How to Become a Top SAS Programmer - Softcover

Raithel, Michael A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1612901042 ISBN 13: 9781612901046

Publisher: SAS Institute, 2013

Synopsis

Would you like to be a top SAS programmer? Would you like to be the person that other SAS programmers turn to for solutions to programming problems? If so, then How to Become a Top SAS Programmer, written by Michael Raithel is the book for you.

This self-help book provides invaluable strategies for enhancing your SAS programming skills and introduces you to a wide variety of SAS resources that are readily available to you. Inside this book, you will learn:

• what makes a top SAS programmer
• fundamentals that every top SAS programmer should master
• ideas for advancing your SAS career within your organization
• where to find SAS documentation to learn new programming techniques
• how to participate in local and regional SAS user groups and SAS Global Forum
• how to make SAS training and certification work for you
• how to take part in SAS virtual communities to learn, contribute, and become well-known
• ...and much more

Want to increase your SAS acumen, solidify the use of SAS in your organization, be a greater benefit to your organization as a SAS programmer, contribute to the world-wide SAS community, and enjoy good career growth? Michael’s book will help the novice SAS programmer or a seasoned professional to do all that and more.

Start reading it now and become the top SAS programmer in your organization who everyone goes to for insight and guidance into the many aspects of the SAS world! Would you like to be a top SAS programmer? Would you like to be the person that other SAS programmers turn to for solutions to programming problems? If so, then How to Become a Top SAS Programmer, written by Michael Raithel is the book for you.

This self-help book provides invaluable strategies for enhancing your SAS programming skills and introduces you to a wide variety of SAS resources that are readily available to you. Inside this book, you will learn:

• what makes a top SAS programmer
• fundamentals that every top SAS programmer should master
• ideas for advancing your SAS career within your organization
• where to find SAS documentation to learn new programming techniques
• how to participate in local and regional SAS user groups and SAS Global Forum
• how to make SAS training and certification work for you
• how to take part in SAS virtual communities to learn, contribute, and become well-known
• ...and much more

Want to increase your SAS acumen, solidify the use of SAS in your organization, be a greater benefit to your organization as a SAS programmer, contribute to the world-wide SAS community, and enjoy good career growth? Michael’s book will help the novice SAS programmer or a seasoned professional to do all that and more.

Start reading it now and become the top SAS programmer in your organization who everyone goes to for insight and guidance into the many aspects of the SAS world!

About this title

About the Author:

Michael A. Raithel is a senior systems analyst for Westat, an employee-owned contract research organization in the Washington, DC, area. He has worked with Information Systems in the commercial and government sectors since 1980. An internationally recognized expert in the use of SAS software in mainframe and UNIX environments, Michael is the author of more than 25 SAS technical papers and is a popular lecturer at SAS Global Forum and at regional SAS conferences. Michael has been a section chair at SUGI, SESUG, and NESUG, and he co-chaired NESUG in 1995. He has been a keynote speaker at WUSS, SCSUG, PharmaSUG, and a Featured Lunchtime Speaker at SAS Global Forum. Michael has taught SAS classes at SUGI, SAS Global Forum, and at American University in Washington, DC. He has written three books for SAS Press, with another in the works, How to Become a Top SAS Programmer. A copy of the first edition of Tuning SAS Applications in the MVS Environment resides in the Smithsonian Institution of American History's Permanent Research Collection of Information Technology.

Review:

"In many ways, this book is not about SAS, well certainly it is oriented to the SAS programmer, but it is much more. It is less about the syntax and more about knowing. Knowing the code sure, but also knowing what is going on around us. To be the Top SAS Programmer in our organization, or even one of the better SAS programmers in our group, requires a knowledge that transcends SAS code. But what do you need to know? How much do you need to know? And perhaps more importantly how do you go about acquiring the knowledge needed to achieve the status of Top SAS Programmer-the company SAS guru? These are the topics taken on by Mike Raithel in his latest book, How to Become a Top SAS Programmer (SAS Press 2013).

Throughout the book Raithel encourages us, in a number of ways, to be proactive with our coding, proactive with our learning, and proactive with our engagement with our fellow SAS programmers. No one says that the goal is easy or quick, but like the marathon runner that he is, Mike lays out the course and shows how to finish strong. The status of Top SAS Programmer will not be delivered to you; however, it is something that you can strive toward, and in this book Mike shows you how."

Art Carpenter
CALOXY

 

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You may think there is "nothing new under the sun" in the publications world with regard to helping programmers become a more valued member of their organization. Take a look at Michael Raithel's new book, How to Become a Top SAS Programmer, to see that this book is truly something new and unique. It fills a void for the SAS user community for sure.

Unlike other books that teach programming, graphics, statistics, etc., this is a book that gives you solid, practical advice on how you can be a better programmer and, even more importantly, how to become a recognized guru in your organization.

This idea-packed book provides you with actionable suggestions on how to advance your programming career, whether you are a beginning programmer or a programmer with 20 years of experience. Raithel makes suggestions such as holding code reviews and developing an in-house SAS user group that will not only benefit the individual, but the company as a whole. In this book, you will find links to hundreds of resources such as listservs, blogs, and SASCommunity.org that will enhance your professional career.

Indeed, this book is truly "something new under the sun."

Ron Cody
Fall, 2013

 

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"How to Become a Top SAS Programmer is the title of Michael Raithel's book, but, in addition to providing an in-depth view of how to be as good a SAS programmer as he already is, Michael is ably demonstrating how good an author he is too.

By reading this book to the end, you will have been given a workable plan to turn you into a Top SAS Programmer. However, you also will have been entertained by Michael's writing style, so you won't realize that, behind all of his enthusiasm, he has actually been lecturing you on how to make yourself more productive and your job more enjoyable."

Philip R. Holland
Consultant and Author
Holland Numerics Ltd

 

 

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"Mike Raithel has produced a rather unique book this time. This really is a guide that can be followed to lead you into becoming a top SAS programmer. Having used SAS myself for nearly 30 years, I can see all the paths that I have tread in the past being laid out and signposted by Mike in this book.

He points out the short-term and longer term value in sharing your SAS knowledge in various ways from User Group involvement to producing SAS Tips for an in-house newsletter. Mike also covers lots of technical areas and, from his vast experience, is able to accurately outline the key important things which you need to ensure that you know if you truly are going to become a top SAS programmer.

I was impressed with what an accurate and comprehensive list he has produced. I very highly recommend this book to all SAS programmers except those who, like Mike, have attained the lofty status of one of the Top SAS Programmers in this world of ours."

Phil Mason

 

About this edition

• Publisher: SAS Institute
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1612901042
• ISBN 13: 9781612901046
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 184