Voice of the DBA

Tag: career

  • T-SQL Tuesday #131–An Analogy

    tsqltuesdayThis month the T-SQL Tuesday invitation is from Rob Volk, the last of the crew that I pushed to host last year at a SQL Saturday. I managed to get four people to agree to host, and all did so. Rob is the fourth this year, and I’m grateful for him and the others for doing this.

    In any case, this month’s invitation asks us to explain what we do. The title is data analogies, which makes sense as most of us participating work with data and so we likely all get asked what we do and we talk about databases. I’ve often said I worked with computers, then I work with databases if someone asks more. Few people want more depth.

    However, while I do work with data, that’s not really the main part of my job. It’s more an adjunct responsibility that I enjoy.

    A Newspaper

    When I started SQLServerCentral with my partners and worked for myself, I had no shortage of people asking me what I did. At Boy Scouts, Volleyball practices, scholarship committees, and more, I was regularly asked what I did for a living. I tried a number of ways to explain the site, but eventually settled on this.

    “I run a newspaper.”

    I really do. I have a daily publishing newsletter that contains information for subscribers. Ads, sometimes funnies or puzzles, and articles they want to read. I have a daily deadline of getting things ready, but fortunately, I don’t have a lot that is time sensitive. It’s hard enough to keep up with a schedule without worrying about article A publishing tomorrow and article B needing to go out the next day.

  • How Important is a Conference?

    The PASS Virtual Summit is coming up next month, and Andy has a few thoughts on how to get your employer to send you to the virtual conference. As someone that has been through this many times, Andy has good advice, and his thoughts are the types of things I’ve done in the past at various jobs I’ve had. Having a good reason why was important before I started speaking.

    Once I started speaking, I often made a deal with my boss that I’d cover some parts of the event and they’d cover others. We both made a shared investment in my career, which made sense to me. I often used Andy’s line, which is what I was thinking about today.

    This is important to me.

    That’s a good phrase to use. Usually I do a good amount of self learning, I ask lots of questions, scan message boards, and I teach myself various things. However, a conference is a chance to help me think. I get to consider new technologies, I get to talk with others about how they solve problems, or more often, what problems new technologies can cause me. I get the chance to grow in a wider way than I can in the office.

    That’s important to me, and it’s been valuable to my employers. I think that’s the case for some conference attendees, but I do think that some drive and desire are important if you get more out of a conference than a couple days off. Let your boss know you have that drive, and show it off. Remind them of the things you do to invest in yourself.

    Can you put into words why a conference is important to you? Why it’s valuable for you personally, what you get, and does the chance to go to an event make you more likely to value your current position? If so, then maybe ask to go. There are some valuable packages to help you learn. If not, that’s fine, but maybe ask yourself why not. What don’t you get out of the Summit, or any other conference.

    Maybe the main thing to think about today is what is important to you when it comes to benefits and requests of your employer?

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  • Moving in the Post Pandemic World

    After a few months of the pandemic lockdown this year, my company gave people the option of leaving the local area where our headquarters is located and moving to another part of England. Actually, since we aren’t planning on anyone coming into an office in 2020, we allowed people to move away from the cities where we are located, with a request that they remain in the same country.

    A number of companies have followed similar suit, most notably a number of big tech companies. Google has said that workers will be remote until July 2021, while Twitter has allowed workers to do so permanently.  Facebook is allowing workers to leave Silicon Valley, but their salaries may be adjusted. All are disruptive actions, and may forever change the culture for these companies.

    Remote work is changing the high tech west coast of the US. This will reshape that area, not just for these companies, but for many others that have had a symbiotic relationship with works. Restaurants, car dealers, rental business, and more will be affected. Certainly some cheer the move, upset with the price inflation and crowds that the booming tech companies brought with them.

    Personally I want to go back to an office. I miss seeing people periodically. Some others feel that way, but I’m sure plenty of people like working remotely and would appreciate the freedom to live elsewhere.

    Today, I want to ask you where that is. If your company said you could move and live somewhere else, anywhere, where would that be?

    Let’s assume that you could keep the same salary. You’d still have to manage meetings and contact with the people work with now, so changing too many time zones would be a challenge. However, dream a bit and think about how you would restructure your life if your company allowed you to do so.

    Steve Jones

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  • The Habits of Better Teams

    As a developer, I’ve often worked with a team of others, where we discussed the software we were building, what architectures and patterns to adopt, etc. While we all learned to work together, there were plenty of times that it felt as if we were working separately on code, but arguing often about how to make a decision about a technical approach or a priority.

    As a DBA, I’ve often worked alone, though usually interfacing with different teams as needed. In these cases, I’ve often had to learn to make my own decisions and then justify those to others later. The few times I worked with a team of DBAs, it seemed as though this was still the model, independent work, though with everyone deferring to the senior DBA.

    Building a team takes work, and it can be difficult to do so without the support of management. I’m always amazed at how many managers undermine the building of a high performing team, often in contrast to their words or the company’s statements. Many don’t even realize how poorly they promote teamwork, or how they actively prevent it.

    Assuming you can get support, what do you want in your team? I saw a neat post on the habits of high performing teams. These are some of the things you want to install in all your members. I’ve rarely had high psychological safety, though I think we do now at Redgate. I especially like the idea of leveling experience points. I hadn’t thought about it in these terms, but that makes perfect sense to me.

    That last section, where we assume our peers are competent and intelligent resonates with me. I haven’t always done this in the past, but I have tried hard later in my career to listen more, and to assume others are working with the best information they have. Perhaps that’s different than my information, so I should try to have a discussion, not a lecture or a dismissal of their effort.

    That’s something I wish I would have learned a lot earlier in my career.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.