Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • Hot Skills

    What are the hot skills to work on in 2011? I found this article that gives you a list of some of the things that companies will be looking for according to a survey in Computerworld. It’s a fairly standard list of generic skills that companies are looking for, but it ended with something that I think that people often overlook: business acumen and communication skills.

    How many of us have to work with someone regularly that is not a technologist? How many times do you have to explain something to a business person in a way that is devoid of technical jargon? I would bet that most of us have to do that. However  it seems that too many technology professionals still want business people to better understand what we provide with our computer hardware and software. Instead of us learning more about the business, we want the business to tell us what we should do.

    Building your soft skills, especially  your communication skills, is important, but too often technology professionals give lip service to any effort. We tend to write poorly, we struggle to explain concepts like disaster recovery in a way that those outside of technology can understand.

    I like to write, but I also learned early in my career that there was a huge advantage to being able to express myself clearly to everyone that I had to work with. I talk about this at The Modern Resume, but there really is no substitute for making some type of effort to learn to write better. It’s a great skill that I’m sure will provide benefits in 2011, and every year after.

    Steve Jones

  • People are talking about you

    I was listening to a friend give a presentation on getting a job recently. In the presentation, Chris Shaw, the speaker, mentioned my Modern Resume presentation, which was cool, but he also said something interesting in his talk.

    He said that social networking is huge, and you can choose not to participate, but even if you don’t, people will talk about you.

    I think that’s very true, and I caution people to be aware of what others might be saying about you. You never know when a coworker, a friend, or maybe a no-a-friend-at-all might post something about you. You never know when a particular person asks about you, your job habits, attitude, skills, or something else in their network.

    People will talk about you, and not necessarily online. It might be offline, and the best way that you can help ensure that you are aware of what people say is to be involved in networks. It could be social networks, but maybe you just want to touch base with your own network, trying to keep in regular contact with 10-20 people that could let you know if they hear anything about you.

    You won’t know everything that is said about you, but the more you participate in some type of networking, the more likely you are to hear what is being said publically.

  • Braindumps and Certification

    I saw a post recently that said that braindumps were the best way to prepare for certifications. It was posted from a certification vendor, so take it with a grain of salt, but I think a lot of people think this.

    That somewhat torques me off. I understand that certification can help someone get a better job, and it is good for a career. That’s fine, and I understand that if you are out of a job, or searching for a better job, that the price of the exam seems a little steep, and if you fail, you are out a decent amount of money. An exam costs $125 in the US, and that’s not an insignificant amount of money.

    However.

    We have enough people that don’t know what they’re doing. We have lots of people that struggle in their jobs, and often then don’t know what to do. Their bosses and co-workers aren’t happy. The struggle and get stressed, and they complain about their jobs. Stability is lower, software quality slides along the floor, and it’s a bad fit.

    Not everyone falls into this category, but having taken quite a few exams, I’d say that if you have some knowledge of SQL Server, and you work through a lot of exercises from any certification book, you’ll be fine. It’s hard, but it’s supposed to be. You’re supposed to be competent if you pass the exam.

    Finding ways to pass without being competent, or searching for a guarantee, isn’t good for your career. And it’s certainly not good for mine. Every person that passes who doesn’t really understand what they’re doing makes certifications that much more of a joke, and that much less valuable to employers.

    Which is the point for most people. They get the certification so that employers will be *more* likely to pay them more.

    Do yourself a favor. Study for the exam, learn how to handle the objectives, and then take your chances on the exam.

    There are a number of deals for second takes as well, so be on the lookout for those.

  • More Than SQL

    SQL Saturday #52I am speaking at the upcoming SQL Saturday #52 – Colorado in the Denver Tech Center in a little over a week. I’m doing a presentation on The Modern Resume and a short mini-keynote talk at lunch time, and I’m joined by some amazing speakers, like Kevin Cox from the SQL CAT team, User group President Marc Beacom, and local MVPs Glenn Berry, Paul Nielsen, and Chris Shaw. We have some amazing people coming from out of town like Jack Corbett from Florida and Tim Mitchell from Texas, and Jason Strate from Miinesota. It’s a fantastic lineup with many more talented speakers and the chance for you to get a free day of world class training on things important to your career as a data professional.

    Those of us speaking are doing our part to give back to the SQL community, which is an amazing group of people that not only strive to be better at their jobs, but also engage and interact with one another, sharing that knowledge. I’ve learned a lot from many of these people, and hope that I can teach a little bit as well.

    However at this SQL Saturday, we are giving everyone the chance to do more than just learn about SQL. You can give back to this local community as well. We will be accepting donations of food that speakers will distribute back to the community food banks and victims of the fire near Boulder in Four Mile Canyon.

    There is more to life than our work. The SQL community is here to help you with your career, and we are happy to do that. This is a great way of also looking to give back to the local community in a way that I hope catches on at other events.

    Steve Jones