Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • Create Your Own Intense Interview

    Are you unhappy in your job? Do you work too many hours? Is the work environment causing you stress or unhappiness? In all of those situations, I counsel people to look for another job. Make a plan to move on to another position, or even another career field or industry. It can be hard, it can be a struggle, it can take time but we work to live, not the other way around.

    It always amazes me how quickly people settle for jobs, choosing the first position they can possibly get, regardless of the potential pitfalls or even known problems with the position. I know many people have bills and obligations, but you will spend a lot of your life in a job. Doesn’t it make sense to try and find a job that you enjoy, or fulfills you in some way. Or at least a job you enjoy going to most days?

    It’s hard to find a new job. It’s hard for companies to find employees that will fit into the organization and stay a long time. I’d think that most of us on either side of the interview table would want to be sure that we are entering into a good relationship. Companies ask lots of questions to try and learn about the candidate; candidates should do the same thing. Create an intense interview, one where you probe the company as hard as they probe you to determine the shape, scope, and size of the position. You don’t need to be adversarial to do this, but be thorough and do not be afraid to ask questions.

    I heard from a friend recently that went on an interview, and had done some research beforehand. This person jotted thoughts and questions in a notebook, took it to the interview, and made notes as the session progressed. I had never done that, but it makes sense, and I think I’d do that in the future.

    I do not treat interviews as some contest I have to win by impressing people. It’s a mutual meeting to determine if we want to do business together, and that mindset has served me well over the years.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • Hustle

    As long as we have people with this attitude, we are going places:

    “If you hustle – all out, fully hustle – and you succeed, then you gain the satisfaction of a job well done. If you hustle and fail, you never have to worry about what might have been if you’d given everything.

    If you slack off, you might get lucky and still succeed, but there’s little satisfaction other than the temporary thrill of escaping with your life. If you slack off and fail, you have to live forever with not knowing what you were truly capable of.”

    From Todd Henry (via Tim Mitchell)

  • Is Software Engineering Dead?

    Software Engineering
    Are textbooks like this obsolete?

    Is Software Engineering dead? It’s a premise that’s in this article from Bloomberg. It calls the job a career dead end where job prospects decline after one reaches 35 years of age. I think that’s a naive view of the industry, despite the quotes from Craig Barrett and Mark Zuckerberg. While the best of the best might peak in their careers at the same age as many athletes, that doesn’t imply that the career choice is a poor one.

    There’s a discussion on Slashdot as well, and I was struck by a few of the comments, which seem to suggest that if you are still just a “software engineer” at age 40, you aren’t very good at your job. It seems that some people seem to think that everyone in this business is constantly looking to move to a new job and advance into management or they aren’t successful . I saw analogies with other industries thinking that same thing, that experienced people would not still be doing the same job after 20 years.

    That seems crazy to me. So many people in various industries continue to improve at their jobs, and do the same work for decades. Carpenters, doctors, accountants, all continue to improve their skills over time, and while some may more into management or open their own firms, many will continue to do their same jobs until they retire. And they’ll enjoy their careers.

    I don’t deny that ageism exists, and that older programmers often can’t, or won’t, work as many hours as younger ones, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth their salaries. Good, experienced programmers produce better code, with fewer bugs. Once managers learn that working more hours doesn’t equal better code, or even more code, the entire industry will start producing better applications.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • Time for Your Career

    Pro XMl book
    Trying to learn some XML, and work on my skills.

    When I was at SQL Saturday #131 recently, I attended Will Sisney’s (@HanSQL | blog) talk titled “6 Steps to a Stellar Performance Review”. It was a very interesting session and I agree with most of the advice that Will presented. A lot of it feels like common sense, much like my Branding presentation, but it’s helpful to have someone talk you through the ideas and get you organized. I’d recommend you attend this session if you get the chance to do so and vote for it if Will submits for the PASS Summit.

    However there was one thing in the session that struck me. One of the steps is for you to take control of your own training and make an active effort to learn more about your craft, tracking your time and efforts to present to your boss. Will says that he spends an hour a day on professional development, which sounds like a lot at first glance, but it’s only 12.5% more than a 40 hour work week.

    Who works 40 hours in this business? Lots of people, though I’m not sure it’s the majority. However I do know that there are people that don’t focus and work just on their projects for that 40-50 hours they spend at the office, so an hour a day isn’t unreasonable. I’ve had more than a few bosses that were willing to give me 2-4 hours a week to spend on learning something, if I could show them it was time well spent.

    How much time could you spend on professional development every week?

    I am asking what you could realistically fit into your schedule now, without large sacrifices by your family or the rest of your life. Could you spare an hour a week? Two? Five? Andy Warren talks about needing 100 hours to learn a new skill and feel comfortable with it. You won’t be an expert, but you would be able to work with the technology and have an idea on how to learn more. Four hours a week would get you 100 hours this year. Could you spare that?

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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