Tag: career

I ran across a post that discusses what makes you a senior engineer (via Brent Ozar). The main point of the post is that there is a core skill that separates senior engineers from others, which is reducing ambiguity. When a senior engineer gets an ill-defined (or ill-communicated) request, they can deliver a solid, or even great, result.

When someone says “performance is poor,” what do you do with that? Can you build a plan to identify the issues and solve them? Or do you expect the customer to explain what is slow and why it’s slow? Do you ask what metrics they have showing things are slow? A senior engineer can ask questions to find the problem and then determine how to move forward.

The post also discusses the way many companies hire senior people, often basing decisions on years of experience and answering specific questions in an interview or on a test. It’s hard to interview and test a person who is given a vague requirement and develops a solution. Most interviewers don’t want to have to wprl that hard and compare what might be very disparate answers to ambiguous questions. How can you judge two people who give very disparate answers to questions with no clear answer?

It’s hard, and I know this because when I’ve run interviews that lightly describe a situation and let the candidate lead me to the next question, so that I can see how they work and think. It’s very hard to judge the end result and rate the candidate as effective. Often, I find myself deciding if I like the person more and if they fit in our company. That’s if I think they can probe to find information and make decisions when that information is incomplete. If they can’t probe and find a way to solve the problem without direction, that’s an issue.

And that really is the senior skill. In all fields, not just engineers or DBAs. Managers, customer service, analysts, and more. Can someone handle an unstable atmosphere and clarify, identify, simplify, and present a way forward? If they can, then they are likely someone to consider for a senior role. They still need expertise in their area, but can they get things done when they aren’t being directed?

Are they self-starters?

That might be the main thing I consider for senior people. Can they drive themselves and get things done, things we need done, but without a lot of direction and hand-holding? If a senior person struggles to move forward without more direction or supervision, then maybe they aren’t really a senior-level employee.

Steve Jones

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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.