Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • 100 Hours

    How long does it take someone to learn to be good at building software in some language? I’m sure many of you have heard of the 10,000 rule that notes the truly gifted in a field need 10,000 hours of practice to become experts and master their craft. There’s some debate about how true that is, but certainly becoming an expert takes tremendous dedication, certainly years of time.

    I ran across a piece that referenced a slightly shorter rule, the 100 hour rule. The rule is fairly simple: “for most disciplines, it only takes one hundred hours of active learning to become much more competent than an absolute beginner.”

    One hundred hours is nothing. That’s a long week or two of active learning to get good at something. But how good? If we look at software development, what can you accomplish in 100 hours? After all, absolute beginner is a low bar. That’s the level my Mom is at and I’m not sure how much I could teach her beyond “Hello, world” in a few hours. Even in 100 hours, I’m not sure she could solve many problems.

    The good thing is that most of us aren’t absolute beginners, especially in software. We have frames of reference for many parts of how computers work. I suspect that 100 hours of deliberate, guided, practical (meaning typing and practicing skills), would turn lots of people into a good junior developer, maybe even a mid level developer. I think many senior developers would be very competent in a new language in a few hundred hours, because they’d learn the syntax translation quickly and then start understanding the tips, tricks, and gotchas that experts in that language might know. The algorithms and problem solving skills are often the same between languages.

    For most of us looking to grow our careers and improve our technology skills, I would guess we could learn a new skill every year, becoming competent, with 100 hours of practice. Reading books and articles is good, but the hands on practice is most important, and that’s what really drives home active learning. That’s something I’d encourage many of you do, with exercises, puzzles, or maybe even start a small project that help you learn. It will help your career, by improving skills, and might even be fun along the way.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.5MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • Happy New Year 2016

    Happy New Year from everyone here at SQLServerCentral and Redgate Software!

    I do hope you’re not working, and enjoying a start to 2016. If you do happen to read this, I hope you are relaxing and have a big smile on your face.

    This year we’ve got a new version of SQL Server coming, and I’m sure lots of exciting new technologies we’ll see released. It’s a new beginning, and a chance to move forward. With that in mind, a simple question today.

    What new technology, language, or skill do you want to improve in 2016?

    Today is a great day to make a resolution and start growing your skills, for fun or profit, in 2016.

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 1.3MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • Are We Suckers?

    I written about learning to say no. I’ve noted that we must find a balance in life with work. I try to encourage you to work hard, get better at your job, and bring value to your employer. I certainly know there are plenty of employees that coast along in their jobs, doing often less than what I would consider the minimum. I’m hoping that more and more of you are trying to do better.

    However, when I read pieces like this one where a CEO wonders why employees don’t work harder, I get frustrated by managers that don’t seem to understand that work is merely work for many of us. We enjoy it, we want to do well, but it’s just a part of our lives. We have other things in life that we love and are more important than work.

    However I also know there are plenty of you that go the extra mile. You routinely work outside the normal business hours to solve problems, or just deploy changes to system. I’ve been there, and I’ve wondered why I’d bother working from 11pm Sat – 4am Sun for “routine maintenance” if I wasn’t being paid an hourly wage. This week, what do you think about this?

    Are we suckers for working extra hours?

    I know plenty of people enjoy the work, and they rise to the challenge of responding in a crisis. One of the hardest things I had to manage was getting people to go home and rest when faced with an extended crisis. It seems I had no shortage of employees that wanted to work 30, 40 or more hours in a row, and I’d argue to send them home to rest because I’d need them to work tomorrow night.

    I think that we should make an honest effort to give our employers value. We should do the work assigned, perhaps do it better today than yesterday, and be flexible when more work is needed. I also think employers should do the same thing. Extra hours at work should be extra time off. Compensation should relate to to performance, but not hours worked. Sacrifice by employees should be met with sacrifice by employers.

    In other words, just like my balance between work and life, there should be a balance between employers and employees with each side respecting the other.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.3MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • The Years of Experience

    I heard Tim Ford say recently that the years of experience don’t matter as much as what you do with them.

    That’s a great quote. It’s also one that goes along with the idea that there is no shortage of people that mistake 5 years at a job for 5 years of experience. It’s highly likely that many people really get 6 months of experience and repeat those same skills for years, because that’s what the job requires. Unless you have a dynamic, changing environment, one that experiments and regularly looks to upgrade systems, it’s hard to get those years of experience without changing jobs.

    That’s a conundrum. Do you want to change jobs to get new experiences and grow? Some people become consultants for this reason. Others regularly look to move on to a new company, sometimes sacrificing benefits, short commutes, or something else to grow their careers. However plenty of people prefer to stick with an organization, whether that’s because loyalty, a great set of coworkers, security, or nature of the work being accomplished. Many people will stick with a job as long as they can.

    In those cases, I do believe that you can still do something with your years and grow experience. Continue to learn, experiment, and suggest changes where they fit. Learn to write the complex T-SQL that’s needed in older SQL Server 2005/2008 systems, but spend a bit of time also learning how Window functions in SQL Server 2012+ run more efficiently. Rebuild reports in PowerBI, and see if your organization can see the benefits of investing in one new thing this year. Even if your company won’t make changes, imagine what you’d do if they ever change their minds.

    Above all, practice your skills. Rewrite old processes and squeeze out more performance. Automate things in your job, whether you use PoSh or VBScript, when you can make gains in productivity, you can create time. Time that’s valuable in helping you learn. Even if you can’t get your code deployed, will will have the satisfaction of improving your skills, and knowing you can make a difference if you ever get the chance.

    I realize many of you are busy. I realize that learning about R or Kimball data warehousing might be seem to be pointless because your organization will never use the technology. I get it, and I don’t disagree. However I hope to inspire you to try to enjoy technology. Jump on Twitter with the #sqlfamily and gain some motivation with what others are doing, or have them cheer you on as you learn. You might be surprised what you can do with your years when you find something you enjoy and get support from others that share your excitement about computing.

    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.