Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • The Joy of Technology

    Here's my Airplay receiver.
    Here’s my Airplay receiver.

    I ran across this piece on the joy of being a programmer, which resonated with me. I started at a programmer, at about the same age, 10 or so. I’m a little older than the author, but I’ve spent most of my life in the technology business, primarily working with SQL Server, but I’ve built software as well. I’m still building a little software, mostly for fun. I recently set up a Raspberry Pi to stream Airplay music from my idevices and created a ball shooting Lego Mindstorm robot. Granted the latter wasn’t much programming, but I’ve backed a Kickstarter project that will allow me to write some more complex code for the Legos with my kids and I’m looking forward to receiving the kit.

    Programming has been a fun hobby and career for me. Whether that’s been working in a front end language like C++ or VB, writing T-SQL that produces reports, or even scripting administrative tasks in VB Script or Powershell, it’s always a challenge. I find myself going through the same pattern of emotions over and over. Excitement as I start a project, confidence in an initial solution, frustration when things don’t work, and a smile after the burst of creativity that finds a solution. Granted, I may iterate through these emotions a few times, perhaps even spending more time struggling than solving, but it’s been an endeavor that I enjoy most of the time.

    Just like the author, I’ve had success in my career, and found technology to be a better job than many other jobs that people I’ve worked with have had. Looking at the accountants, the managers, the salespeople, and all the other workers in the various organizations I’ve been a part of, I think I’ve had one of the better jobs that exist in the world today. Physically easy work, mentally challenging, well paid, and with demand for workers. I hope you feel the same way about your technology career.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • T-SQL Tuesday #42–The Long and Winding Road

    tsqltuesdayIt’s T-SQL Tuesday time, this month hosted by Wendy Pastrick who asks you to talk about the Long and Winding Road. Wendy asks us to talk about your job, your road map to the future, and what might be in store for you.

    T-SQL Tuesday is a monthly blog party on the second Tuesday of each month, hosted by a different person. You can participate by writing a blog post on the topic for the month and following a few rules that you’ll find in Wendy’s invitation.

    If you want to host yourself one month, contact Adam Machanic (@AdamMachanic).

    The Long and Winding Road

    I’ve been in the same job for about 11 years: the editor of SQLServerCentral as my primary role. About 6 years ago, Red Gate Software bought the site, and I now work for them. The job is mostly the same, though a couple things have changed over the years. Three years ago I made an effort to begin speaking more, both on technical topics as well as Red Gate software. I’ve had a busy speaking schedule across that time, and I’m scheduled for about 15 events in 2013.

    That change in speaking for me, along with the SQL in the City events that Red Gate sponsors keeps me busy with building presentations and delivering them all over the world.

    These events are designed to provide attendees with free training just like other conferences with one exception: we can talk about Red Gate tools. The sessions I do aren’t marketing talks about the tools, but rather presentations about things you should do in your environment, but I do show how the tools Red Gate provides makes these tasks easier. That’s the idea behind our tools: they make you more productive.

    This year that has meant I’m moving a little bit away from the administration areas where I spent most of my career and back into some development work. I’ve been setting up Git and working with source control, learning about Continuous Integration, and more. Mostly this is to support the work Red Gate is doing on Deployment Manager, which I think is a great idea. It solves a lot of problems and hassles that I’ve dealt with when developing software. I’m excited, and looking forward to seeing how people like the tool, as well as watching it evolve based on feedback.

    I have no plans to leave my job or Red Gate in the foreseeable future. The position I’m in is unique, and I don’t expect to move up, or around, in the company because of that, but that’s OK.

    I have the best job in the world.

  • Our Race with Machines

    Terminator2-580-75
    Hopefully we aren’t racing these types of machines for our jobs.

    The Terminator andMatrix movies showcase a world where our computing machines have taken over the world to the detriment of humanity. These are worlds were the machines are superior to humans in many ways. It’s a view that scares many people and has them concerned about the future as we find machines doing more and more work for us humans.

    Whether you think we’ll reach a point where machines are sentient or not, we do know that for single tasks, or a limited domain of tasks, machines can excel at some tasks. We’ve seen tremendous improvements in any number of fields where computer technology combined with machinery has greatly improved the way in which a business can function. These improvements have sometimes come at the cost of jobs, which can be a problem in some cases as humans must adapt to the changing ways that organizations function.

    However the news isn’t all bad for human workers. I ran across a very interesting TED talk about machines and how we might compete or work with them. It’s from Erik Brynjolfsson and discusses some of the advancements, including the Deep Blue and Watson projects from IBM. While these projects have sometimes proved they can beat individual humans, groups of both humans and machines have proven to be even more capable of solving problems.

    I don’t know how the world will change, especially our jobs, but as I’ve watched technology be introduced, grow, and dominate business in the world, I’ve also noticed that there are more and more opportunities for those of us willing to work hard, learn, and adapt.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • Factivism

    Bono is embracing his inner nerd.
    Bono is embracing his inner nerd.

    I believe that we should all give back to the world outside of our families at some point in our lives. This might not be the time for you, and you might not have a cause right now. However I think at some point performing volunteer work to better the world will give each of a deep sense of purpose in our lives. I was reminded of this recently while watching a talk from Bono, on the state of hunger and poverty in the world. Bono has devoted considerable personal energy and resources in working with one.org to fight extreme poverty around the world. This may or may not be your cause, but it was an interesting talk, one worth watching.

    The presentation wasn’t what I expected, with Bono embracing his “inner nerd”, as he put it. He talks not only about the state of his cause, but he uses data to present his case and inspire people to continue to work to make things better around the world. The term he used was not activism, but factivism. This is the idea of using facts and knowledge to further a cause. Whether you agree with Bono’s vision, his case, or his goal, the idea of using data to make changes is something most of us embrace as data professionals.

    The idea of using more data, more information to make decisions is something most of us do each day. However we don’t have to limit ourselves to just the data and knowledge we have at work. I find many people looking to showcase their skills or improve their brand. This might be a way in which you choose to do this. With the availability of data from governments and organizations, you can present your own data analysis, or even a visualization that shows how you work with a set of data. It’s the chance to make your own mark on the world, perhaps making the world better, or perhaps disputing the claims of others. Having data freely available allows us to check and verify someone’s work or dispute their conclusions. Both of which are important for a healthy debate.

    However you might tackle some data interpretation, you don’t need to make a political or social statement. You could just provide a story on how you examine the data, perhaps learning along the way. By showcasing your knowledge of data in some way, perhaps even explaining how to load the data, you get experience and practice in both a technical area, as well as in communicating your knowledge to others. If you choose to do so in pursuit of a cause, perhaps the world may be a little better for your efforts.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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