Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • The Cloud is good for your career

    SQL Azure
    Learning SQL Azure can be good for your next job interview

    I think most of us know that the world is not really a meritocracy. We know that the value of many things is not necessarily intrinsic to the item; value is based on perception. That’s a large part of the economic theory of supply and demand. The more people want something, the more it should cost.

    I ran across a piece that surveyed some salaries and it shows that people working with cloud platforms are commanding higher salaries, even when the underlying technologies are the same. It seems crazy, but that’s the world we live in. Perceptions drive a lot of things in the world, especially the ones that don’t seem to make sense.

    Should you specialize in cloud technologies? In one sense, the platform is not a lot different than what you might run in your local data center. Virtualized machines, connections and deployments to remote networks, and limited access to the physical hardware. There are subtle differences, and learning about them and working with them, could be good for your next job interview, when the HR person or technology-challenged manager asks you about Azure.

    Part of your career is getting work done, using your skills and talents in a practical and efficient manner. However a larger part of it, IMHO, is the marketing of your efforts and accomplishments. The words you choose, the way you present yourself, these things matter. I would rather be able to talk about SQL Azure as a skill, and then relate that to local Hyper-V installations of SQL Server than the other way around.

    If you are considering new work, or interesting in the way cloud computing might fit into an environment, I’d urge you to take a look at SQL Azure or the Amazon web services. You can get a very low cost account for your own use, and experiment. You might even build a little demo for your next interview that impresses the person who signs the paychecks.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • Programmers v Salespeople

    Are sales more important than development?

    Last year my wife moved from a sales engineering position to a sales rep job with her company. It has been a bit of a challenge, but she’s enjoyed it, and it’s been good for the family. On top of a small raise, she has a large potential upside to her income as a sales representative. I’m amazed how much money some of the people in her company make from selling software and services, and I sometimes wonder how it works out.

    Recently I sent her this link about salespeople and commissions. It talks about the problems with commissions and the potential misunderstandings of what commissions actually do for our company. I know that some companies think paying salespeople flat rates and no commission is heresy. I know others that have transitioned to flat rates, including many retail companies, and they have continued to achieve high sales.

    As we debated the benefits of paying commissions,  we argued a bit about the relative value of the positions. She asked me if everyone received a salary, who shoudl be paid more. I said that I thought it was easy to replace salespeople in a company, so developers. My wife countered with “it’s easy to replace programmers.” So for a Friday poll, I thought I’d ask the tech people out there.

    Should salespeople make more than programmers?

    You can assume a commission structure, or salaries for everyone, but when you look at the value each brings to a company, and the ways in which they can help grow business, which is more valuable? Which is easier to replace? Replacing a top performer in either place is probably hard, but what’s your opinion?

    I still stand by the idea that it’s easier to replace salespeople. While I think selling is a skill, I think it’s one more easily learned by a wider variety of the population. I think programming has a fundamental mindset that is hard to teach.

    Or maybe it’s a larger number of people would be more willing to spend their days trying to sell something than sitting in a cubicle writing code.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • Do You Need a Coach?

    Most of us reach a point in our careers where we think we can tackle most of the challenges we face ourselves. We may ask questions, we may need to read, study, practice, or more, but we tend to have the self confidence to go it alone, making our own decisions and giving ourselves feedback on how things work.

    However maybe there’s a better way. I read this piece about a surgeon that tried a coach and found it to be very helpful. To be fair, I’ve read Dr. Gawande’s book and enjoyed it: The Checklist Manifesto.

    It’s an interesting idea. We often pay teachers and coaches to help us with sports, with some areas of our lives, but most of us don’t bother. I wonder if there’s something that’s worth investing in here professionally.

    I think there is, and that’s probably the easy thing. Finding someone that you trust to be a coach, and you’d be willing to pay.

  • Going Solo

    This editorial was originally published on Mar 20, 2007. It is being republished as Steve Jones is on vacation. 

    Are you ready to leave the corporate world and become a consultant? It’s a tempting thought and probably one that everyone in corporate America considers at one time or another. Especially those of us in technology who have skills that can easily be used to help some other company.

    Here are 10 reasons not to go into business for yourself, which is an interesting list. It’s from someone who evangelizes the benefits, joys, and methods of escaping the corporate cubicle. If you’re seriously considering becoming a consultant, starting your own business, or going out in any way on your own, I’d recommend her site as a place to learn some things.

    Coming from someone that helped start this site and has worked for it for 3 years this might sound funny. I don’t really like being in business for myself. I know, I’ve been successful, had a good life, let you all know about large parts of it, but the truth is I didn’t love working for myself. If not for Andy and Brian supporting me, I’m not sure I’d have done it.

    Working for yourself, even when you’re successful, isn’t this easy, amazing job. It’s a hassle and it’s hard to worry about the different parts of a business. I’m a writer and a techie. As much as I pay attention to marketing, sales, and other groups, I don’t want to do their jobs. I have an opinion and am happy to express it, but I don’t want to get more involved than that.

    I’m not really advocating one way or the other that you should or shouldn’t start a business or stay in a cubicle. Rather I want to caution you that it’s not as easy as tuning queries. The marketing, accounting, and collections will be as much as the job as the T-SQL.

    Read about other’s experiences, think hard about it, and consider all the parts of the job that you’ll need to do. There’s always more than you think and remember that just as with a new job in corporate America.

    The grass is not always greener.

    If you want to go into consulting, read this book.