Top 5 resources that got me good at my job as a Junior SQL DBA

There are a lot of courses/resources online that cover Database Administration, especially with SQL Server, but from my experience not many of them are great.

Trust me, I’ve gone over a lot of video based courses, lots of online websites, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the following ones (in no specific order) are the one you need to go through to be good at your job as a DBA who’s just starting out.

1. SQL Server 2022 Administration by Microsoft Press & Eric Johnson : Linkedin Learning & YouTube

This is a structured course that covers most of what you need to know as a junior SQL DBA. Sure, there are occasions where you need to refer to other resources to understand concepts in depth, but this is an amazing starting point. The instructor is very knowledgeable and you get to learn a lot of tips and tricks that you can use on a day to day basis in your career as a database administrator.

I have no complains about this one other than sometimes being overloaded with knowledge :)

2. Brent Ozark — YouTube & his paid online courses

This guy is amazing. You could listen to him talk about the intricacies of SQL Server administration all day. He has some free content on YouTube that people starting out can benefit from greatly, I know I have; watching his YouTube videos and Shorts helped me a lot.