Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • T-SQL Tuesday #14–Resolutions

    tsql2sdayIt’s T-SQL Tuesday time again, and this month the Midnight DBAs (Jen’s blog | Sean’s blog | @MidnightDBA) are hosting the party. You can read about the whole T-SQL Tuesday blog party idea from Adam Machanic (blog, Twitter) if you want, and if you want to participate, you have a few hours left.

    Resolutions

    The theme this month is resolutions. That’s interesting because this was the first year in quite some time where I haven’t set goals or resolutions for the new year. I’m behind and somewhat unsure of what I want to do in life.

    However, it’s T-SQL Tuesday, so I need to think of something if I want to participate.

    I recently received an offer to take the MCM written test for SQL Server. There was no downside for me, so I signed up. And I pushed back the test a month since I wasn’t ready. I could say that my goal is to get the MCM this year, or to pass the written test, but that wouldn’t be right. I have reasons I’ll blog about later, but suffice it to say those aren’t resolutions.

    However I would like to make an honest effort to pass the written test. I haven’t had production responsibilities on a SQL Server instance in years, and while I know a lot about SQL Server, and understand how many things work, I don’t have to practically apply that knowledge, and so I’m rusty.

    I’d like to remedy some of that this year. I have been watching the MCM readiness videos, trying to learn some things and get prepared. Part of the reason I pushed back the test was because I hadn’t had a chance to watch all the videos and read the other prep material. I’m still working my way through things, and hope to be better prepared when the test comes around.

    My resolution is to really make an honest effort over the next month. Not cramming, and making this a single-focus-I-have-to-get-it-all-done, but make a good effort, my best effort given my busy life, and do as well as I can on the test.

    Kind of a nebulous resolution, but I can say that I didn’t make a solid effort in December, and I’m working to fix that now.

  • Building Better Communication Skills

    I think that one of the most valuable skills that someone in technology can have is the ability to communicate with others. It doesn’t matter whether you write code, rack servers, or sit in meetings with business people, it is important that you find a way to express clearly what you want, need, or would expect from someone else. If you can’t, you will find that you often struggle to get anything accomplished in an efficient manner.

    It’s possible that you can get by with verbal communications in many instances, but it seems that so much gets done by written communications of some sort. Especially these days where it seems that so much of the interaction between people takes place through email, IM, or even Twitter. We are constantly using some form of written text to convey information between each other.

    However it seems that many people don’t place a premium on building better writing skills. When I talk to many people at SQL Saturdays, most of them are hesitant to try something like blogging. The most common complaint: I hate writing.

    But we have to do it constantly at work and working on your writing skills will not only help you to communicate better, but it will also help you learn to better organize your own thoughts. You will have a better understanding of the logical thought process, which might even help you build better code.

    Steve Jones

  • Welcome to 2011

    It seems amazing that it is already 2011, and we’re ten years past the point when I expected there to be a manned mission to Jupiter. Or at least hoped it would have happened. We look forward to 2011, with many people expecting a new version of SQL Server to be released, along with many other technological advancements likely coming.

    The new year is a few days old, and I suspect a few of you have set some new years resolutions. Those are always hard to stick with, and it almost seems like failing to keep them is as much a tradition as making them.

    I read quite a few blogs last week talking about goals for 2011, and this is a good time to think about what you would like to accomplish in your career this year. I am trying to work through this myself, thinking about where I would like to take my life over the next year. Like many of you, I have to blend a busy family life, a job working for someone else, and professional goals into some strategy that fits into that ever limiting 24 hours we are stuck with each day.

    I think that putting these goals down is important. It helps to focus you, and regular review or reminders to check them can ensure that you will work on them. It’s easy to forget in which direction you want to go, because we get busy and are pulled in many different directions each day.

    This next year I am not sure what will be on my list, or even if I will have a list of goals for the year. The pace of change seems to almost dictate a shorter term set of goals, perhaps quarterly. I do think, however, that it’s important to have a list of things that you would like to accomplish in your career, and make an effort to progress through them on a regular basis.

    Steve Jones

    (originally published at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/72059/)

  • Building Better Communication Skills

    The most valuable skill for your career.

    I think that one of the most valuable skills that someone in technology can have is the ability to communicate with others. It doesn’t matter whether you write code, rack servers, or sit in meetings with business people, it is important that you find a way to express clearly what you want, need, or would expect from someone else. If you can’t, you will find that you often struggle to get anything accomplished in an efficient manner.

    It’s possible that you can get by with verbal communications in many instances, but it seems that so much gets done by written communications of some sort. Especially these days where it seems that so much of the interaction between people takes place through email, IM, or even Twitter. We are constantly using some form of written text to convey information between each other.

    However it seems that many people don’t place a premium on building better writing skills. When I talk to many people at SQL Saturdays, most of them are hesitant to try something like blogging. The most common complaint: I hate writing.

    But we have to do it constantly at work and working on your writing skills will not only help you to communicate better, but it will also help you learn to better organize your own thoughts. You will have a better understanding of the logical thought process, which might even help you build better code.

    Steve Jones

    (originally published at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/72122/