Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • Goal Progress for November 2021

    I set goals at the beginning of the year, and I’m tracking my progress in these updates during 2021.

    I missed writing this in October. It was a stressful time with lots of deadlines, presentations, and travel.

    I slacked off a bit in November, coming out of a busy work time and needing time away from my technical work. At least, outside of work. I also started coaching, and that required more personal time, so less career time.

    Current Grade: C+

    Given where I am, I think I’m middle of the road. I’ve done well on reading. I’ve made some project progress. A little technical skill work, but not enough.

    Reading

    I’ve been working through a couple books. I like the feedback one, but I find myself stopping and thinking often. The PoSh book is a bit of a project, but I’m enjoying it.

    Here’s the current progress:

    Technical Skills

    No coding here on the Advent of Code. I realized, however, that I’m not a great programmer. Some of these problems stump me and slow down my enthusiasm. I also don’t love the process of problem solving on the computer just for fun. I have too many other hobbies for this to be a priority.

    I have, however, started studying for a certification. I’ve been going through the DP-900 modules, trying to learn a bit every day or two. I went through 3 modules in November after the Data Community Summit. I’ll keep going here.

    Projects

    No real changes here. Minor updates, but not enough time spent on these items. I have started to get organized for volleyball statistics for the new season and I need to document the process a bit to explain it to myself, as well as do some better data analysis.

  • Taking Stock of Your Career

    Yesterday was Thanksgiving in the US, a day where families typically celebrate together and many people give thanks for what is going well in their lives. It’s also one of the days when more businesses and services are closed than any other day of the year.

    This is the time of year when most businesses look forward and plan the future. It’s also a time when lots of individuals may do the same thing, getting ready to make resolutions or attempt to change their lives in the new year.

    Today, I want to do something a little different. Rather than taking stock of your career and looking forward, let’s look back and find gratitude.

    Is there a situation, a person, a job that you were grateful for that helped your career for the better? Who would you thank? What helped you become the person you are today? It doesn’t matter if you are an older professional like me or someone starting your career. What are you grateful for in your past to put you where you are today?

    For me, there are lots of things to choose from. I’ve been very blessed and lucky. I’ve worked hard to take advantage of opportunities, but things have worked out well. There are a few things that stand out in my mind.

    First, I got a job interning at a nuclear power plant while in graduate school. That job changed my life. Someone recognized my value and gave me a chance to program, to learn how to run a network, and helped me learn SQL Server (on OS/2). I also met my wife there, so perhaps that’s the situation I’m most grateful for in my life.

    The other situation was the job that moved me to Denver. It allowed my family to change locations and my kids to grow up in a wonderful place. The job wasn’t great, long hours, and I slept in my office far too many nights, but I learned how not to do a lot of things. From poor management, poor software processes, and bad operations practices. It was a tough period of growth that I still value today.

    What are you thankful for in your career? Let us know in the discussion today.

    Steve Jones

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

  • Where is the Puck Going?

    During the PASS Data Community Summit last week, Brent Ozar delivered the day 3 keynote, and it was great. I really enjoyed the format and topic, and I look forward to how someone else might be creative next year with the time. I’d certainly love to do the keynote, though not sure I’d be eligible. I’m hoping a few others get interested and compete for the slot in 2022.

    One of the things Brent mentioned was about looking for skills to focus on, primarily for “builder,” or those that develop new applications. He used a quote from Wayne Gretzky: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” The reference is to pick things that will be relevant in the future (where the puck will be), not where things are today.

    Lots of people ask questions and wonder about this when we look at technology. What should I learn? Where is my best investment for the next ten or twenty years? There also is plenty of fear that you might learn to be an expert in something like Notification Services (dead after 2005) or Database Mirroring (deprecated in 2012). The other day I heard a few people say “graph is dead” in SQL Server, and I might agree. The features exist, but are they really growing and improving enough to compete with a graph platform? I’d argue no.

    I don’t have a crystal ball to tell you what will be popular. I have a magic 8 ball, but that’s less helpful. Here are a few things I’d suggest to help you think about this. Please, if you have specific questions, engage in the discussion, and I or someone else can try to help.

    First, the ability to work in a team is important. The skills to communicate well, debate a point, and collaborate in how you work are important. Not critical because plenty of people can get by without these skills, but when we look to hire new people, often we want to bond. If I find 10 qualified candidates and get along well with 2 in an interview, I’m likely picking one of the two. Learn to speak in small groups, summarize your thoughts, advocate your position, and appreciate others’ views. Also learn to accept defeat gracefully when things don’t go your way.

    Second, learn more about the choices your employer has made. Brent mentioned this a bit, but honestly, if your employer is focused on SQL Server on premises or in a VM, learn to run that well. Learn more about how it works and how to solve problems or tune it. If they want to use AWS RDS or Azure SQL Database, focus on those. Spend spare time, or quiet time at work, becoming more proficient with the platform. Read about it and practice on it. It will help you enjoy your current job, increase promotion and raise chances, and give you some confidence if you do need to change jobs.

    Third, learn to learn. Always be learning, and follow the advice above, or even pick the things that pique your interest. The important thing here is that if you need to pick something up, you want to be comfortable with those skills. How do I search out info on the Internet. Can I find videos or articles to consume and can I take sample code and stat using it? Can I set up new environments? Am I comfortable poking around a cloud portal or digging into a programming API? Maybe most importantly, can I sit through and absorb information from a Pluralsight (or other) course? All good skills.

    Lastly, part of skating to where you want to go is writing a resume/CV that gets you an interview. I’ve given this advice, and Brent did as well. Include keywords on your resume. If you decided to use Snowflake, I’d find a way to mention Synapse and Redshift on my resume. If you are good at Snowflake, you are likely going to be good at Redshift and Synapse. What you aren’t going to be good at is convincing a non-technical, HR person searching for your resume that these are synonyms if they aren’t included in your resume. Maybe you only want Snowflake jobs. That’s fine, decline the interview. Maybe you need a new job, and in that case, don’t limit yourself. Get past the AI or human filters.

    Actively managing your career takes some work and effort, and it takes some knowledge. Improve your skills, but take advice from those of us that have walked the paths. Ensure you represent yourself well, both with your avatar (the resume/CV), and in person for the interview. These won’t ensure you get a job, but they to help increase your chances.

    Steve Jones

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

  • What I Learned at Community Summits

    I went to the first  Community Summit in 1999. This was one of the first conferences of my career, and I was excited to have one focused on SQL Server and data. I met Kalen Delaney and shook her hand after having her educate me about how tempdb worked in SQL Server 7. That event started a 20-year journey of traveling to subsequent Summits nearly every year since. Over the years, I have a lot of memories from Summits, mostly of people that I’ve met and talked with. Much of the time I’ve been at any of the Summits was spent on networking and business purposes more than learning, but I have picked up a few things along the way.

    Early on Brian Knight and I delivered a presentation in a debate format. We were talking about the pros and cons of using identities. It was an enjoyable session and one where we learned a few things. A developer from Microsoft was in the audience and helped clarify some of the specific numbers related to limitations and scaling issues with using the feature.

    When SQL Server 2005 was ready for release, I still remember going to watch Donald Farmer talk about Integration Services, a radical change from the way that Data Transformation Services used to work. It was quite an eye opening session for me.

    Early in the time when I was working with DevOps and databases, I watched a talk on how you might apply some of the techniques with Reporting Services to implement CI and ensure your report changes would actually work correctly. It was a hack, but I think that a number of the technologies that Microsoft has added to SQL Server aren’t designed with version control and automated code review, which is a shame. However, that’s one of the great things about Summits. You can learn how someone else solved a problem.

    There are many other memories from the event where someone taught me a bit more about SQL Server. Being in the same place as so many smart, talented, inspiring data professionals was magical. That was one of the big reasons that my boss wanted to see the conference continue. Nowhere else in the world brings so many people together.

    You can still register for the event next week. It’s virtual this year, and completely free. No cost, and even if you get busy next week with work, you have access to the content after the conference, so register today. It’s a few minutes, and you’ll get the chance to learn from some amazing speakers.

    Steve Jones

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