Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • Finding New Employment

    I have been working for Redgate Software for 15 years (14 as an FTE). I think this is the best job I’ve ever had, and I hope this is the last FTE job that I ever have (fingers crossed).

    Plenty of people have found new jobs during the pandemic, which surprised me. I thought many people would be careful and cautious, but the pandemic opened up remote work, new possibilities, and opportunities that didn’t exist in the past. Both employers and organizations took advantage of the changes to better their situations. I know quite a few friends who found new positions, with better compensation, during the last two years.

    I think that trend continues as technology is an area that is adapts well to remote, hybrid, or in-person work. If you’re looking for a job, or you need to hire some candidates, Brent Ozar put out a post that lets either side post a comment and let people know there are jobs and talented people available. I posted a note about Redgate in there, as we are looking for software developers in the UK.

    There are plenty of other positions. In Denver, I had lunch with a friend working at a new company, Sierra Space. They are growing and hiring quite a few people and they use SQL Server. My son works at ULA, and he said they need people as well. While some businesses struggled the last two years, it seems that many technology companies thrived and there are lots of opportunities out there.

    I am a big proponent of actively managing your career. I give talks on professional development and building your brand. My view is that you should work to improve your skills, showcase them, build a network of colleagues, and then find the dream job that fits you. That’s different for all of us, but a little work and effort can help you find something you love.

    I’m approaching retirement in my 50s, and I love my job. Many of you are much younger and still building careers, learning what you like and don’t like (which is more important). You’re deciding what type of job you want and what interests you. Study, learn, come to SQL Saturdays (or ask your local group to run one), and pick the opportunity that works for you.

    Drive your career forward and I know you’ll be as happy to go to work each day as I am.

    Steve Jones

  • Testing or Learning

    All of us get into challenging situations. This might be a coding problem that we struggle to solve. It might be an argument with a co-worker. It could be feedback from a customer on how we dealt with them or maybe just how our app works. Our responses to a challenge might determine how we view the situation, our future actions, or even just how we react to life in the next few hours.

    When someone struggles or feels as though they have failed in a situation, they tend to react in one of two ways. They can view the experience as though it were a test and they didn’t pass. This is quite common among many people, who might become sad, angry, or defensive. They might defend their approach or look for an excuse. They might seek to put the whole situation behind them and move on. This is a common reaction and one I’ve had often.

    Like many people, I want to do well, and when I don’t, it can feel as though I’ve failed or I am being attacked. Whether because of my words, actions, or code, I know I’ve often reacted in a way that I somewhat regret. I will try to solve the problem better, apologize, or find some way to rectify the situation, but it still feels like some sort of personal failure.

    The other way to view the situation is a learning opportunity. Things didn’t go well, but how can I improve things in the future. How can I improve myself, or what can I learn? Maybe, more importantly, this reaction often has the person looking for a similar challenge and the chance to do better the next time.

    How do you approach a challenge? Do you view most things as tests or learning opportunities? I tend to view many things as tests, but I am trying to change and learn how to view them as opportunities to learn. When I don’t or can’t solve a problem, I look to find out how I can improve my thinking and skills and at least solve that problem in the future.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Your User Manual

    Many of us have spent time looking through manuals or the documentation for some software or product. I know I’m on the MS docs site regularly for work, and there is no shortage of times I’ve used various manuals to help me fix something around the house. We usually use a manual when we want to learn how something is supposed to work, or how to get it to do what we want.

    I saw a post on a personal user manual that I thought was a good idea for some people, maybe many people. This isn’t a manual for how you should live your life or work, but rather, how others might interact with you. This manual describes how you work, what motivates you, stimulates you, what pleases you, and even the environment in which are most productive.

    Whether or not this is something you might give to co-workers (or your boss), it likely is a good exercise for you to undertake personally. I do think this might be something you give out, but only if you have a lot of confidence it will be taken seriously and well received. Just going through the process, however, might help you better understand yourself, and you might learn something about what matters to you. Sometimes the things we think we like or want aren’t really the things that actually make us happier or more productive. I know I enjoy traveling, but too much creates a lot of stress. I like speaking in front of an audience but within certain boundaries. I like running, but my joints and bones will tell me that I really can’t have that in my life anymore.

    I’m going to make a quick, outline of my manual here. I like independent work, creative work, and the chance to decide how to do things. I like to work with deadlines, but without micromanagement. I want to be at home much of the time but go to an office and other places to interact with people periodically and regularly. I like working asynchronously most of the time, but synchronous brainstorming sessions are valuable. I like feedback to be written overall and with some thought and reasoning behind it, not a like/dislike/emotional response to my behavior.

    I think I could better flesh out different ideas with more detail and organize things better, but I enjoyed taking five minutes and thinking about my first reactions. Now I need to go back and revise this draft with a little more insight and consideration.

    Let me know today what you would think your user manual should say.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Power BI Dashboards

    This is part of a series on my preparation for the DP-900 exam. This is the Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals, part of a number of certification paths. You can read various posts I’ve created as part of this learning experience.

    I don’t know a lot about Power BI. I’ve lightly hacked and played with it, but it has evolved and changed so quickly that I needed to dig into some concepts.

    Power BI Dashboards are a part of what you need to know for this exam. Over the years, I’ve lightly made a few reports, but not dashboards, so this was an area I needed to study up on a bit, especially these concepts.

    Dashboard Basics

    A dashboard is different from a report. A dashboard is

    • a single page
    • available in the Power BI Service only (not Power BI Desktop)
    • composed of tiles
    • can use data from one or more reports, and more than one dataset
    • one dashboard can be featured
    • supports natural language queries
    • can’t see the underlying data, but can export data

    Tile Sources

    A tile can be from:

    • a report (a visualization)
    • another dashboard
    • an Excel workbook in OneDrive for business
    • Quick Insights
    • An on-premises paginated report from Power BI Server or SSRS

    There can be standalone tiles for  images, text boxes, video, streaming data and web content.

    These are a series of facts I think are important to understand about Power BI Dashboards