Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

  • Finding Your Dream Job

    My pre-conference session for the SQL Rally conference in the spring is called “Finding Your Dream Job”. Chris Shaw ( LinkedIn | blog | @sqlshaw)  and I put this together based on a few other presentations that we’ve both given before.

    Whether you vote for us, Kevin Kline, or Joe Webb, go vote. All of the sessions are good, and depending on what’s interesting to you, pick the one you’d like to attend.

    Vote Now

    Why Us?

    It’s a good question. After all, is it worth $59 or $99 for a day to get some ideas on how to work on your career? Chris talked a little about why this might help you in his blog. To add to his points with a few of my own.

    Promoting one’s self is hard: I find so many people that struggle with promoting themselves. I think we’re all fairly humble at heart, and that’s great.

    Except when you’re looking for a better job. Then you need to stand out and we’ll give you ways to do that.

    Learn the tools: So many people don’t know how to use the tools available to them. Or they might not even know of tools. We’ll talk about, and give you some good cheat sheets, the tools that you can use and how to use them.

    Tips and Tricks: How do you network with people? What’s a good way to blog to show off your knowledge? How do you handle the interview when you’re stumped? We’ll give you these answers and more. Ultimately it’s up to you to close the deal, but we’ll help you be prepared so that you look your best when you’re in front of people.

    It’s a competitive world. Stand out in it and we’ll help you learn how to do this.

  • Leaving (for) Las Vegas

    Tomorrow I’m off to Las Vegas for SQL Connections. Since tomorrow is also T-SQL Tuesday #012, I’m writing a pre-trip blog a day early.

    vegas1[1]

    I’ve never been enthralled with the image of Las Vegas, but I went there earlier this year with my wife for a vacation and had a great time. I did finally gamble at a card table, and actually won money, but it’s not something that I’m overly excited to do again.

    This is my first trip ever to SQL Server Connections and DevConnections. I had hoped to go last year, but my wife broke her arm and I ended up cancelling my trip. This year SQLServerCentral is sponsoring a track again with some great speakers to teach you about SQL Server. We have:

    • Brad McGehee
    • Allen White
    • Buck Woody
    • Glenn Berry

    I elected not to speak so that I could see more of the show and report on what it’s like. With more and more people becoming hybrid DBAs, I think this is a great format for a show. Many people these days fine themselves needing skills in other technologies, like Windows, Sharepoint, .Net or something else.

    I am curious to compare this event with others, and see if it might be a great place for SQL Server professionals to get a wide variety of knowledge that can help them work with the different aspects of IT that they need in their jobs.

    I’m also looking forward to sitting down with a few friends I haven’t seen in some time and catching up on what’s happening in their lives.

    If you live in the area, but won’t be at the show, I’ll also be speaking at the Las Vegas SQL Server User Group on Thursday night, so come out and say hi.

  • Shopping

    In about a week and a half, the SQLServerCentral opening night party takes place at the PASS Summit. And while I won’t be there, I’m in charge of the prizes that will be going out to everyone attending.

    In the past I’ve usually done a couple big Best Buy trips to load up on prizes, but this year I tried a few new things. Up until about two weeks ago, I was worried about my budget since the registration numbers were down for my referral code. So I went looking for some lower priced prizes since I tend to value some level of quantity and try to get more prizes out to people.

    Fortunately, about that time I ended up with an email from ThinkGeek. With my kids by my side, we surfed around the site and ended up with a few things. I won’t list them all, but I did get some of these:

    I also did hit Best Buy and grab a bunch of DVDs that were on sale. Among the titles I got were:

    • Iron Man 2
    • Hancock
    • Matrix all 3 in one
    • Batman – all 4 in one
    • more!

    As I wandered around, however I saw some other interesting things and grabbed a few:

    and

    And since my budget was a little higher than expected, I grabbed nice prizes. I wasn’t sure that I’d get one of these, but I did (these are going to Connections, but I have another).

    In the past we’ve saved three big prizes for the most profitable gambling winners, though I’m not sure I’ll do that for the iPad. Likely I’ll have someone do a drawing from the tickets at the Exceptional DBA presentation and award it then.

    Good luck to everyone!

  • My Bucket List

    I actually built on in 1999 and called it a Life List. Over the years I’ve tried to work on the list each year, knocking off something, but I also learned something. I learned that as I grew, and my life was more enjoyable, some of the things on my list no longer matter. I haven’t removed them because I spent some time on it and maybe they’ll come back later, but right now I’m pretty happy with my life.

    However I saw Brent Ozar’s list recently, and a few more (Aaron Bertrand, Jason Brimhall), so I decided to update mine with a short list for my career.

    In no particular order:

    Write a business book – It could be on business in general, professional development, or something else.

    Write a piece of software – I’ve done some development work, and written some utilities, but I’d like to write something that is useful to others, probably something on the web. SQL Saturday is my template, but I’d like to do something similar, but in a different area.

    Work for a non-profit – borrowed from my other list. Habitat for Humanity is at the top of my list, but maybe a local food bank will get me for a significant amount of time at some point.

    Mentor someone, explicitly – I’ve done some of this without meaning to, and people have recognized it. I’d like to ask someone if I can, or have them ask me and have it reach some type of completion status.

    Drive a Race Car – I’m fairly conservative and careful, and actually am tempted to pull my “skydiving” off my other list. But reading Brent’s list made me think about getting on a racetrack for a day or two. I actually investigated this a few years ago.

    Drive around the country and see all 50 states – I’ve driven across the US, multiple times in fact. However I’d like to get an RV and just cruise at some point. Likely it would be a 5th wheel living quarters trailer so my wife can bring her horses, but that would be great.

    There’s likely more, and I know that my old list could use a re-vamping, but this will do for now.