Best way to Learn Data Warehousing? Should I take a Kimball course?

I'm interested in taking a Kimball course but I'm not sure if I'm ready. I'm interested in learning to build data warehouses. I'd like to know what the best approach is. I guess the best and cheapest approach would be to be mentored on the job. That may be the only approach.  But since i don't have that benefit, I'm not sure which route to take.

1) I've read Kimball's books. They have tons of good information but they dont' seem to be very practical in terms of helping a novice. I learn tons of insight once I get started.

2) Many courses are too in depth to be helpful. Bootcamp courses typically only help those are already pretty accomplished. For newbies, bootcamps tend to be too much information and little context.

3) I'm sure i'll need support after taking the course. Its not a panacea. There are not a lot of forums for data warehousing and from experience, i've not gotten a lot of feedback on this forum when i needed it. Many of my questions were quite simple or I just wanted someone to review my diagrams, but i got no responses. I don't want to pay tons of money for a course and find myself still stuck with no support or direction.

FYI: Experience wise, I took a course in DW. I've read quite about of Kimball's books and another book or two. I created 10 data marts for a class project. I was only required to make 1. But that is all my experience.

Thanks!

If you are paying out of pocket, I would not recommend taking the course. It's best if you are already in a job building data warehouses so you can immediately apply what you learned (and have your employer foot the bill).

If you are looking for work and want to build your skills, one way to do it is purchase SQL Server Developer Edition (under $60 at Amazon) and use it to get familiar with ETL, database design, and reporting. It is a full blown enterprise SQL Server edition with SSIS, SSRS, and other features.

I agree with ngalemmo's advice. SQL Server Developer also includes Analysis Services for multi-dimensional analysis in two flavours: Multi-Dimension (old style with aggregations on disk) and Tabular (new style with everything in memory). So you can really cover a lot of areas for your money.

In terms of career it seems unlikely that without experience you will be given free reign to build someone's data warehouse. I would recommend starting from one end of the process - e.g. Reporting with Reporting Services and/or Excel. The bar is much lower for your first job and you can try to get onto DW projects, learn from others and put your hand up to pick up new skills in other areas.

The field is very broad and you may find you enjoy and have great opportunities just in one area.

Another avenue you may want to pursue it to look at college extension programs in your area. I taught a data warehousing course at UCLA Extension a few years back (couldn't continue because of the time commitment), and you will probably find similar programs in your area. Extension courses are geared for learning specific skills, tend to be relatively inexpensive, and taught by practicioners in the field.

Thanks guys! Wonderful advice! I'm learning on my own. I work of a large consulting company now. I'm not sure if my company will foot the bill or part of the bill. There are some projects that become available from time to time. But there don't seem to be tons.

Looks like the book you guys are refering to is called The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit: With SQL Server 2008 R2 and the Microsoft Business Intelligence Toolset.

I really like the book Building a Data Warehouse: With Examples in SQL Server. its a bit old but it is still good although its not a pure Kimball book. This book helped me through my class. I don't know why the did not consider more seriously the above book. Maybe it was some comment. But I'll take a closer look.

Thanks guys for all the advice.