Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • A Guest at the Ranch

    From the other side of the world, I had a guest at the ranch today.

    pinal

    Pinal Dave, a friend from India, sent me an email that he’d unexpectedly come to Denver this week. He had some time, so I invited him out to the ranch today for a few hours to sit and chat, see the horses, and spend some time.

    We had a good time, and snapped a quick photo before he headed back to his hotel, and likely work knowing him.

    I really enjoy the conversations I get to have with other successful and passionate people. They are some of the most interesting, and helpful, times I have in my career. This was definitely one of them.

  • Outsourced = Laid Off?

    Offshoring has been used in many industries, including technology

    This editorial was originally published on May 3, 2006. Steve is traveling in the UK this week and we are reprinting older pieces.

    It seems like career week in the editorial department, but I found a bunch of articles recently on careers. According to the Department of Labor employees whose jobs are outsourced should be treated the same as laid off workers. Maybe we shouldn’t be helping factory workers if their industry moves, though I think I’d argue that point, but if we treat the guy rolling steel or sewing fabric this way, why not software developers?

    Losing your job just stinks. I’ve had it happen and it’s a horrible feeling and really can impact your family, emotionally and financially. As the economy moves more globally, corporations increasingly look for ways to become more competitive. The price of moving goods, once way to keep things slightly more level, has fallen so low in the software business that on straight a dollar comparison, everything should move to India or any other country where the wages are lower.

    But it’s not that simple. As many companies have learned, the savings have costs that are not worth it.

    I think providing more benefits for the relatively few people that get outsources is a good thing. It helps to keep the economy going here because those people have assistance to keep buying food, paying their rent, keeping their car, etc. All things that benefit this country locally.

    However if you are out of work for over a year in the IT field. Perhaps you should change the type of job you are looking for or move to a new field.

    Steve Jones

  • Bad Eyes

    This editorial was originally published on Jan 9, 2006. Steve is traveling to the UK this week and we are reprinting a few older editorials.

    It seems that most DBAs that I know are a little bit older and more experienced. It’s fairly rare that I see someone really young, right out of college, early 20s, etc., as a DBA. So when I saw this question on Slashdot about computers and vision, it caught my eye. I’m one of those “visually challenged” individuals that asked the question. And I’ve been working with computers pretty much since 1991 as a career. In middle school I slowly found out that my vision was failing. That was when my career as a baseball catcher ended. With glasses on, I couldn’t pull off the mask without pulling the glasses with them and ensuring that I’d catch the ball with my cheek instead of my glove 🙂

    I’m not a 15 hour a day computer user, but I am a 7-8 or more user. Fortunately it’s not all at one stretch. Usually it’s early am, then a break, then most of the day until the kids come home, and then late at night. At least the last few years it’s been like that. Before that I was mostly a 7-8 hour stretch person and a little at night.

    Through all that, including 5-6 years of working as a bartender in a late night, smoky atmosphere, I’ve had pretty much the same prescription for about 15 years. I switched to contacts in high school, but since college I’ve pretty much been the same, blind 20-400 in both eyes. I’m getting an eye exam today, so we’ll see if it holds for another year.

    I think the person asking the question has other problems, 15 hours a day in front of the computer being the least of them, but it still is worth asking the question. Is a monitor bad for your eyes? Is it any different than staring at anything in a repetitive work environment.

    One of the things suggested is a light source behind the monitor. That’s an interesting one. Especially for the guys that like to work in the dark. I’ve had a number of co-workers that insisted on working in the dark. Personally I’m an outside, ambient light guy. I like to sit on my shaded porch and work with the laptop in nice weather.

    So do any of you have issues working in front of your monitor? Any suggestions to take better care of your eyes? I’m sure everyone in the community would be interested in this.

    Steve Jones

  • Lesson #6: What CIOs Really Care About

    What Do CIOs Care About?

    I saw a blog by Dave Rosenberg and it was interesting in a few ways. First of all, Dave works for OSDL, which promotes the use of open source software.

    There were a number of basic things that you could probably guess like costs are important, blogs aren’t, and more. But there were two things that I really thought made sense to a SQL Server guy.

    The first was that security was mentioned as a big item, but more importantly, one of the examples was “don’t build SQL Server apps using sa.” I’ve preached against this many times, but still developers want to do it. And I don’t understand why it’s so hard to just create a login and get away from the all access development. Especially given the security issues across all platforms in recent years.

    The second one was something that I think more CIOs should stand behind and not just “talk” about. Hiring and maintaining staff was listed with this comment: “This is my number one issue.”

    And it should be. Retaining staff is a big deal, especially as more and more systems are integrated or even running side by side in new and innovative, and most often, complex ways. Having some knowledge of the journey that got you to a place is important and it’s hard to rebuild that in new people. Making good hiring decisions and then making an effort on a regular basis to be sure those people stay is important in all businesses, large and small.

    Not that you won’t have to turn over staff at times or cut your losses. After all, not every person fits in every job and circumstances certainly change.

    It should just be the exception rather than a regular practice.

    (update, Info World has removed the original blog)