Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • The Vacation Struggle

    poolIt’s a little over halfway through the year and once again I’m struggling to get away from work and get through my vacation. It’s not that my boss won’t give me time off, which is a common complaints from many workers in the technology industry. Instead it’s my fault. I’ve got a lot of ongoing work to get done, various commitments for events, preparation for travel, and most of all, I enjoy my job. I’ll add that a few family events have prevented us from executing on vacation plans along the way as well.

    Skipping vacation is not the best way to go through your career, and during the last month I’ve stopped to take stock of the situation and do something about it. I have a generous vacation allowance and there’s no need to hoard it, saving for a once-a-year-two-week trip. I have some family coming into town soon, and I booked a few days off while they are here. I’ve also extended one of my trips, planning on a mini-vacation with my daughter. I plan on saving some days to ski near the end of the year, but I’ll also be taking some long weekends and trying to recharge my interest in life, coming back to work refreshed.

    It can be hard to plan and take vacation, and I’m sure many of you have tips and tricks that you’ll share on how you get away from work and enjoy your life. Many of us see our careers as important, necessary, and hopefully fulfilling, but we also need breaks away from the stress and pressures of work.

    We should work in order to live, and enjoy, the rest of our lives. Time with family, friends, hobbies, and more is important. Life passes by quickly, and sometimes unexpectedly. One of the things I’ve learned as I age is that each day is precious, and that could end at any time. I seem to lose friends and acquaintances  all too frequently. All too often I find people passing that are well below retirement age, which is sad, tragic, and a reminder that life is short.

    Take your vacation. Get away from work when you can, if for no other reason than to see what else in the world there is for you to experience.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • Two Weeks until SQL Saturday #222 in Sacramento

    It’s just two weeks until my next trip. It feels like I just got back from London, and one again I’m prepping to leave again. This is my only trip in July, which I appreciate. It’s been a busy year so far, with lots of travel for me and I am glad to have a little downtime.

    This trip is a mix of vacation and work. I’ll be heading out early as Red Gate has a mini-SQL in the City event on Friday. We’re trying to get customers to come, but if there is space next week, I’ll send out a registration link. I speak Saturday and then head back to San Francisco. My daughter is joining me on this trip, with the chance to tour the NoCal area for the first time. She was actually here with me when she was 1, but didn’t remember that trip.

    I’m presenting my talk on searching binary data, which I’ve done a few times in the last year. This one will be a look at how you get information out of office documents from within SQL Server. It’s a neat feature for the product, and I’d like to hear how people are using it. Let me know if you are, or if I convince you to try it.

    I’ve also got a joint presentation with Grant Fritchey on A Day in the Life of a DBA, showing the common problems you face and a few ways Red Gate can make your job easier.

    I’m looking forward to a Sun/Mon/Tue vacation, getting some time off and recharging before I have a busy fall with the US SQL in the City tour.

  • Test Your Restores

    Test your restores: he first tip in my Hard Earned Lessons of a DBA piece.

    I can’t emphasize this enough. I’ve been called in as an employee and consultant to companies that never had tested a restore. Quite a few of those times there has been data loss.

  • Hiring Guitarists

    guitarHiring good people is hard, though in some cases it might not matter as much as others. If I am hiring entry level developers or DBAs, I have a lot of candidates, I’m not investing a lot, and I shouldn’t be too concerned if I have to let someone go and find a new employee. Given the fact that the people are often unproven in this case by definition (they’re junior levels), I should be prepared as a manager to make more mistakes at this level.

    However at the senior level, hiring needs to be done more carefully. The high costs, the limited number of candidates, the responsibilities I give senior people, along with the trust I need to bestow upon them means that I can’t afford to make the same percentage of mistakes at the senior level. Most importantly, I don’t want to hire expert beginners instead of experts at this level.

    I ran across a post on a way to hire senior developers that I thought was very interesting. In particular, I was struck by the analogy of hiring a guitar player. For the most part, I’d agree that if I wanted an experienced guitar player, I’d want the expert, not the expert beginner. If for no other reason than I don’t want to argue with an employee that does things my way, including making the same mistakes I’d make, and then explaining to me this is how I had specified things to be. I want a senior people to warn me, and influence me to do better.

    I’m not sure how I’d devise a similar level of test for a senior level DBA, though I do like the idea of giving them some scenario or simulation that has flaws or problems and seeing if they’d correct them, point them out, or leave them in place as they moved on to “play” the scenario. I’m sure there’s a way to do this, and a balance between how to evaluate the responses.

    Ultimately I want senior people to fix things, make them better, and provide a smooth path to increase quality. I want them to point out flaws, and warn me about issues. If I insist on making poor choices, I want their support, but if they can influence me to do better, I’d prefer they did. That’s one mark of a senior person.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.