Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • A Release from Data

    Morihei-UeshibaThis editorial was originally published on Aug 14, 2008. It is being republished as Steve is at SQL in the City 2013 – London today.

    Have you ever had that frustrating day where you can’t get your queries to work, or can’t find a problem and spend all day working on an issue you can’t solve? Have you had customers or clients that make unreasonable demands, and you want to just punch the wall? Any co-workers that upset you with requests or complaints that make you walk away before engaging in some other career-ending action?

    Someone actually suggested to me that this might make a good topic as they noticed quite a few people that were interested in databases were also interested in martial arts. At first glance it might seem strange, after all, the traditional geek is more of a passive individual, someone that spends their spare time in virtual worlds they visit on the computer, on a TV screen, or in their minds while reading a book.

    I studied martial arts as a teenager for about 6 or 7 years, trying different styles and teachers as I moved around early in my career. It was a great exercise and a nice release after working hard during the day. However I got married, had kids, and my career took off, and I turned to running, swimming, and other activities I could do during lunch, freeing up evenings for my family.

    Over the last year, my middle son become interested in karate, and it got me back into a dojo after 15 years. We go together 3-4 times a week and even have one class together where parents and kids and study together. I’m even planning on going to the PASS Summit early and taking him to an aikido demonstration the weekend before ( Puget Sound Aikikai).

    Martial arts are not for everyone, but I will say that being able to focus on hitting a pad, and actually hitting it, is a great stress reliever for me. If you’ve never tried it, I’d recommend taking a class or two from a school that doesn’t engage in a lot of contact between people to get a feel for the sport. You might really enjoy it.

    If it’s not for you, I do think it’s important for everyone to take care of their body a bit, especially by putting it under some physical stress. Walking, running, basketball, even chopping wood with Grant, anything that gets you moving will only help the rest of your life. I’d encourage everyone to find some release for those days that you just need to unload some stress after work.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    Everyday Jones

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  • The Best Programmers

    Keeping the best programmers is always a challenge.
    Keeping the best programmers is always a challenge.

    Are you one of the best people at your job? If you are, then do you experience some of these feelings and look to move on?

    • Frustration
    • Boredom
    • Lack of a challenge

    Or have you settled into a routine that you like and can live with? If it’s the latter, you might not really be one of the really talented people. Read this piece on How to Keep Your Best Programmers. I found it interesting that it looks at the motivations and reasons why very talented people might not like a job and move on. I think it’s mostly correct, though it’s not necessarily talent that determines whether people stay or go.

    I think most people find these same frustrations or issues with their jobs. Whether you’re a guru level programmer, or a basic beginner, if you perceive an inversion of meritocracy (or you are bored, or you don’t enjoy the job), you’ll look to leave. Whether you can is another thing completely.

    Many of us have various levels of responsibility, to our families, creditors, or even ourselves. Those responsibilities may cause us to rethink the problems with our current job, and appreciate the security of just having a job. This is especially true in today’s world where loyalty is in short supply from employers, and many of us know that the next position may not be more stable in terms of employment for the foreseeable future. As the saying goes, the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.

    That’s the crux of the issue. A job is a job. I’ve found that to be true across many positions over the years. Some I enjoy more, but ultimately there are always tasks or duties in every position that are drudgery. They are just work. As long as you understand that, and appreciate the challenging and interesting things about your job, you’ll be fine. It’s also why I place more importance on the other staff than I do on the job responsibilities. It’s much easier to put up with a boring or annoying job if the people are interesting than it is to put up with a great job when the people suck.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • Do You Want a Meritocracy at Work?

    The best tend to rise to the top in sports. Do you want that in technology?
    The best tend to rise to the top in sports. Do you want that in technology?

    Professional sports tend to be a meritocracy in most cases. If your natural athletic talent lets you run faster, jump higher, or perform some other skill better than others, you tend to get more time to play, more money, more recognition, etc. It’s not absolute, and at those high skill levels other factors come into play, but for the most part we find bars of skill that a person must exceed to make money at their sport.

    In the technology business, I’m not sure that’s true. However I want to know how you feel about the idea of skills being used to determine your career advancement.

    Do you want to work in a meritocracy at your job?

    Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean the harder or longer you work, the more money you’ll make, or the more promotions you’ll get. It may mean that the newest, youngest person at your company might rise much faster than you simply because they’re a better DBA or developer.

    This doesn’t mean you never get a raise, but if you’ve settled in your job, if you’re a Dead Sea technologist, then you might be limited to cost of living increases and the dreary, less exciting work that no one else wants to do.

    I know there are problems with determining “better” in many jobs, and it’s hard to measure the productivity and value of people in relation to each other in an objective way. However, if we could, then I’m asking if that’s what you’d prefer. Would you like to work in a place where the more talented people rise faster than the average worker, regardless of seniority, friendliness with management, or any other non-skill based measure.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • The Five Year Plan

    18954IT departments won’t exist in five years. A bold prediction from the CITE conference last week. It’s not so much a prediction of an increase in cloud services, but more the idea that the centralized IT department is struggling with the consumerization of technology, the increasing demands of the business for faster turnaround on projects and prototypes, and the flexibility being demanded by an increasingly technology savvy workforce.

    Like most predictions, I take this one with a grain of salt. I don’t think five years is enough time to change the face of the enterprise IT groups. Five years ago the first iPhone had been out for a year and was being demanded by users to replace their Blackberries. These days many corporations support iPhones, along with other smartphones, and Blackberries have disappeared from many organizations. However IT has adapted, released some of their control, and even integrated some of their policies into new technologies. When I enabled corporate mail on my smartphone recently, I had to allow some remote management features to get mail, which was fine with me.

    I do agree that we will start to see some of our IT functions, especially small projects and POC (proof of concepts) increasingly being driven in departments. There are too many projects, too many different technologies, and too little time to work on them for central IT departments to tackle all these projects. Departmental management won’t wait for IT that is stretched too thin, especially if they have existing staff that have some technology skills. That latter factor is something becoming more and more common all the time.

    However I can’t see central IT disappearing. There are often quite a few systems that are complex, that are too large, too important to let someone manage part time. There are projects that cross departments, or even the entire company, and coordinating tasks and resources between departments is complex. Add to all of this the problems and hassles of hiring good technology people, and I can see projects rising in departments, but being turned over at times to IT to manage.

    I do think that central IT groups need to be more flexible, and reduce some of their rules, or adapt them to new technologies and platforms. I expect people working in central staff to be “lent” to departments for projects, perhaps even multiple departments at the same time to help get projects completed, while also gaining some training on the various systems in order to provide support when other staff isn’t available. Such as weekends.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy. Due to technical issues, we have no podcasts today. Actually, Steve’s camera died and he is in the process of replacing it. Hopefully we’ll be back tomorrow with the podcast.