Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • Cramming for Interviews

    SQL books
    Are you tackling any of these subjects in 2013?

    On SQLServerCentral, there are a lot of common questions that I see asked over and over. Perhaps the most common is the “why is my transaction log so large it filled my disk” question, which seems to occur constantly (C’mon, Microsoft, change the default recovery model).  However there is also no shortage of people asking for help with interview questions.

    In general, I don’t mind helping people learn more about their craft. I’s how I learned, and I think honest effort should be rewarded. If you spend some time trying to learn something or understand a concept and have questions, I am more than happy to try and clarify things. However I don’t think that anyone on a phone interview, completing some type of employment exam, or even just memorizing a number of new concepts is doing themselves, or the employer, any good.

    Cramming for an evaluation of your skills makes sense. I did it for school exams, and I see plenty of people working in groups or through exhaustive simulations of features in SQL Server to prepare for the MCM exams. However in those cases, it’s a refreshing of the concepts and knowledge that one will need to complete the exam quickly. This is knowledge the person already has learned in the past.

    As long as you are trying to brush up your skills, and are not deceiving anyone about your talents in an area, I think cramming some facts and ideas into your brain is a good way to present yourself in an interview. Attempting to misrepresent your ability to produce professional work in some area to get a job isn’t acceptable. I won’t help you, and I would encourage others to avoid helping as well.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • A Learning Experiment

    I’ve been looking for ways to improve the way I do my job, which is mostly writing and editing, but at a higher level it’s teaching people. That was the goal of SQLServerCentral, to help people learn about SQL Server and become better at their jobs.

    Last summer I was looking at a few of the other online learning techniques, and decided to give one a try. I signed up for a Single Variable Calculus class at Coursera. It was delivered by Professor Ghrist from the University of Pennsylvania. There were some problems getting started, and the course was delayed from August until January. I had forgotten about this during the busy fall, but the first week of January I received an email that the class would start on Jan 7, and sure enough, I got a welcome email with a note to start.

    The class is set up as you might expect for a college class. I received a syllabus, some introductory remarks (8 minutes, about what I’d get in class), grading instructions, and an initial exam to see how prepared I am. I’ll be starting this week, setting aside a little time a few nights a week to work through this.

    I thought this would be a good class to understand the delivery mechanisms and structures as I have had 7 or 8 semester of calculus, though that was over 20 years ago. I’m hoping this won’t take too much time, but it will give me a chance to review some skills I’ll need to help my son in a few years, and it should be fun. I like math.

    I’m also looking for ideas that might help me build some better features for my regular job.

  • Renewed

    I received notice that my MVP was renewed today, making this my sixth award. Honored to be recognized by Microsoft again.

  • 2013 Goals

    SQL books
    Are you tackling any of these subjects in 2013?

    It’s the last Friday of 2012. If you’re reading this, then I assume the world hasn’t ended and you are planning on starting the next year next week. This is the time of year where we often look forward and make resolutions with the best of intentions. Most people don’t keep many of their resolutions, though I’m not sure if this is because they aim too high or too far from their current path.

    As this year ends, I’d like to ask you to think smaller, and think about your career. For the last poll of 2012, I wanted to ask this:

    What’s your goal in 2013?

    For your goal, I’d like you to think about one thing that you’d like to improve in your skill set in 2013. Is there one area of improvement that you’d like to tackle across 2013? I’m sure there is. SQL Server is a huge platform, and we all have holes in our knowledge.

    With that in mind, I’d like you to think about something you wish you could do. Perhaps you want to understand how a tally table works, or you’d like to be able to get the versions for all your instances using PowerShell. Maybe you want to tackle something like The OLAP Sprint and improve your BI skills.

    Choose one area, and then make a goal. Give yourself a concrete project to tackle. The project shouldn’t be large, and it shouldn’t take the entire year to complete. Drop a note in the discussion and then set an appointment for yourself that repeats every week, every two weeks, or every month and work on the project. Next year I’ll ask you if you actually accomplished your goal.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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