Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • My 2015 Plan

    I started this on Jan 1, but with family commitments, I ended up delaying it until today. I wrote about having a 2015 plan, and thought I should build one as well. I’ve tried a few things in the last couple years, and while I haven’t stuck to the plans, I have thought that my years were successful. This year I’m hoping to do a slightly more formal plan.

    I’ve broken this down into a few areas, all of which should help my career. These are the high level areas, and while I have some plans, I suspect that life will get in the way and things at work with change, so I have to be flexible.

    Certification

    While I’m not sure certification really helps me in my career, I do know that it is something that catches eyes on resumes. What it means after that is up to you and how you sell/market/position it.

    However I do know that certification efforts can drive learning. I took a number of the SQL Server 2012 exams when the product was released, but never took the last one I needed for certification. I didn’t have the time to schedule it at the time, and it’s bothered me every since. I need the 70-462 exam for the MCSA certification.

    In November or December, I noticed Colleen Morrow writing a series on exam prep for the 70-463 exam. It got me thinking. I should follow along, study, and then take the exam. Since I have a relatively light travel schedule for Q1, this is something I want to work on.

    PowerShell

    I tried to do the Powershell Challenge last year with the book Powershell in a Month of Lunches last year. I used to take the book, my laptop, and work through exercises while at my daughter’s volleyball practice. I reached a point where I got off track, had some networking issues, and ended up not completing it.

    However I learned things. I ended up writing quite a bit about Powershell and using it to accomplish small tasks. In the new year, I want to use it more, and one of the places it to replicate lab setup for new machines and rebuilds. That’s the goal as I build out new systems in 2015.

    I do want to complete the challenge, but we’ll see how it fits into my schedule.

    Speaking/Travel

    Last year I actually spoke less than 2013, but it felt worse. I think the problem was too many events in too short a period of time. Three in a few months and four in one. I need to balance that out in 2015.

    Red Gate is also looking to change some of our SQL in the City seminars. We may end up doing more private, as well as all day, training seminars on our tools and the Database Lifecycle Management (DLM) topics. I expect that I’ll need to spend more time here, which means less other events.

    I’ll likely also skip some of the bigger conferences. I’m speaking at SQL Konferenz in Germany and (hopefully) SQL Bits. I will likely submit to DevConnections, but that may be it. The multi-day events are a time sink and drain and if I’m going away for a few days, I think I’d rather invest in myself at a SQLskills event.

    As far as SQL Saturdays go, I think Q1 is the first time I don’t have a speaking engagement in a quarter. The Jan ones came up too fast for speaking deadlines at the end of the year and I wasn’t sure I was up for a trip. With overseas trips in Feb and Mar, I’m not sure I’ll make any, though Pordeone in Italy is tempting.

    I am thinking to get to Madison and New York City, but this might be a year where I speak at less than 10 of them. That’s usually been my goal, but scheduling is getting harder. Certainly Puerto Rico is tempting, as is Ottowa. We’ll see how many pop up and where in Q2/3/4 and I’ll work out a schedule.

    I also expect to evolve a couple of my talks and change them around. I’ve usually added a couple talks each year, but this year might be tough. If I get one more done, I think that will be plenty.

    Writing

    Writing has been mostly editorials and small content for the last few years. I’ve written a few articles over the break, and I’m looking to do a few more across the next few months as I delve into new topic areas. It’s a time sink, but I want to be sure that I get some longer technical writing done.

    Lab

    The last thing I need to do is build a better lab. I started setting one up last year and it worked OK, but I had a drive die with a few of the VMs on it (I know, I need backups. See PosH above), and I got busy. It also wasn’t quite the right design, and I was unclear on a few of the AO/AG/FCI items. We’ve had a lot of content this year in those areas, partially with me pushing for it, and after my day at Allan Hirt’s pre-con, I want to rebuild it in a new, better way.

    I also want to make it a better, more replicable setup. We’ll see. This may help with the speaking above, and certainly the other items, so I want to get going on this, preferably thinking about building up a small, portable device with labs.

    Conclusion

    I’m writing this post so that I can go back and evaluate it again at the end of the year. I’ll compare how I did and see where the plan failed, and where it changed. Without a doubt, things will change.

    I do have a reminder every month to go back and look at goals, so I’ll be checking this post each month to see how I’m doing it.

  • What’s Coming True?

    It’s the start of the new year, and the first day of work for many of us. As I start to work this year, I see that much of my work is based on that planning we did at the end of last year. We made predictions for our business, set goals, and today begin to execute on things. However, we are assuming our predictions are somewhat accurate in order to achieve success. What if our predictions aren’t correct?

    There’s no shortage of prognosticators out there, and I found a number of predictions about IT, the Cloud, and Microsoft. I have no idea if any of these will actually come true, but I wanted to ask you this week:

    Which of these predictions will come true in 2015?

    • Increased automation and less staff
    • more BYOD acceptance and support
    • More telecommuting
    • containerization of software in the cloud (or the data center)
    • More hybrid applications using the cloud
    • IoT growth – more sensors, more data for you
    • Windows 10 will be a hit
    • SQL Server 2015 will come out
    • Windows Phone will become competitive
    • You’ll get hacked at your company.
    • You will encrypt your databases?

    The IT trends listed are fairly general, and all of them are really underway now, so I’m not sure there’s much of a prediction there. For you individually, will you see more automation and less people? More BI and cloud usage? Any of the Microsoft predictions likely to come true? Do any these apply to your environment?

    This isn’t an exhaustive list, and certainly there’s lots of people expecting 3D printing and more mobile technologies to emerge. If you think any of these will, or won’t, definitely come true, take a vote and we’ll rerun this thread at the end of the year. If you have other predictions, let us know as well.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.1MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • The 2015 Plan

    This is the last day of 2014, and we begin a new calendar year in 2015. It’s a time that many people make resolutions and I’ve got a few you might think about for 2015.

    The first one is that I’d urge you to be sure you find some balance in your life in 2015. Whether you’ve had balance or not, remember that life is short, and you never know when you will leave. I’ve had friends die early, and I was touched by recently reading this last post from Derek Miller. We can look forward, we can plan, but we never know what the future will bring and what life will drop in our path.

    If I look back at my life, there are many things I’ve chosen to do, or lived through, that I might not have imagined even five years before the experience. It’s unlikely that I’ll be able to guess with any accuracy what will happen in the next five. No matter what your beliefs, I do think that you must continue to live you life while you are on Earth, and hopefully the best parts of that life are outside of your career.

    That being said, while you find a balance with life outside of work, don’t neglect your career. For many of us, our careers have grown over time as we learn more and gain skills. Make time in 2015 to do this somehow. I’ve got two suggestions for you to work on building skills, no matter what your job.

    The first is to pursue a certification. I’ve been interested in Collen Morrow’s series on prepping for Exam 70-463. We can argue about whether the certification proves anything, but I do know something it does do. It guides your knowledge growth and gives you a goal. Both are good things that can help you improve your skills. It’s also motivating to learn new skills and pass a test. Colleen has inspired me a bit as this is the last exam I need for certification and I may follow along with her and take the test in 2015.

    The second thing I might suggest is tackle a project of your own. It could be a piece of software, a database design, a web site, anything at all. Build something, write about it, display it to the world. Whether it’s practical or not, whether it’s useful to others, it will showcase your skills in whatever areas you tackle. This also gives you a goal to work towards, as well as a potential resume item that can help you in your next job search.

    It’s amazing to think that 2015 starts tomorrow. I hope you all have a happy, safe, and enjoyable celebration tonight.

    Steve Jones

     

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.1MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn. 

  • Speaking Stats

    I was updating my speaking schedule and CV, trying to get an idea of what might be planned for 2015. As I was doing so, I decided to do a quick count of events and talks to see where I was last year. Last year was tough, and I need to find a way to better balance life and travel in 2015.

    What I found surprised me. While I attended 26 events and gave 46 talks, that was down from the previous year. The numbers are:

    Year Events Talks
    2008 2 2
    2009 2 2
    2010 7 10
    2011 13 21
    2012 17 33
    2013 30 54
    2014 26 45

    I found 2014 to be a hard travel year, with quite a few trips out of town. However I think the main problem was that much of my travel was compressed. I didn’t travel for a few long stretches, including a 6 week stretch when I had surgery, which meant that other travel was compacted into a few short periods. Sept and Oct were particularly hard.

    I was surprised at how few events I’d had in 2010 and prior. I would have thought my load increased more linearly, but it hadn’t. Certainly in 2010, my daughter was still in elementary school, my wife was working full time for a corporation and traveling quite a bit, my middle son was starting middle school, and my oldest was graduating. 2011 freed up some time, and made it easier for me to travel. 2012 was the year when my life left her job, making things much easier for me to schedule trips.

    I suspect 2015 will be more like 2014, though I hope to spread the travel out. I’ll be speaking in at least one new country, which is exciting for me.