Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • Interviews: What is ACID?

    I once had a job interview with a large group of employees at a company. They were arranged around a table, with me at one end. The interview was a round robin affair, with someone asking me a question and me answering. They would take turns, going around the table for a couple hours. Not the easiest or hardest interview I’ve had, but one of the more interesting.

    The first question from the gentleman to my left was, “What does ACID mean?”. My answer: “Isolated, Consistent, …”

    I don’t have a problem taking a few seconds to think, but I have that internal clock, much like an American football NFL quarterback. Mine is not the 5 second one many QBs have, but I know that after about 20 seconds, people are wondering if I’ll answer at all. Or if I’m still focused on the interview. If I go 30 seconds, I might have blown the interview. What would you do here? Do you know the other terms? More importantly, can you answer at a level beyond the words of the acronym?

    My response after 10 seconds or so was to admit I couldn’t remember the word. I could google for the meaning, but I did know this applies to relational database transactions, intending to ensure that we always have a known state for our data. We know that each transaction must full complete or be completely undone. We can’t have the classic issue of depositing money in one account and failing to remove it from another. We also cannot have other transactions interfere with other’s work. This means a transaction on a piece of data must complete before the next transaction can modify it. We also must ensure that if the system were to crash, our database could not restart with data in an unknown state. Therefore, in SQL Server, we write to the log first, ensuring the transaction is complete before we can be sure the data changes are hardened. There are more details you could add to my answer, but this is a core foundational part of relational databases.

    I have never been asked this question in another interview, but I do think this is one of those core concepts that helps me understand and explain other parts of SQL Server, and even of how to build software. I think understanding this will help you answer other interview questions with more depth and knowledge. Hopefully, you’ll have a better answer than I did, with the actual words that make up the acronym.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.8MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • The Library Job Hunt

    I was reminded of the ways I’ve looked for jobs by a post from the Job Headhunter about library time. Rather than looking for what jobs are available, the recommendation is to take a targeted approach of using the library as a place to focus your energies and find the job that you really want, or at least type of job you want.

    Far too many of us look for jobs when we need them, often feeling financial pressures to accept the first offer we get. The pace of hiring usually prevents us from considering multiple offers, as the timing of interviews may not align. We make decisions for expediency, more than any other reason.

    We also usually fall from job to job, perhaps accepting a position that doesn’t quite suit us, or keeps us in the same position when we’d rather move. Again, time and financial pressures can force bad decisions. There’s also the fact that despite the training and schooling many of us have gone through, we don’t usually think about other options in the hectic, day-to-day chaos of our lives.

    The Job Headhunter recommends spending time in the library researching and thinking about different jobs. Certainly you could do this from the comfort of your home with technology, but I agree with the premise. The library can help you focus without the distractions at home. You can spend time thinking about your life, your goals, your interests, your skills, and more. Come up with a plan that drives your career forward. Certainly your research might give you some unexpected answer, but likely this will help you focus on some intersection of your skills and interests.

    Life is short, and there are opportunities out there for you. Choose the ones you want, hone your skills, and actively pursue the employment that fits in your life. The work, the company, the location, whatever is most important to you.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.0MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • The Career Bucket List

    The Bucket List is a fun movie to watch, where two old men get a second chance at life and engage in some activities they’ve always wanted to enjoy. The idea of a bucket list isn’t new, and there are plenty of sites that can help you manage one. Brent Ozar has one on his site that he calls his Epic Life Quest, and I’ve enjoyed watching him tick off items. I got the idea of my own list nearly 20 years ago after hearing Ted Lesonis on the radio. He had a list of 101 things to tackled in life. Since he sold his stake in AOL, he’s had the resources to work on them. I have one, along with my wife, and we’ve worked through a few items over the years, though we were talking recently we need to revisit the list and perhaps revise things.
    Why revise a bucket list? One of the things I’ve learned over time is that I change and the values, goals, and desires I once had will also change. The things I’ve had put on a list at 20 years old would have included owning a Ferrari, a Porsche, and a Lamborghini. At 40+, having owned a Porsche, the other things seem a little silly and vain, not to mention very impractical. At this point in my life, there are other things I find more interesting and captivating. The bucket list of today would be more experience based and likely contain more volunteer oriented goals.
    I think my career has really changed as well, and as I move towards retirement, I don’t know if there are many more goals for me in this area.  However, if I think back, I know I’d have had lots of them when I were younger. There are a few things I’d still like to accomplish, and hopefully I’ll find some time to work on them. For now, I wanted to ask you about your career.
    What’s your career bucket list? Is there something you’d want to accomplish? Build some software? Work in an industry? Get a particular job, position, or work in a location? Maybe you’d like to become an advanced techie on some platform or using some technology. There might even be a goal you have to achieve some recognition for your skills.
    This is a tough question to spring on you in an editorial, but leave a comment if something comes to mind. If it does, maybe you want to jot some notes down that might help you move towards that goal. Even if nothing strikes you, perhaps you want to bookmark this piece and spend some time in the coming weeks thinking about your career. Goals are always good, and they can help drive us in a direction that may ultimately provide some meaning or satisfaction that is lacking.
    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 4.2MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • Jumping Ahead

    While on vacation recently, I went to see Spider-Man Homecoming with my family. It was an enjoyable movie on a rainy afternoon, and a nice addition to the Marvel lineup. I think this actually might be my favorite Spider-man movie, and I’d recommend you watch it if you enjoy this genre. It was humorous, well written, and some nice special effects. As with any of these Marvel movies, you definitely need some suspension of disbelief, especially with the technology.

    In the movie, Peter Parker is anxious to join the Avengers and become a full time super hero, going on missions that have a large impact in the world. He chafes as the idea that he needs to stay in school and let his life progress at a more normal pace, which Tony Stark seems intent on pushing. Many of us have felt the same chafing in our own youth, wanting to get out of school, go to work, and move on in life.

    However, even in our careers, I find people wanting to jump forward, moving to new technologies and platforms as quick as possible. I certainly see this in the SQL Server world, often from developers, that want to find the holy grail of database storage in CouchDB, CosmosDB, Neo4J, etc. I’ve often seen this in the development world with different types of technologies, such as web frameworks. Maybe we in the data space are more conservative? Or we like sticking to what we know works well?

    We data professionals are not immune from the desire to jump ahead. I see plenty of data people wanting to jump into some new area to grow their careers. Data Science ( and AI, Machine Learning, etc.) is the newest craze, with quite a few people learning some R, some model training, and wanting to find a use for their skills. Or maybe an employer, preferably one that pays more than they make now. Good luck to you, but I’d encourage you to remember that good data science takes lots of skill, knowledge, and practice. I wouldn’t expect a quick jump into this new area.

    There are certainly other changes in the data world, such as the graph capabilities coming to SQL Server 2017 and the explosion of cloud database implementations. However, don’t get caught up in expecting quick changes in your job or your income. Continue to learn, experiment, build a POC and practice your skills. Change usually comes for most of us at measured paces. This pace is hard to accept if you don’t have the habit of regularly learning something and applying it in small doses, understanding that not everything you learn will be useful (or used) in your current situation.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 4.2MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.