Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • The Second Best Job

    I think I have one of the best jobs in the world. I get to run SQLServerCentral, focusing on the Microsoft Data Platform, writing articles, experimenting with technology, speaking at events, and more, all with a bit of autonomy. I’ve been doing this job for well over a decade, and I’ve built routines and rhythms that have allowed me to balance work, family, and life. I really enjoy my job with Redgate.

    Redgate also runs Simple Talk, a companion site that seeks to educate and inform the community, just like SQLServerCentral. Simple Talk runs somewhat longer pieces and has fewer newsletters, but it’s a part of Redgate’s effort to give back to the community and help our current and future customers get better at their jobs. And now, we’re hiring a new editor for Simple Talk, which means the second best job in the company has an opening.

    This isn’t necessarily the easiest job, and it does take a certain kind of person. I’ve told many people for years that almost anyone versed in SQL Server could do my job for a few days, but few could do it for a month. Or maybe, few would want to do it for a month. Producing new content on a regular basis, handling some of the tedious duties of an editor, these can be difficult tasks for many people over time. Even managing yourself (we need an independent self-starter) can be a challenge.

    We have a great team in marketing, and Redgate is a fantastic company. The highest praise I can give them is that they have been the kind of company I’d want to build if I were to start a new venture. There are great benefits, you can work from home and work with autonomy. Plus, you get to work with me.

    We need good technical skills, strong communication skills, and someone that wants to help grow the site even further. If you think this might be your kind of job, think about applying. Who knows, maybe the second best job could be yours.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.7MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • The Financial DBA

    I’ve got an Azure subscription. At least, I think I have just one. I know I have a few Microsoft accounts, across 4 (or more) different email addresses, that I use for various VSTS development purposes, but only one should have any Azure resources. When  I check each of them, I find that I do only have resources (and charges) for one. However, I also found a strange charge on my credit card statement from Microsoft Azure. It was just a couple dollars, but as I started digging through the various statements, I couldn’t determine where the charge was from, or what it was for. As of now, I’ve opened a support case with Microsoft to track down my usage.

    This has me thinking of the future of many data professionals, some of whom will certainly have a few assets in a cloud based environment. I have a small subscription, but plenty of resources, and keeping track of which items belong to which resources and what I need isn’t always easy. It’s quite the challenge, especially when billing and finance aren’t my job. In an organization like Redgate, I’d guess we have lots resources, some of which developer provision, need, and then might forget about. Who reconciles this and ensures the assets we have are those we need?

    As we move to a world where services are used as often as assets, perhaps interchangeably, I expect that many of us will need to be accountable for not only the usage, but tracking why we’ve engaged that service. Over time, we need to retire and get rid of assets, but ensuring we remember exactly what we’re using and why can be hard over time. With a little employee movement, many of us might find ourselves in charge of services that we don’t understand, and might not be sure are necessary. We also might not be sure these services can just be discarded. The last thing we want is some uptime disruption because we terminated some service contract.

    A whole new dimension to our job is likely coming, and for many of us, this will test our documentation and organizational skills. I wouldn’t be surprised to find many DBAs or lead developers having a standing monthly meeting with someone in finance to be sure we aren’t wasting money.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.3MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • Cool Projects

    This editorial was originally published on Aug 23, 2013. It is being re-published as Steve is on vacation.

    I had a conversation recently with a developer that was working on a rather neat problem. This had to do with a financial system and it involved some complex calculations and real time interactions with a variety of systems. It was important for their company, and a lot of pressure was on this developer to not only deliver this software quickly, but also to have it perform at a very high level. This particular person was using Red Gate’s ANTS Performance Profiler to dig into their code, feeling pressure to make it as efficient as possible.

    However this developer was also enjoying the work. It was a challenge, and it was a cool project.

    I know this community is made up of people working in all sorts of industries, in a variety of roles. We develop many different kinds of software. Some may be for employers, some may be for ourselves, some may be for a side business, but  across that spectrum of work, there are some interesting applications.

    What cool things are you working on?

    It might not be software. Perhaps you’re working on an interesting data application, like a super collider. Maybe you work on some gaming software or a large hardware system. Perhaps you deal with a system that makes people’s lives better, easier, or even possible. I’m sure more than a few of you work on some real time systems, which have all kinds of data challenges.

    Let us know this week what type of interesting work you’re doing.

    Steve Jones

     

  • The March of AI

    Machine learning and AI systems are becoming more and more popular all the time. The constant onslaught of media articles and hype is pressuring more and more companies to experiment with AI systems. Whether these techniques work or not, no manager wants to be the one that has ignored the trend. A failed machine learning venture might be preferable to the lack of any project in the eyes of many in upper management.

    Our vendors press as well, after all, sales are on the line. I wasn’t sure how useful the R language would be inside SQL Server, but I am amazed at the effort and popularity of R among SQL Server professionals. R, and possibly Python soon, are becoming integrated into every product and tool from Microsoft, as well as other vendors. Every month I see more and more people experimenting and learning how to use R for a wider variety of tasks, from analyzing disk space and database performance to extrapolating business measures.

    Most of us aren’t skilled enough in math and statistics to really develop and build intelligent systems. We don’t have the background, or we haven’t worked in those areas for a long time. However, many of us can learn to work with ML and AI systems, managing the models, integrating the code others write into our applications. I do think there is value in learning a bit about these technologies, though I don’t think you need to become an expert. Some of you might want to be experts, and I wish you the best of luck on your journey.

    I do believe that AI will change the world. It’s going to become a larger and larger part of many systems and processes throughout the world. These intelligent systems will press and push humans in ways that we don’t expect and that we might not like. For us data professionals, we will be at the heart of many of these changes, with opportunities to grow our careers we might never had considered.

    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.