title: Mysql performance/optimization help
body: <p>So this was a small site that got extremely popular very fast and now and im having major problems with the below sql query.</p>
  
  <p>I understand that my DB design is not great. I have text field for <code>subjects</code> and <code>programs</code> witch contains a serialized array and i search it using <code>like</code>.</p>
  
  <p>the below query takes about a minute.</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT p.*, e.institution
  FROM   cv_personal p
  LEFT   JOIN cv_education e
  ON     p.id = e.user_id
  LEFT   JOIN cv_literacy l
  ON     p.id = l.user_id
  WHERE  1 = 1
  AND    (e.qualification LIKE '%php%' OR e.subjects LIKE '%php%' OR l.programs LIKE '%php%')
  GROUP  BY p.id
  ORDER  BY p.created_on DESC
  </code></pre>