Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • What does certification achieve?

    This is part 2 of a 3 part series of thoughts on certification and Microsoft technologies.

    The idea of certifying someone as having a skill is almost as old as the idea of teaching someone a skill. I’m sure as soon as a person had the idea of teaching someone for compensation, others wanted some assurance that the person had learned the skill. That was probably the first time that a test was developed, graded, and scores passed out.

    We all know that a certificate or a test score doesn’t imply any level of competence at a skill. If I had to weld two pieces of metal together as a test, successfully completeing this wouldn’t imply that I could weld any two other pieces of the same metal together (size, scale, etc. matter). It wouldn’t even imply that I’d do as good a job welding the 99th and 100th pieces together in a week as I’d done during the test. The same would hold true in almost any endeavor, but we still have tests, grades, certifications, diplomas, and awards in many different fields.

    Is IT that different? In one sense it is. The technology field seems to change so often, and the bars for entry (and thus hiring) are so low that it’s difficult to set up standardized tests, often because it’s not cost effective. Medicine and law change constantly, but their tests slowly evolve, and they certainly don’t change at the rate of SQL Server versions and tests. It’s also more cost effective to create new revisions of tests in these other fields when the candidates have made a large investment in their education and regulatory agencies require licenses to practice in these other fields.

    However I might argue that technology doesn’t change that much. The idea of backing up a SQL Server database, rebuilding a clustered index, adding a login, querying for duplicates, and more haven’t changed much in the two decades I’ve worked with the product. The actual syntax might be different, but are we hiring people that remember syntax or accomplish tasks?

    I think that’s the point of certification. It should be a method that gives others confidence that an individual can accomplish a task, or has some basic skill. I’d argue the current set of tests, questions, and even structure of the MCSE/MCITPro/MCSA whatever doesn’t remotely do that. It doesn’t test skills, tests knowledge at the base level of memorization, and fails to provide a basic bar that we can be sure everyone has met.

    Perhaps those aren’t Microsoft’s goals. Perhaps they value their profits higher than the certification that individuals hold skills, perhaps they view these designations as a part of their marketing effort to sell software. Perhaps they have other goals. All I know is that as long as employers ask for these certifications in job postings, as long as employers pay for tests and candidates take them, why should Microsoft change?

    If we all believe the emperor has clothes, does it matter if he really wears any?

    Steve Jones

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  • No More MCM

    This is part 1 of a 3 part series of thoughts on certification and Microsoft technologies.

    I’ve heard that Friday afternoon is the best time to fire someone. People are leaving early, the office is quiet, and you can let people go quickly and get yourself away. It also gives the remaining employees some time to grieve, and hopefully, come back to work Monday without some of the shock they initially experienced. At least, that’s what they say. Personally I think there’s no good day, and productivity always suffers somewhat whenever there’s surprising, upsetting news.

    Recently, just before the US Labor Day holiday, late on a Friday, I saw a number of announcements on Twitter that the MCM program had been discontinued. Since I was on holiday, I thought I’d missed something, but apparently not. It was late on a Friday that the an email was sent to all MCMs and MCAs notifying them of the change. It was a brief email, noted here, and didn’t include some of the reasons of that were given as a comment in a Connect item filed to save the program (the comment was from Tim Sneath at 1:32pm). There’s been a variety of coverage and blogs around the Internet as well.

    We aren’t being told the whole truth, nor do I expect to be told the whole truth. This is Microsoft’s program, and as such, we follow along and adjust, or choose to ignore it. In this case, I can’t believe that this was anything other than a cost based issue, designed to reduce expenses and raise profits. In all likelihood, someone(s) bonus depended on internal Microsoft Learning metrics being met (probably revenue or profit numbers), which the MCM/MCA program were reducing. In an effort to look better, the program was chopped, without a lot of input, communication, or discussion with the people actually working to better the program. I expect Tim Sneath and others were caught off guard with the decision and told to deal with it. They did so poorly, extremely poorly. In hindsight, I’m sure someone wishes they’d composed a better message and delayed sending it for a couple days.

    I attempted the first part of the MCM early on, with a voucher. I didn’t pass, but I learned how hard the exam was, realized it was within my capabilities, but that it would require some serious study. I didn’t proceed further because of other commitments, but I’ve watched more and more people work through the MCM process, usually over months or years as they learn, struggle, research, and drive themselves forward.

    Ultimately the achievement isn’t the certification, but the journey. The efforts candidates go through, the knowledge they acquire from study and hard work, and perhaps more importantly, the skills they build to teach themselves new techniques. I wouldn’t hire an MCM because I was sure they necessarily knew everything about my environment. I’d hire them because I would be 100% confident they could find the problem and fix it, no matter whether they used old knowledge or acquired new proficiency on the spot.

    That was the real value of someone who completed, or even seriously worked towards, an MCM.

    Steve Jones

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  • Good and Bad Interview Questions

    Why is a manhole cover round? How many cows are in Canada? How would you cure world hunger?

    There’s no shortage of strange interview questions you might be asked in the tech world. If you like these questions, and want to interview, or be interviewed in this way, grab a copy of How Would You Move Mount Fuji and start studying. These are the types of questions that Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and many other tech companies have been asking candidates for years. Since so many technology people read about the practices from these companies, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of you had been asked these types of questions in other interviews.

    Personally I’ve never been asked any of these strange questions, and am not sure how I’d respond. My interviews have often been very technical, but have included a number of “how would you..” or “tell me about a time when..” questions. However ultimately I’d like to think that my soft skills, and my social skills came through positively and that was the reason I often received job offers.

    Many IT managers are starting to feel that these types of questions, and even highly technical questions, aren’t the best way to evaluate a candidate. Hiring costs are up, both in direct costs spent on finding people and the indirect costs of the lost work from current employees interviewing people. There is pressure to hire well, and find people that can be productive. It seems that many managers are starting to look to evaluate candidates in other ways beyond the technical skills. Those skills are important, but not necessarily more important than soft skills.

    That’s been the way I’ve looked at hiring for years. I can often teach someone technical skills, but I can’t teach them to fit in with a group, or be a team player, or even just be someone that won’t annoy the rest of the team. Those social fits are very important if you want your team to function well together, providing support, help, and inspiration to each other.

    Building culture is hard, and while technical skills are important, employees that bond together help push each other to do better work for the team. Employees that dislike each other can bring down overall quality and coordination very quickly. The sooner managers learn that, and learn to respect employees while challenging them, the sooner their departments will start to shine.

    Steve Jones

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    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

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  • Great IT Shops

    This was originally published on Jan 11, 2009.

    How many of you think you work for a great company? Hands down. Now how many of you think you have a great IT department? Would you recommend it to a friend?

    That’s a great test for me if you work for a great company, if you’d recommend your company to a friend as a place to work. If not, then why not? Recently I found this article on the 10 signs of a great IT shop, and it got me thinking about some of my past employers. I think I’ve been fortunate to work for one great IT department in my career and a few more that were not so hot.

    I’ll note that people always ask me what it’s like to work for Red Gate Software, my current employers and do I like them. I do, but I’m like 5,000 miles away so I don’t get to experience much of the company. So I can’t really judge them as an IT shop to work for, especially since I’m not in IT anymore!

    There was one company I worked for that was amazing, and it was the largest IT department that I was a part of. Almost everyone liked the company, liked their jobs, and really worked together well. At times it felt a little surreal to me that this large group of people, literally hundreds in IT, were working together. Sure there was bickering and people that didn’t get along, but they were the exception, not the rule.

    This is opposed to a few other places I’ve worked where bickering and infighting were the rule. Or a few jobs I’ve had where IT wasn’t really recognized as an extremely valuable part of the company, despite the fact that it was in a few cases. I think that is not as common these days as we incorporate more and more technology into businesses, but 10 or 20 years ago IT was not seen as valuable, though it might have been important.

    I don’t necessarily agree with all the signs listed in the article, but I do think that there are few things you need to do to build an IT group that people want to work for, that they’ll go above and beyond for, and that they’ll stick with you over time. A career path is the first thing and it is important, as is the ability to keep people moving on those paths. That might include training, self study, etc, but you have to show a commitment to your people. I’d also say that the company should take advantage of IT as a strategic part of the business and use to gain competitive advantages. And recognize IT when it does so.

    So do you work in a great IT shop?

    Steve Jones

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