Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • The Career Path

    Which career path would you like?

    Most people seem to wander through their careers, taking any job that comes their way. Others have a tight focus, often with a larger goal of ending up as the owner of a company or perhaps the CIO of one.

    However for the technical person, someone that wants to remain employed for a long time, but doesn’t want to oversee others, there isn’t a clear path. So many DBAs, developers, and other people have no interest in moving into management, but they still would like to progress in some fashion to other jobs.

    This Friday I wanted to ask what that progression might be like if you had no restrictions from HR and could design your own set of jobs:

    What would you like your technical career path to look like?

    I am wondering if you think there ought to be some way to advance to a senior person, maybe with multiple levels after your title. Perhaps some of you would like to move into an architect position or even be seen as some technical fellow after some amount of time.

    Think about the way that a technical career might advance, without going into management, and let us know in which direction you wish you could move.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

  • Jobs for Data Scientists

    This is the trend line we like to see for database jobs

    I wrote about data scientists while back, which seems to be a field that involves the analysis of large amounts of data and the tools involved in this work. The definition of this area is a little nebulous, but that hasn’t stopped companies from looking for people to work in this area. There are jobs for data scientists, and perhaps for interesting, there seems to be more and more jobs for people to work with “big data”.

    This article shows a huge trend up in the “big data” keywords in job listings. That makes sense as I think the data growth has far outpaced the ability of tools to work with large datasets. Excel had a problem with large amounts of data until recently, and most of the other tools used are either very expensive or home grown.

    Many of the people subscribing to this newsletter are technical people, those that work to form the computer into a tool that someone else can use to do their job. It’s an interesting job, and one I hope you enjoy, but there are some of you out there that would like to do more with data than just find ways to help others query that data. Perhaps a data scientist is a job that you would like to move into at some point.

    This is an area that I suspect many companies will want to focus more efforts on in the future, and I think that being a DBA who knows how to query data and find patterns gives you a head start on moving into a position that can be challenging, fun, and perhaps most importantly, without much after hours work.

    If you like statistics, patterns, and helping your company actually make use of the information in data, perhaps a data scientist might be the position for you.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

  • For your CIO: Building Technical Leaders

    I might send this to a VP or CIO: Global CIO: A Framework For Developing Technical Leaders. It’s an article that talks about building senior technical leaders in your company, which I think is important if you view your Information Technology department as strategic.

    That also means thinking about retention, and building an atmosphere where people want to work. That doesn’t mean you can’t have layoffs or need to keep every person, but management does have to show competent and hard working technical people that they are valuable. It should also involve some way to balance the disparate needs of ambitious people that you want to retain and those average employees that want a secure job and are willing to do the average jobs.

    It also involves keeping a career path for technical people that doesn’t lead to management. Plenty of smart technical people want to keep growing, so give them a way to do so.

  • You Can Telecommute

    Working in my own litlte world

    I’ve written a number of pieces about telecommuting over the years, and while some people have had success in getting permission to work from home, many of you tell me that your current manager, and likely every manager you’ve ever had wouldn’t allow it. There are a huge group of people that are convinced telecommuting is not in their future. I think you’re wrong, and let me tell you a story.

    Years ago I went to work for a small (50 people), old company. The CEO had worked their his whole life, his father had worked there most of his life, and they had very conservative values and ideals. They both wore suits to the office every day and I was expected to do the same, even as an IT guy. I went out and bought 4 or 5 suits the first year I worked there, along with slacks, shirts, and (shudder) ties.

    I argued, politely and regularly, with the CEO that the clothes didn’t really influence the quality of work. We rarely had clients in the office. My boss, the VP, agreed, and we found numerous studies and surveys that proved our point. Others felt the same way, but we two were the only one that regularly tried to debate the issue. I’d often return from a run or swim at lunch and “forget” to tighten up my tie. Usually by 2pm, however, my boss would come by to “remind” me.

    After a year, we managed to get “casual” Friday, where we could wear (non-logo) polo shirts and khakis. No faded jeans, no sneakers, and it’s almost what many companies would see as business casual today. Another year or two went by, with regular chastising of my afternoon dress, often followed by a short debate on the subject. Eventually my boss allowed us to pilot “casual” dress on all non-client days, and jeans on Friday. No faded jeans, but more comfortable wear. Work didn’t suffer, and while my boss still wore suits, he accepted that we didn’t need to. I think I even saw him wear a shirt without a tie one day before I left.

    You can do the same thing with telecommuting. Offer a pilot, show articles, blogs, and studies that talk about telecommuting, set up metrics to measure work, and get employees to agree that the privilege can be suspended. I am sure with some regular debates and discussions, perseverance and persistence, you can find a way to implement telecommuting if your job can be done remotely.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts