Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • IT Unionization

    I’ve been reading an interesting book that looks at some of the ways that we can better build software in enterprises. One of the side notes in the book is that the tech companies have the funding and the ability to disrupt many other types of businesses, not just technology. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and others have delved into other types of industries, potentially pushing others out.

    We see Amazon becoming as much a shipping and logistics company as they are a retailer. There was a unionization vote, which passed in 2022. Recently, another one failed. Amazon continues to fight these efforts, trying to prevent workers from collectively negotiating the terms of their employment.

    I’ve wondered in the past if tech workers would ever unionize. In general, we are paid well and have lots of options for work. There has often been no shortage of opportunities for talented workers, though this year is proving tough for our industry. There are lots of people out of work and struggling to find new jobs. While I’m sure some would prefer a union that might better protect them from layoffs, many tech workers are against the idea.

    There is a growing number of tech workers looking to unionize. Inside Google, there is a union for some workers, but not all. That’s unusual, as often all workers in a category are part of a union at a company. To gain employment, you need to join the union.

    I don’t know if I’d want to join a union. I’ve had lots of success and haven’t seen the need, but I do know that I’ve also seen lots of other tech workers pressured and pushed to work long hours, to skip vacations, and other practices that are good for the employer, but not so good for the employee. I’ve seen many people not know how to negotiate with employers, and perhaps a union would benefit most people.

    Would you want to be part of a data professionals’ union? It might give some security and more benefits for many, though not quite as much pay as you might otherwise receive. Maybe more than you get now, as it depends on where you sit in the salary scale at your company. Let me know what you think about unions today.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

    Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

  • Helping Students with a Data Professional Career

    At a recent event, I had a student ask about how to get started as a data professional. What types of things should they do? What platform should they work on or learn? Where should they focus time? What tools are available?

    Those are all good questions and many of you likely have your own advice. I’ll give a few things to think about today, which are good for anyone that might want to get into the data field. I think this is still one of the better technical careers. I’ve suggested this to my kids, though only one of them went into a technical area. One is a therapist for autistic children and one helps run the ranch while pursuing a graduate degree in literature.

    If I were to give someone advice on how to get started in a tech field, I’d likely start with these items: first, download the free SQL Server developer or Express editions. Most of us run Windows and this is a good place to start. Get SSMS, and learn to connect to your server. If you have struggles, ask a question in our forums.

    From there, I’d suggest working through a book on SQL. Or look at our Stairway series on T-SQL (basic, beyond basics, advanced). Learn to work with data and query it. Learn to download and get datasets into a database, as well as how to query, update, and analyze the data. Those are key skills. If you want to manage systems, try setting up an Availability Group, ensure you have backups and can restore systems, and maybe explore replication and CDC.

    If you want to develop applications, then start building something. Ask a GenAI for help, but produce a working system that lets you analyze some data. Pick sports data, or music data, or something else, and produce an application or report that conducts an analysis of the data. Work with something that’s interesting to you.

    While you’re doing this, blog. Write about what you learn. Build a growing resume that showcases your skills. Chat with others online, build a network of people, and always have an up-to-date resume that you can send out to find a job. Your resume/CV and your blog are invaluable.

    That’s my advice. Anything else you suggest?

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

    Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

  • Rising Pay for Certifications

    Certifications can pay off, at least in some areas. There’s a piece that talks about pay rising for some tech professionals when they have some credentials. Networking, architecture, and project management are mentioned in the report, as are database and data management.

    I haven’t seen the source report, and I’m not sure which certifications are getting higher pay rises, but I’d guess that newer data technologies, things related to cloud databases, and even anything related to AI is likely to get you a raise.

    Note, that I would guess that if you want a raise, you likely need to change employers, as those companies who have skills gaps in their teams are likely to overpay in the short term. There are certainly pockets of change in many organizations that are looking to move faster and adopt new technologies and might need training for existing staff as well as hiring new people to handle the workload.

    There are two interesting quotes in the article related to AI. The first is that companies are learning that the quality of their data impacts their use of AI, and I suspect they might want more people managing data, checking quality, cataloging it, and more to ensure they can use it to train a GenAI LLM.

    The other quote was that “…technologies like AI are forcing organizations to move with lightning speed to fill specific gaps in their job architectures — and too often, they are stumbling.” I read this as AI gives people code they don’t understand, so there is a need to hire someone experienced enough to review AI code. That’s good for experienced people as it creates opportunities, but I wonder if these are short term or this will be a lasting trend.

    This is a tough time in technology, in May 2025 as many companies are being cautious about hiring tech professionals. This might be the time to get a few certifications as companies start to put more weight on them along with experience. The cert doesn’t prove you can do the job, but with experience, it might give hiring managers a little more confidence you are a good choice.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

    Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

  • Interview Tips

    When is the last time you interviewed for a new position? It could have been at a new company, or maybe you had an interview was for a different position inside your existing company. Perhaps you needed to talk to a manager internally for a new project. I’ve tried to treat all my one-on-one meetings or reviews as interviews since I’m usually trying to impress someone enough to get a raise or promotion.

    Preparing for something you do rarely is hard. Most of us have interviews very infrequently, and we often aren’t prepared to impress others. If your partner or a close friend is also a business person, perhaps they can help you get ready, but I’ve found that most people struggle to help others prepare as they don’t know how themselves.

    I used to interview people periodically as part of my job. I spent time asking others how they evaluated others and reading up on how different companies do this. Over time, I built up a routine of how to run an interview, ask candidates probing questions, efficiently record notes, and evaluate my choices. I became good at running interviews. Not necessarily great at hiring people because that still felt hit and miss, but at least I had a process for evaluating others.

    When I was looking for jobs, which happened a bunch in my late 20s/early 30s, I also had a process and I think I did well. I got offered positions after most of my interviews, which was a luxury since that often gave me a choice of where to work. I saw this post on Linked In with a list of questions and answers for a job interview. These are certainly the type of questions I’ve been asked before, and I’ve prepared for. While this aren’t bad answers, they aren’t enough.

    Some of these might not be asked in internal interviews or reviews, but you ought to be able to give a short answer and then follow it up with an example from your career, give some details and practice delivering those smoothly. Know your own story, and don’t look like you’re fumbling for answers, trying to remember things you’ve done. It’s understandable that you might not remember details of some event from ten years ago, but it is also a sign you haven’t prepared for an interview.

    Getting a job these days is about having some relevant experience, having good soft skills, and standing out from the pack of other people who are applying for the same job. Blogging helps showcase experience, practicing communication helps soft skills, and great stories of things you’ve done help you remain memorable when the interviewer is talking about all the candidates with their peers.

    If you want a new and (hopefully) better job, put in some work and prepare.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

    Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.