SQL Advisor

More Good News for SQL Server Developers

SQL Server developers lead charmed lives: their skills are in high demand, they work with one of the more popular programming languages, their work is prone to attack. Okay, two out of three ain't bad.

• By David Ramel
• 04/11/2012

A recent salary survey indicated that database-related programmers had excellent job security, and now there's more good news about job prospects in the exploding mobile arena and SQL Server usage in general.

First is a report that SQL Server developers are in high demand in the mobile marketplace. SQL Server skills are No. 4 on the list of most-coveted mobile expertise, according to WANTED Technologies Corp., which provides recruiting statistics based on help wanted ads and noted in the report that "Hiring demand for tech talent with mobile skill sets has grown drastically over the past years." This report was based on job ads placed in the month of February.

Java and Android come in first and second, of course, in this Google- and Apple-dominated mobile world, followed by JavaScript. No surprises there. But seeing SQL Server coming in at No. 4 was a surprise to me, beating technologies such as HTML, CSS, Linux and AJAX.

Next up is news that SQL Server is maintaining its popularity as a programming language. This comes from O'Reilly Radar, which has a new report on the popularity of various programming languages based on book sales. In analysis that indicated a popularity fall-off for languages such as C# and ".net Languages" (that's funny, I thought C# was a .NET language, but what do I know?) "SQL" actually improved slightly. True, it was pretty far down on the list of "Large" programming languages in terms of total sales numbers, but a slight improvement from 2010 to 2011 speaks well for you data drivers. "The fact that SQL is holding steady indicates that, despite all the NoSQL talk, there's plenty of interest in traditional SQL skills," noted an article on ReadWriteWeb.com.

Of course, SQL Server developers should probably bone up on their security skills in the wake of yet another report listing SQL injection as the "#1 database security concern." This comes in a press release from GreenSQL, which surveyed some 6,000 GreenSQL SMB users.

But take heart, you can improve those SQL Server security skills for free at the Microsoft Virtual Academy, which is offering "Mission Critical Confidence using Microsoft SQL Server 2012."

First up on the list of modules? "Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Security enhancements."

So there you go. Data Driver is a one-stop shop, informing you that SQL Server is a pretty good technology to know, and SQL injection is still a big problem, but the latest SQL Server edition addresses the problem and Microsoft will teach you how to do just that for free.

You're welcome.

How are you feeling job-wise if you're a database developer? Comment here or drop me a line.