Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • Opportunities Abound

    There are so many opportunities for many of you to learn more about SQL Server.  It’s amazing to think how many more choices we have today than I did early in my career. When I moved to Denver, we had a user group that met somewhat sporadically, an MSDN lunch hour every month, the PASS Summit, and training classes from various vendors like New Horizons.

    That’s changed today and when I look at my schedule, it’s incredible to think how many of them I’m going to be a part of this fall. I’ve got a busy travel schedule the rest of the year, and I’ll only touch a small portion of the events that you could use to increase your SQL Server knowledge.

    There are quite a few conferences this year. DevConnections in a few weeks, the PASS Summit mid month, and SQL Intersection at the end of October. I’ll be speaking at the former and latter, skipping the middle one this year. There are two SQL Rallys, Nordic and Amsterdam in Europe. There are also lots of pre– and post-cons and other workshops sessions around the events. There are even amazing training classes from vendors like SQLskills and Brent Ozar Unlimited that will teach you a tremendous amount about SQL Server. I’m hoping to attend one of these sessions in the next year.

    If your boss won’t pay for a conference or class, there are plenty of free events as well. SQL Saturdays are everywhere, almost every weekend. I’ll be at San Diego, Denver, Charleston, Portland, and Washington DC this year, but there are plenty more. Many of them offer pre-cons, at low costs. You might consider covering the cost yourself and asking your boss to pay for the time off.

    My employer, Red Gate Software, is putting on some of their own events. We are doing seminars before some of the SQL Saturdays and I have SQL in the City events in Pasadena, Atlanta, and Charlotte this year.  These are free events, just register and come.

    If you aren’t close to any events, there are more and more online resources. SQLServerCentral should be your first stop, but there are videos, webinars, virtual chapter meetings, and great subscriptions from vendors. If you want to self-study, there are great books you can buy as well as online challenges to help you learn.

    There are all levels of costs, online, local, worldwide, etc. resources that you can use to learn more about SQL Server. I’d highly encourage you to make a plan and improve your SQL Server skills over the next year. I guarentee there’s something for every budget and situation.

    Steve Jones

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  • Job Worries over Automation

    There was a report recently where the NSA noted that they are reducing the number of system administrators by 90%. If the report is true, that would certainly worry many of the people in the technology industry. However I’m not sure that the quote given in the article means what it looks like at first.
    Much of the technology reports that we see aren’t completely true since many of the reporters aren’t that familiar with the details of how computer technology works. In this case, however, we have a quote: “What we’re in the process of doing – not fast enough – is reducing our system administrators by about 90 percent,” It might be hard to interpret this remark in any way other than the NSA is looking to reduce the number of people, but if you read further, the piece notes that the NSA is concerned about contractors, not necessarily FTEs. I suspect that any reduction in contractors employed by other companies will be made up by increased internal headcount.
    However even if the NSA can reduce the number of people needed to administer their systems, I’d suspect that means that they had too many people to begin with. The various reports of this story all talk about automation being used increasingly to handle the load of system work, but the idea that automation replaces people is a myth. Automation usually results in less growth of people, but rarely a reduction in staff.
    I’ve heard the concerns over automation replacing technology workers for decades (literally) and I’ve yet to see it happen. We have more technology workers than ever before, and no sign of there being less in the future. Your department might change, you might hire less, but there will be lots of jobs in technology for the foreseeable future. In other departments that might not be the case, but I bet you we’ll have system administrators, DBAs, and developers for a long, long time in most companies that have them today.
    Steve Jones

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  • Backups, Encryption and Branding in San Diego

    This weekend is SQL Saturday #249 in San Diego. I’m looking forward to the trip for a few reasons, but mostly because I used to live in the Northern San Diego area and love going back to spend time near the beach. I’m not sure what I’ll have time to do this trip, but since the event is in La Jolla, likely I’ll visit Del Mar, where I used to work and see some sights. A short run in the sand might also be required 😉

    I arrive Thursday because Red Gate Software is hosting a small event Friday with The DBA Team: Grand Fritchey and myself.  This is one of our mini SQL in the City seminars and is targeted to DBAs. We’ve done two so far in 2013, with (I believe) three more to come. I’ll be talking about backups this time while Grant covers monitoring and parameter sniffing. I’m not sure if we’re full, but if you can come, register and we’ll see you Friday.

    Saturday is the SQL Saturday event, at the UCSD Extension campus. I’ll be opening the day talking about encryption and then have the second session on branding yourself. I enjoy these two talks, and they’ve been popular at a number of events across the last couple of years.

    I’m hoping for good weather, especially after a rainy week in Denver.

  • Risk and Assumptions

    Today’s editorial was originally released on Jan 22, 2009. It is being re-published as Steve is on vacation.

    I was reading Buck Woody’s blog the other day and he had a post on Risk where he quoted Warren Buffet: “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” I think that’s true and that’s part of the reason we’d had issues in our financial markets over the last couple of years. It’s also the reason that we have issues in many of the systems that we build.

    Often the people building IT systems go through an extensive evaluation to determine the needs and wants of their users. It’s an attempt to identify exactly what to build so that the user is pleased, a good estimation can be made, and everyone finishes the project happy.

    And that almost never happens.

    There are people that are better at this than others, but the overall state of the software development process is pretty poor. That means that any project you undertake, or that your customers or clients ask you to undertake is fraught with risk. I can see why there are plenty of people that don’t want to hire contractors to get software built, or that our management doesn’t want to start new projects with their IT departments.

    I don’t have a solution, and I’m not completely sure where the problems lie, but I do know that as the economy slows, people have less tolerance for risk. That means less IT projects, and potentially the need for less IT staff and contractors. Which then contributes to the slowdown of the economy as there are less people at work.

    If I were working in IT or consulting right now, I would be working to lower risk as much as possible. Adopting techniques that you are confident in, learning new skills and then applying them, even in side projects, can help grow your skills, increase the chances of projects being completed that the client is happy with, and keeping you employed. Now is the time to reassess the way you work, and find ways to show that you can work with your clients to meet their needs in an efficient manner.

    Efficient in their eyes, not yours.

    Steve Jones

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