Tag: career

I got started in database work during an internship. I was asked to program some Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets to help a department. I was pretty proud of the mess I made, since it helped someone with scheduling. Another person noticed and dragged me over to work on some dBase stuff, eventually moving into Clipper and compiled code, even some basic event driven Windows work. This led to some Visual FoxPro and eventually a real database backing the application. The choices I made in moving from Lotus to Clipper to FoxPro to SQL Server (eventually) defined my career.

I was reminded of those times in reading about technology radars. I’ve seen a few of these from companies like ThoughtWorks, and we’ve even experimented with them at Redgate. The idea of a radar is it’s a living document that assesses risks and rewards of technology. I didn’t create one explicitly early in my career, but I’ve always been interested in reading and learning about lots of technology, with an eye on trying to decide how useful, popular, and valuable different things would be for my career.

There’s a nice piece from Neal Ford at Thoughtworks that says you should consider building a technology radar. Certainly if you’re in the business of creating technology you might want an organizational radar, but for your career, you might think about the technologies that are around you.

I didn’t explicitly build my own radar, but I did evaluate Windows v. Linux, betting on the former since I considered the overwhelming inertia from Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. I evaluated Oracle v. SQL Server, and at times I almost wish I’d have chosen Oracle (for the pay drawn working with a cumbersome set of tools), I’m glad that I went with SQL Server. I’ve enjoyed the product most days. There are other choices along the way, including my decision to sit too long on VB v C#, but I can’t guess 100% right. Even now, as I look at R v Python, both choices that are tangential to my work, I’ve thought for a few years that Python was a better choice. I’m glad it was added to SQL Server and I expect its use to eclipse R in a year or two (or three).

It’s hard to keep up. It can be overwhelming. Eugene Meidinger compares keeping up with learning to the stages of grief. It’s not a bad analogy, and I find many people someone on that spectrum, trying hard to figure out what and how to learn, not to mention finding the time and money to invest.

I do think that it is important that most of us keep up with changing technology, at least a little. The world is changing and while some, or even many, of us stick with the same job for a long time, I don’t know anyone these days that expects to never change employers. Having a variety of skills, being able to learn quickly, and most importantly, muddle through projects that you know little about are skills that will help you find your way in an uncertain employment situation.

Steve Jones

The Voice of the DBA Podcast

Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 4.2MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

I used to work in the restaurant business. I got started after my first year at college, landing a job waiting tables in a new hotel. It was eye opening for me to see just how stressful and difficult that job can be. However, I wanted to earn money and jumped at opportunities. When we needed room service waiters to pick up shifts and elevators didn’t work, I carried trays up staircases, taking advantage of the opportunity. When a bartender didn’t show up, I volunteered to take the lunch shift. I had no idea where things were in the bar, I was 19 and didn’t know how to make drinks, and I’d make less money, but it was an opportunity that I knew would pay off at college.

It did, and at the next three jobs, I wound up me getting hired, starting work, and having either no one to train me that day or a very busy shift where I was mostly on my own to survive. I had to muddle through and learn on the fly. The ability to do that, without panicking  being overwhelmed, or giving up has served me in quite a few positions since then.

When I started working for various companies as a developer or DBA, I found myself in similar situations. Problems would arise, often the day or week I started, and I’d have to solve them. Usually with DBA positions,  I was the only one there, so I couldn’t depend on anyone else. It was  a good thing as I often found that sysadmins or developers were not managing or configuring databases in an efficient way. As I gained experience, I could make more and more of a difference earlier on at each organization.

Kevin Feasel wrote a bit about his experiences with Lucerne (near the bottom), muddling through the need to write queries. I’ve seen similar stories from other friends working with SSIS, SSRS, Redis, Azure, and more. They don’t know a lot, but they dig in and learn, making mistakes, but getting tasks done for their employer.

The ability to work through adversity, have some confidence, learn quickly, and be effective are valuable skills. Those data professionals that can do so often find more opportunities, challenges, they grow their skills, and get more compensation. Those that find reasons to avoid learning, that lack confidence in their ability to find a way to solve a problem, or are unwilling to tackle challenges often stagnate a bit. I’d like to think there are more of the former than latter in this business, but I constantly seem to find people that just look to repeat the same work they’ve done over and over for a long time.

It can be mentally difficult to start a project using technology with which you have little familiarity. It can be disconcerting to have someone ask you a question that you can’t answer because you’ve barely begun to learn. That ability to muddle through, to keep learning, accepting that you don’t have answers but can find them, knowing that some of your answers will be wrong and you’ll need to backtrack. That ability to muddle through will serve you well.

I’d urge you to develop it.

Steve Jones

The Voice of the DBA Podcast

Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 4.0MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

It’s Valentine’s Day today, and if you’ve forgotten, you still have time to do a little shopping or show your partner that you value them. While this isn’t a public holiday in any country that I know of, many people do want to celebrate with someone special to them. In fact, if you forget about this day, chances are the next few might not be so pleasant.

For many of us, we’ll spend nearly as much time at work each week as we might spend with our families. Between a few extra hours here and there at work, commuting, and sleep, it may often feel like we spend more time at work. Hopefully that’s not the case, and if it is, you should re-evaluate your current position.

Most of us do have a relationship with our career. We’ve chosen it for some reason and are often locked into doing certain work in the short term. With today being a relationship holiday, I wanted to ask you to think about if you really love your career?

I’m not speaking about your current job and employer. You might enjoy being a developer, DBA, or other data professional while not being enamored with the position and place you work now. I’m asking for the long term, are you happy with your career choice and looking to continue moving on this path.

If you are, good for you, and I hope you find a great position that suits your life. If not, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past. You can start moving forward in another direction today.

I love my job, and I’ve enjoyed the last 25 years of working with SQL Server. I don’t know if I want to do another 25, but I certainly am still in love with my choice today.

Steve Jones

The Voice of the DBA Podcast

Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.5MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.