun discussions during breaks, like the time Bryan Rebok figured out how Clippy generated missing index key order.
Brent does an awesome job showing how to take a systematic approach to tuning indexes. The labs are challenging, and they reinforce the material perfectly. I can’t wait for the Query Tuning class! – Jesse Douglas
This is why I love the labs so much. In short user group meetings, I don’t have enough time to let you put your hands on a real, live working SQL Server and demonstrate what you learned. But the more stuff I try to jam into your brain, the more important it becomes to take a breather, switch gears, and test yourself to make sure you’ve absorbed what we’ve covered so far.
If you’re struggling keeping up, or work got in the way for an hour or two during class, no problem – you can instantly jump back and revisit the day’s material with the Instant Replay recordings. Dang, I really wish conferences had this – I’ll miss a session, and then it’s months before I get access to recordings, and even then they don’t have the instructor onscreen. I dunno about you, but if it’s just a screen capture and an unseen, anonymous voice, I can only pay attention for about 5 minutes before I drift away and start multi-tasking.
If Mastering Index Tuning is a must have, Mastering Query Tuning is an absolute must have. I already know I will be in trouble for Mastering Server Tuning in about a month time :). Back to Mastering Query Tuning: it is not only informative, but the knowledge transfer is very entertaining too. And there is a great amount of knowledge in the class. By the end of the third day my head was tried to burst open a bit with the extra information, as it turned out I was not alone with this. I feel about Mastering classes as I feel about electric heated motorcycle gear: until you try it, you cannot even imagine what you missing from life. Once you had it, you do not want to live without it. If you work with SQL and you can only have one training course in your life, you really need to pick the Mastering classes. Go for all 3. – Levente Kalotai
Want more proof from real class students? Click on the training class you wanna take, and read the reviews. They’re straight from the mouths of the students – every review gets published exactly as the student wrote it, with zero edits on my side, and no reviews hidden:
You wanna know why other training classes and conferences don’t publish every single review verbatim? You already know why: think about the last time you sat through a webcast, user group session, or conference. Think about the review you’d post. That right there is why my training classes are different – and it shows in the reviews. I know, because I’ve sat through those sessions myself too.
Don’t you wanna be able to put my classes on your resume? Thursday, let’s figure out how we’re gonna make it happen. Stay tuned.
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