Tag: career

I’m not leaving; I have the best job in the world, and I could easily see this being my last job. However, we’ve had a few people leave Red Gate recently, a few of which I have known for some time. It’s inevitable as a company grows that there will always be some people that find better opportunities or need a change of jobs. Perhaps it’s a sign of the times, but I doubt that many of us in technology will keep the same job for decades.

Leaving a job isn’t a bad thing, and it certainly doesn’t have to be antagonistic. I’ve left quite a few jobs on good terms, with both myself and my employer wishing each other well in new endeavors. I have found most people will behave as adults and professionals, even when one side is not happy with the way in which the employment relationship ended. Being open and honest certainly helps, as people usually respect a position if they understand it, even if they don’t like the circumstances.

One of the things that typically happens at Red Gate is that the person leaving sends a note around to the department(s) affected, and sometimes the company. Recently we had an interesting one come out that was broken into different sections. Each section looked back at this person’s time at Red Gate, and the note got me thinking. How would I look back at my time in various companies?

The sections talked about good times, things learned, mistakes made, memorable events and more. It’s the type of perspective I like, and what I’d like to write if I ever leave. Then I thought maybe it’s the type of thing I should write every year, looking back at the good and bad times I’ve had at the company.

Taking stock of your situation, the good, bad, challenging, growing, and other events, is a healthy way to examine your employment. I might encourage each of you to write a “leaving letter” as we close out the year. Write down the things you’ve had fun doing, the achievements you’re proud of, the mistakes you’ve made and more. Don’t limit it to 2014, but look at your entire time with this employer. Use the letter to evaluate your position and career. Maybe you’ll think about how you’d like next year to proceed, or even if you want to change companies. Either way, stepping back and reviewing your career is something that is valuable to ensuring you continue to move in a direction you want.

Steve Jones

I was chatting with one of the more experienced SQL Server professionals I know recently and was surprised to know this person had actually retired, but come back to technology because they were bored with not working. I suspect that’s how I’ll be later in life, and am not really looking forward to retiring anytime soon.

However I do think about jobs and employment as I age. I know that it can be tougher to keep a job over the long term. It seems the flexibility many of us appreciate as younger workers can be a detriment later in life when you value stability. With that in mind, here’s this week’s question:

Is this the last full time, technology job you’ll have?

I have an amazing job, perhaps the best one I could have imagined. I love what I do, but I do think about my options every year. I take some time to think about how my employment has gone in the past year, what else I might do and what I want to do in the future. I re-evaluate how I feel and try to be honest with myself about how I feel about my career. If I decide to make a change, I want it to be my decision, not something that’s forced upon me by a change in my employment status.

I wonder if this will be my last job. I certainly think it could be, and the way it’s gone the last few years, I hope it is.

Steve Jones

The Voice of the DBA Podcast

Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 1.5MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

It’s the slow time of year. As I saw tweeted recently, “And now for the month when nothing gets done.” I haven’t usually felt this way at a few jobs as the budget and planning process has typically been a part of a busy month. As I’ve run SQLServerCentral, I’ve also been looking back and forward this month, trying to think about our industry and data in a long term way. I have found December to be frenetic as times as I try to get in some ski days while still getting work done.

However this year I’ve been in a situation that I think many people get into. I had a number of vacation days I needed to take, so I scheduled them a day here and there across the weeks. Between being off for Thanksgiving week, and missing almost the complete last two weeks of the year, I’m finding it a bit difficult to get into the swing of things as I have a few days back at work. It seems that work naturally slows down in teams as various people take holiday time off, but this is the first time that I’ve struggled to actually get my own work done as I’m in and out of the office on an irregular schedule.

Perhaps this is the time when those of us who don’t work in Christmas related industries can catch up on work that we are often too busy to do otherwise. Are there maintenance items you can schedule? Maybe tackle some in-depth query tuning that is needed for end of year processes? Is it the time to “scratch an itch” at work? Red Gate has their Down Tools Week scheduled this week, and it’s a time when people can tackle fun projects that improve the business, but are rarely worked on. Our SQLServerCentral Scripts plug in for SSMS came out of one of these weeks.

Pitch an idea to your boss to take a week or two and dig into something that is needed, but never prioritized. Maybe you’ll get your wish as a Christmas present.

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.