Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • Running a Service

    Many of us work for some organization and we’re responsible for managing a database or coding some application or some other data related position. Perhaps we ensure reports work for our users or move data around. In many cases, we have customers, whether they are internal to our organization or perhaps external from another business or even the wider public.

    However, many of us see our jobs as a part of the org/business and not that we are actually providing some service to others that we are responsible for. While I’ve certainly felt that way, I learned at some point that if I were an app dev, I ought to treat people using my app as customers, even though they don’t pay me in currency. They often pay me in praise, or better yet, with praise to my boss. As a DBA, I treated both app devs and users as customers. That helped me take pride in my work and learn to view my position from other points of view.

    There was a post on learnings from running a SaaS service for a year. While few of us maintain a SaaS service, we could think of the app we build as Software-as-a-service, albeit without any revenue. We could see databases we manage as DBaaS (databases as a service) or PaaS (platform as a service) items.

    I think that the way we view the world, or view our situations, can be helpful to us in managing our workloads. We can better triage what is critical, what’s important, and what’s nice to have. We can decide when an issue deserves some to cause some stress and we might give an extra effort, and when something can wait until tomorrow. We can decide when we push back on demands and when we accommodate them.

    This approach has also helped me to think about ways to improve the service/software/platform I provide to others in ways that helps my customers, or makes my job easier. This way of thinking leads me to make the situation better when I can. It also helps me to discuss the decisions with others, especially management, in terms that can matter to them. Are we finding ways to improve the overall system?

    It doesn’t always work, but it often has for me.

    And if you’re interested in your own side project, the journey continues in part two. Perhaps you can spend an hour or two a day and build something that becomes your own business. That’s what happened to me with SQL Server Central.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Are You Worried About AI?

    The AI revolution is happening. I don’t know how successful it will be, but regardless, people are trying to get AI into everything. That might be good or bad in various situations, but it has people worried about AI. This piece looks at a survey from the American Staffing Association that says 47% of people somewhat or strongly agree that their job is replaceable by automation with an AI. There is more data to dig into, but that’s a lot of people who worry about their jobs.

    Most people do think that tech is generally a good thing. I do find that many of us in tech, and some other industries, are buried in work. There’s never a shortage and we could easily work 60, 70, or more hours a week and not complete everything. The flip side of that is a lot of work doesn’t necessarily need to be done now and could be delayed, so I think it’s hard to decide whether we need more help or more patience.

    The various places I’ve seen AI used are often helping people get started or unblock their creativity struggles. Recently someone posted this link on some prompts a person had used to get moving. I found a few of these possibly helpful. Not writing, but maybe having an AI proof something, or even get me started in some new area. I worry about book summaries, or even text summaries, as I’m not always confident the AI understands which pieces I might find important. However, that’s also a danger with humans. I’ve seen no shortage of people asked to summarize something for others. When I understand the subject well, I sometimes disagree with another’s summary (or think it’s just plain wrong).

    I don’t think AIs are a big danger to many people’s employment. I do think that as people learn to use AIs are assistants we might find that we grow or enhance staff less. We might also find that the 10x engineer knows how to engage 10 AIs to help them get things done, especially simple, busy work. The low performers will likely be those working in the same way in the future as they do today. That might not threaten your job, but it might mean lower bonuses and less opportunities in the future if you can’t adapt your skills to this new world.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Future Data Driven 2023 is This Week

    The Future Data Driven 2023 virtual conference is coming on Wednesday, September 27. Register today and save a note in your calendar.

    The event has  a great schedule (scroll down) with quite a few sessions that I will try to watch. Take a minute and flip through the list. If anything catches your eye, block your calendar and register today.

  • Advice To Be a Better Person

    As a hobby, I coach volleyball for kids. Each year I meet new kids and parents and talk about my philosophy. Part of that is that I teach skills, athletics, how to compete, and more. However, I do emphasize as well that I’m trying to build better people, not just athletes. I want these kids to be better prepared for life, for job interviews, for future teachers and coaches, and for better relationships.

    While I’m not perfect, or maybe not even a great person, I do try to improve myself on a regular basis. Or at least learn to be a better person to others. This isn’t because of any ideal or goal, but because life is more fun when I have more skills. Whether that’s working with objects or interacting with people. The smoother things go, the more I enjoy the world.

    I ran across some advice from Kevin Kelly, who helped co-found Wired Magazine. He wrote down 68 pieces of advice for his children on his 68th birthday. A few of them are in this post, though he’s written a book with 450 pieces of advice. A few more items are in his post of 99 pieces, and 103 pieces.

    The advice is about career, life, and more. Some of the more interesting ones I saw are listed below, with my comments:

    • About 99% of the time, the right time is right now – I struggle with this, but as I think about it, it’s been often true
    • Don’t keep making the same mistakes; try to make new mistakes. – I certainly aim for this. I hate making the same mistakes
    • If you stop to listen to a musician or street performer for more than a minute, you owe them a dollar. – I love seeing street musicians and I carry dollars/euros/pounds and more I can give out.
    • If you have any doubt at all about being able to carry a load in one trip, do yourself a huge favor and make two trips. – I find doing this means I drop less things. Not doing this means I drop more.
    • Recipe for success: under-promise and over-deliver. – Often my mantra at work
    • It’s not an apology if it comes with an excuse. It is not a compliment if it comes with a request. – This is hard, but I’ve been working on this.
    • Learn how to learn from those you disagree with, or even offend you. See if you can find the truth in what they believe. – Important in today’s world
    • Being able to listen well is a superpower. While listening to someone you love keep asking them “Is there more?”, until there is no more. – I need to do this more

    I grabbed his book, and you can as well. However, I might also suggest you collect your own words of wisdom and advice that you can share with your own loved ones at some point.

    If you want to see Mr. Kelly speak his advice, watch this video.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.