Author: way0utwest

As the plane was landing the other day for SQL Saturday in Pensacola, I was struck by how amazing my career has gone. 19 years ago, working in a cube in a power station, programming dbase and Clipper applications. A geek at a desk.

Now I’m flying halfway around the country to give a couple talks to database professionals.

That’s amazing to me. Never in a million years when I left college did I see myself as someone that would be giving talks and presenting to people. I did a shared keynote in Charlotte earlier this year, and I’m doing another in Baton Rouge (SQL Saturday #28). When I was younger, these were only for famous people, for people I looked up to. I can’t believe that people are coming to see me at events.

And there are a lot of us. The SQL Server community is amazing, and more than a few other technology niches are looking with awe at all the database professionals that are taking the time to give presentations and go to events like SQL Saturday.

I think it’s cool, and I’m still awed by the place I’ve gotten to, and all the company I have with me. I’m proud to be associated with the rest of those speakers that are out there helping everyone learn more about SQL Server.

A short while ago someone complained that some of the headlines on SSC were deceiving in terms of what they represented. A few people noted that webcasts or other headlines weren’t technical information, and they didn’t want to click through to find that out.

Made sense to me, though I do try to note things like events in the description. So in any case I went searching around for icons and images, and found an icon that I wanted to use for technical articles. I added some text and had this displayed next to some articles:

Not bad, I thought for a non-artist like myself. So I did a few more, one of which was my puzzle icon:

I did this one from scratch since Ii couldn’t find a puzzle piece. Admittedly I could have spent more time in Paint, but that was only slightly less horrifying than working on income taxes to me. I saw the icon this week on the site and thought it looked horrible. So I decided to dash a note off to the Red Gate designer. We have one (or two?) on staff, and they respond to requests sent to a specific email. I included my image, and a day later got this:

That’s why it pays to hire an artist once you have an idea of what is needed. I sent off the other icons I’d made, and while my $5 each investment in a few logos is likely lost, it did get something up on the site, and gave my artist a base from which to start.

I was excited to attend the networking session last year at the PASS Summit. Andy Warren and I had talked about it quite a bit and tried to promote it as a way to build your brand and perhaps get a better job. We were concerned that networking is a leap of faith, and you invest in it, without possibly getting a return. I think you can, and it will pay off in strange ways. It might be help with a new job. It might be someone that you help, or it might be just a feeling of comfort the next time you see someone at an event.

The networking seminar at the PASS Summit is back, with Don Gabor, and you can read more about it. I spent my own money on it last year, learned a few things, and enjoyed it. Am I using the techniques? Have they helped?

I’m not sure. I know that I think about some things I learned, like the technique for remembering people’s names, and there are times I’m at a SQL Saturday, or maybe a dinner party, and I use them. I think about touching my network a little more often, and I do look at ways to interact with people more, stopping to spend a few more minutes chatting with them, or getting contact information.

It hasn’t directly benefitted me, but I think it might at some point. I have some closer relationships in my network because I make a little more effort to touch base with them, share something or strengthen the bonds we have. On one hand it commits me slightly more at events to talk to people, but on the other, it means I have a few more friends that I can count on.

I had been hearing about Lil’ Buck and so when I finally caught up with Buck Woody (Blog | Twitter) at TechEd, he told me to wait a minute. Unwrapped, from a separate box in his bag, in bubble wrap, out came Lil’ Buck

Apparently Marketing at Microsoft had him made as a mini-Buck Woody. Kind of cool, and Buck posted a bunch of pictures from lots of people that had the privilege of holding him.

I wonder if Red Gate would do that for me……?