There were two directions at that time: network and database technology. Because when the internet was hot in 2000, people with CCNP and CCIE certificates in the market were particularly awesome. So I also got the CCNP certificate at that time, but later I found that the network direction involved many things at the hardware level, and I was too dependent on manufacturers, so there was not much room for personal development. And I like to study hard, so I slowly began to specialize in database technology.
After determining the direction of the database, I began to study the theory of the database in depth. At that time, I read the book Course of Database System Principles by Professor Susan Wang of the National People's Congress for dozens of times. While studying database theory, I began to study DB2 and Oracle deeply, and started to use DB2 V5.2 from 1999. At that time, there were few technical books about DB2 on the market, and the Internet was not as developed as it is now. Because my tutor needs to use DB2 database to do a project, and I can only learn by reading DB2 random documents. At that time, I was still working part-time, helping others make small software to make money, and the project funds paid for OCP certification and DB2 certification.
Up to now, I have always thought that certification is a good motivation for learning. Because exams are expensive, if you don't want to waste money, you can only study hard. I passed the OCP 8i certification in 2000, and later passed the DB2 V5.2 certification. These certifications have greatly enhanced my confidence. At the same time, when I helped my tutor to do application development with programming tools such as PB and Delphi, I consciously strengthened my study of SQL, which was very helpful for my later performance tuning work.
What I want to say here is that it is very important to make a good life plan for a period. We must first have a clear direction and plan for our efforts, and then work consciously in this direction. This kind of active learning is much more efficient than passive learning. After the first lecture, I saw my own gap and knew that certification was not enough. Many questions of customers have no answers in books, so you need to work hard on your own practical experience. In addition, before the lecture, the lecturer needs to clarify some principles and concepts, and also needs to conduct in-depth research on the database.
Later, IBM Training Department learned through some channels that I could speak DB2 and had relevant certificates, so I was asked to teach DB2 series courses. So since 200 1, I have been teaching all the courses of DB2 series as an official lecturer of IBM. I think lecturing is a good learning process, because it is very helpful for me to deeply understand the concepts before class. At the same time, students' practical questions in class will force them to do more in-depth research.
I have this understanding of training: students listen to you for three hours, far better than reading books for three hours by themselves. If the content of a class is compared to a glass of water, the teacher should reserve at least one bucket of water in advance. So before the lecture, I carefully prepared the experiment and had an in-depth exchange with my classmates. I never give lectures by the book, but I have prepared a lot of practical knowledge outside the textbook to expand the content of the textbook. At the same time, try to explain some concepts with easy-to-understand examples in class. If you want to do this, you must first have a deep understanding of this concept, which objectively promotes your study.
With the increase of training, some customers began to ask me to do the actual debugging work. I remember that the first time I went to the customer site for optimization was at 200 1, and I went to Dalian Datong Securities to solve the lock waiting problem. The customer environment uses AIX and CICS. Although the problem was solved at that time, my heart was still empty, because I didn't understand AIX and CICS. In case something goes wrong in these two aspects, I can't solve it myself. This made me realize that the adjustment of a complex system often requires all kinds of knowledge. After this incident, I bought an IBM workstation PC with 140 online, installed AIX myself, and started studying. According to my understanding of databases, although there are Oracle, DB2, Informix, Sybase and SQL Server databases on the market at present, Informix database has been acquired by IBM, while Sybase database is moving towards technology and market, and Oracle, DB2 and SQL Server databases occupy the main market share. SQL Server database is very good, but it can only be used on Windows platform. So if you study SQL Server database deeply, I can only say that the probability of getting a high salary is slightly lower, and frankly speaking, most enterprises that use SQL Sever database are small and medium-sized enterprises. There are too many people doing Oracle database in China, and it is extremely difficult to get ahead in the Oracle field. But not many people do DB2 database, and things are few and expensive. Moreover, DB2 database is also widely used in "high salary" fields such as banking, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail and insurance. Therefore, I strongly recommend learning DB2 database, and the probability of getting a high salary by doing IBM technology is relatively higher. Our time and energy are limited, so we must choose a good direction and work hard for it. I am using all these databases except SQL Server. Personally, DB2 is undoubtedly the most stable optimizer compared with Oracle, and its optimizer is extremely powerful. If there is more advanced technology in locking, DB2 will be perfect.
During this period, I passed all the certifications of AIX while studying. I remember clearly that I spent a lot of time doing HA experiments. Because minicomputers were not so popular then, it was impossible to get 7 133 arrays. Later, I learned about CICS, WebSphere, MQ and storage. In this way, in the process of my training, when I find out what my weakness is and feel that this direction is promising, I will start learning. However, at that time, my technology was mainly around IBM products. Because I am more attentive to training and well received by customers, more and more domestic training institutions come to me for training. During this period, my own technical level has also improved rapidly.
In June 2002, I participated in the first "IBM DeveloperWorksLive! China 2002 "conference, and won the" Outstanding Software Technology Expert "award selected by IBM in China for the first time, ranking second among the six winners at that time. This award objectively helped me expand my customer base. More people came to me to solve problems, so 2002-2003 became the two years when my technology improved fastest.
In the past two years, I have studied HP-UX, WebSphere and MQ and passed the certification. My own feeling is that if you learn a technology deeply and thoroughly, it will be easy to learn another technology by analogy. Therefore, after learning AIX and then learning HP-UX, I feel very relaxed. Similarly, after learning ORACLE and DB2, it is easy to learn Informix. Through this vertical and horizontal comparison, the advantages and disadvantages of various products will be very clear, and their technical vision will be more comprehensive inadvertently. Through the in-depth study of a product, we can often find the shortcomings of this product and the places that need improvement. Take DB2 as an example. I can guess the new features of every version update before the new version is released. There are three main reasons for this: first, I am close to real users and understand their real needs; Second, I have been using it, constantly summing up my own ideas; Third, these features are available in other databases, but not in DB2, which will be added in the next version. So it is relatively easy for me to learn the new features of the new version. As far as DB2 is concerned, I have all the certifications of DB2 V5.2, V7. 1, V8. 1 and DB2 V9, and I should be the first person in China to pass all the certifications of DB2 V8. Of course, there are some coincidences.
It is very important: in the process of learning, we should constantly combine practice with theory, so that we can better understand why this is the case, so that our promotion will be much faster.