Tag: career

It’s the beginning of the year, and some of you likely have today off. But plenty of you are at work, moving slowly through this Friday at the start of the year—handling busywork, catching up on maintenance you’ve let slide, or preparing for the tasks you know will start coming Monday.

At Redgate, most engineering teams work toward a North Star goal: a high-level direction that guides your various tasks. Perhaps it’s growing a customer base or achieving an overarching product specification. For example (this is completely made up), one North Star might be achieving feature parity across all platforms for SQL Compare.

Many people set New Year’s Resolutions to adjust their behavior for the year ahead. Many of us also need to set work goals—often SMART goals—that support company direction or personal ambitions. I’m setting mine for Q1 right now, though we’re still negotiating the exact items and measures. Some organizations require these in December, others allow January. Some require them multiple times throughout the year.

As we kick off the new year, take a few minutes to think about where you’d like to be at this time next year. What would you like to accomplish? How would you like your career to change before 2027 begins? Whether you formally set goals in your organization, have them assigned to you, or pursue personal aims, the first Friday of the year is likely slower than most—making it perfect for reflection.

Think about your career, your ambitions, and your future direction. Let your dreams and desires guide you.

Set that North Star today and keep it in mind as you move through 2026. It might help guide you toward a better career.

Steve Jones

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

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

I ran across a tweet (are they still tweets?) on X/Twitter that was titled: how to ruin yourself. It had these items, which seem to be coming from a young person. Either a student or in their first job.

1. Stay on your phone all day.
2. Feel sad for no clear reason.
3. Stop eating well and ignore your studies.
4. Sleep super late and wake up in the afternoon.
5. Let sadness take over everything.
6. Always look at others’ lives and feel yours isn’t enough.
7. Keep blaming yourself for the past but never try to let it go.
8. Compare your progress with people who started years before you.
9. Get stuck imagining outcomes instead of creating them.
10. Keep waiting for motivation instead of building discipline.

What was interesting to me is I saw people doing similar things when I was younger. Either adults with careers or fellow students. I’d change “sad” to “anger”, which I saw a lot in the 80s. Replace the phone with TV, as I saw lots of people start to invest a lot of time in TV with the growth of cable and 24-hour channels in the early 80s. Eating well was less of a thing, but drinking more was a thing. However, many people stagnated, or maybe ruined, themselves in similar ways.

What things motivate you? What gets you to become better at, well, anything you want. From your career to a new career to a better parent or coach or friend? What gets you away from short-term enjoyment (or wallowing) into action?

I write about working on your career on a regular basis, but I’ll summarize my advice for making a better you:

1. Be curious about the world
2. Dream of something better
3. Make a plan to realize a dream
4. Give up some leisure time
5. Make adult decisions
6. Be Kind to Yourself

I’ll try to expand on each of these on my blog over time. The list are things I try to do to make changes in my life. Whether at Redgate, while coaching, or even improving a hobby skill. I have to invest a bit of myself to get something back.

Though the journey is by far the most satisfying part.

Steve Jones

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

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

Most of you reading this are likely technology professionals of some sort. You might be a software developer in C# or a DBA or a manager of those teams. Maybe you’re an analyst working with data and reporting. You have made this a career choice and (hopefully) are growing and learning more about your craft.

I also expect that you want to continue working in the area you are now, or maybe want to move into a related area. Maybe a report writer wants to move into more warehousing/lake housing. Maybe a DBA wants to be a Reliability Engineer. You have a career and you’re working in that area.

However, I’m sure early in your life, you had other jobs. You might have even continued working in some of those areas as you started earning money from technology. Some of you left those jobs behind, but in my first paid job as a network admin, I kept bartending on the weekend to make extra money.

Today I’m wondering what side jobs have you had at work that weren’t related to databases.

These could be paid or unpaid. They could be volunteer , 1099, W-2, anything. Maybe you have an interest, maybe you want to help others, maybe you have a skill that you enjoy as a hobby.

For me, I’ve been a Scout leader (Boy, Cub, and Girl), a bartender, a fundraising speaker, and been on the board of a few organizations. Today, I’m a coach part-time at night and on weekends for a competitive volleyball team. These are fun ways for me to spend my time away from work, and I love having the break from technology.

Let me know today what side jobs you have, or have had, that let you get away from your data professional work.

Steve Jones

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

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

The PASS Data Community Summit 2025 was held in Seattle last month, and it was an interesting event for me. I wrote a wrap-up on my blog, but a few things stood out. The event was a little smaller, with over 50% first-time attendees, but seemed to be a bit more vibrant. Perhaps people coming for the first time added something that I hadn’t expected. I was a bit over-committed, so I didn’t spend a lot of time in the public spaces, but things felt a little different the few times I was in the expo hall or the hallway track.

I ran across a Reddit thread on the value of conferences, and it got me thinking. What is the value that you get from attending a conference (or an event). If your employer pays you might feel that you should bring some value back to them when you return. That’s the premise of the thread, and I know there are plenty of people that feel that way. However.

Should you value your time and effort any less?

What if you attend a SQL Saturday or other local event for free? Shouldn’t there be some ROI for you? With that in mind, I’m asking the question of you: what value do you get from attending a conference? For any type, size, shape, topic, etc. conference, let us know what you do go, or would go, or maybe would choose to skip the opportunity.

I’ve attended lots of different events in my career. My perspective varies depending on the event. I’ve attended customer conferences for a vendor, where I want to learn what might be changing, how others use the products, ask if there are solutions to our challenges, or even get the chance to influence the product development people. For local events, it’s networking and the chance to see a session on something I am interested in learning more about or a topic that might be of use in my job. For large industry events, there’s a larger scale, and more choices of topics, so I might get the chance to explore something I know little about or see some great speakers inspire me.

However, I get out what I put into it. If I am passive and just sitting there hoping I learn something from a talk, I’m can be disappointed. That’s an expensive way to learn something. The real value comes when I ask questions of the speaker afterward (or listen to others’ questions). I learn more by discussing the talk with other attendees, or having random conversations about the things others are doing/learning/trying/etc. in the hallways. Engaging others gives me ideas and inspiration I don’t get from a lecture.

The other thing that comes from a conference is a break from work. I try hard not to schedule work things or respond to messages while in sessions. I want to unwind, let my brain change gears, and hopefully get recharged in a different atmosphere. There’s also the chance to visit another city and perhaps see a sight or two. I love Las Vegas for this reason, taking my wife and seeing a show after networking and learning all day. It’s a great break from work.

I think there are good reasons to send people to conferences: learning, getting inspired, recharging, or even as a perk for employees who are working hard the rest of the year.

Steve Jones

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

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.