Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • Specialist or Generalist

    What would you rather be: a expert specialist in some narrow area of SQL Server or a generalist that’s competent in many areas? The same question could apply to any area of technology, like C# or Windows, or even any subject in which you work. What’s your preference?

    Most of us don’t have to make a strict choice. Often in pursuit of deep knowledge in one area, say indexing, the effort will lead to lots of good general knowledge in other parts of the platform. I think it’s important that gain both types of skill, as you work through your career and grow your abilities. I find that there is always more to learn, especially in technology. Even in areas that I think I have deep knowledge about, I continually add to, and refine, my skills.

    Brent Ozar had an interesting post on this topic, looking at the maturity of a particular subject area. He noted the more mature some area, the more you might learn towards specialization. I think that’s good advice for your career, though I do think that if you find a deep passion, don’t be afraid to specialize in some area. While you might not get a monetary compensation directly back for the effort put in, I think the reward of learning something you love, and achieving expertise is extremely valuable and important to you as an individual.

    As we move through our careers in computing, we find there are always new technologies, techniques, and architectures that we will need to understand. We need to grow our knowledge. In many cases we see older ideas re-packaged and updated for the modern times, but that doesn’t mean skills we can rely on prior knowledge. Instead, you will need to update your skills.

    I also think more and more we will be driven to give guidance to others as much as use specific expertise to solve problems. With that in mind, I think whether you choose to be a specialist of generalist, you’ll need to continue to learn more about both implementing technology, as well as communicating your recommendations.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.8MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • How Much Can You Learn?

    One of the things we’ve tried to do at SQLServerCentral is provide a way for SQL Server professionals to continue to learn more about the platform over time. Andy Warren and I have debated how to best do this over the years, and Andy has built a great presentation on Building a Professional Development Plan that I’d encourage you to watch or attend if you can.

    One of the parts of any good plan is finding time to learn. While there are many ways in which to learn, many people seem to want an organized way of working through a particular topic. Books provide one method, while online courses such as those provided by Pluralsight are another.  There are also pre-cons at SQL Saturdays or other conferences, weeklong training classes, and other methods available. Which you choose might depend on how you best learn.

    Any of these methods work, but all require some investment, both time and money. Setting aside the money for a minute, how much can you learn in a year if you use some on-demand method such as books or on-demand video. Is there some limit to what you can absorb and work with in any particular month or year?

    I think there is. Certainly the amount you learn depends on how much you can practice and focus on a topic, as well as how closely the new skill is to your existing capabilities. The further you move away from an area you’re already comfortable with, the slower you may learn, and the greater investment to become competent in a new subject. Given that a month (or year) is a fixed amount of time, and we all have other responsibilities, how much can you actually learn and retain?

    I used to think that a few months would build some competence, but I’m finding that after I learn for a few months, I really need a few months, or at least some time, of not learning, where I can practice and work with new skills I’ve been developing. I find that if I don’t take this time, too much of what I’ve learned becomes hard to remember, and even newer skills are hard to acquire.

    Is it the same for you?

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.1MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • No Overtime

    This editorial was originally published on Dec 5, 2011. It is being re-run as Steve is out of town.

    It’s been a long time since I received overtime at any job. Most of my IT work has been with a salary, and the expectation that I would work as needed to accomplish my assignments. Early in my career I worked as a contract for an hourly rate, and while it didn’t necessarily lower the hours I worked, I did receive a little more pay on long weeks. From there I worked for a company that provided “comp time” when the hours exceeded 20 hours in a month. That seemed to help reduce hours more than anything.

    There’s a bill that’s in the US Congress that adds some new job classifications to the exemptions for overtime pay. In addition to the system administrative jobs, it now includes database and network professionals. I’m not sure how many people this affects as the overtime requirements disappear once you make more than $27.63 an hour. That equates to about an annual salary of 57,491, without the benefits. If you make less than this, you should be getting overtime.

    Does overtime pay matter to most IT workers? I don’t know. There are lots of workers who make more than US$60,000 a year, and are exempt, but I suspect there are many others who make less than this amount and work long hours without any extra compensation. This bill is aimed squarely at reducing pay for those people in the industry that make the least amount of money.

    I struggle with whether the benefits and abuses of a salary. On one hand salaries provide a level of security to workers, along with a guarantee of payment for work that cannot easily be measured in terms of output per unit of time. On the other hand, employers sometimes see a salary as a way to push workers to their limits, burn them out, and impose strict requirements on the work needed for deadlines, themselves often arbitrary.

    I like the idea of allowing businesses to pay salaries, and stabilize their cost structures, but I do think we ought to implement a few bumpers that prevent abuses. Limiting hours across a month or quarter and ensuring that employees can take their vacations would be limits that I’d like to see implemented. This bill doesn’t affect those and I’m not sure we’ll see any limits implemented, but I do think it’s up to each person to stand up to their employer and ensure they are not overworking themselves.

    Steve Jones

  • Examining SQL Server 2016

    SQL Sever 2016 is getting close to release. The updates are coming fast and furious, causing issues in some cases as many people look to test the new features in different environments. Personally, I’m struggling a bit to determine which of my environments to update and test, and which to skip. It’s also hard to keep track of those items that work in newer environments, and those I need to keep working on old systems with older code.

    We saw CTP 3.3 this year in January, with both RC0 and RC1 coming in March. I expect we will see an RTM soon, though it’s possible we have more Release Candidates before then. I know there are still some bugs in RC1, so I’m hoping we get at least one more release to show that both the core platform, as well as SSMS, are stable and working well.

    I know many of you won’t be upgrading any production systems, and maybe not even development systems, anytime soon. However are you looking to work with the platform and understand how it’s changed? I think SQL Server 2016 deserves a look, even if it’s curiosity. There are quite a few changes and it’s possible you’ll find some things in there that may make an upgrade worthwhile.

    Even if you don’t find anything valuable for your organization, it’s a neat release, with quite a few enhancements and additions. There are features you are just interesting and exciting to experiment with. Certainly there is plenty to learn as well, with the chance to see how new features, like temporal tables, work, or test the new T-SQL functions against your current code and see if you can beat them.

    Looking at a new bit of software can be invigorating to your career, as you try to grow your knowledge and build new skills. Given that most of us perform work that requires thought, just exercising your brain with the SQL Server 2016 eval might enhance your thought processs and let you enjoy your job just a bit more.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.9MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.