Voice of the DBA

Tag: career2

  • Manners

    This editorial was originally published on Apr 6, 2009 and is being re-run as Steve is away on the SQL in the City 2013 tour.

    I’m not entirely sure of what to call this rant, but I settled on “Manners” and am going with that. This was inspired after some recent events both on SQLServerCentral and other sites around the Internet.

    We have “The Thread” on the site. I won’t link it in here since if you haven’t heard of it, I see no reason to disturb it with lots of extra reads. It might be the longest thread on the Internet, and certainly is the longest one here at SQLServerCentral. It’s got thousands of replies and tens of thousands of reads. The thread started when someone asked the regular contributers on the site if it seemed that the questions being asked were getting worse. The first poster wondered if people were trying less, unable or unwilling to search, and unwilling to try and help themselves before posting a question.

    There have been a lot of people who are regular contributors here, Gilamonster, Jeff Moden, RBarryYoung, LynnPettis, Bob Hobvious, Grant Fritchey, and more (apologies if I’ve missed people that post a lot), have been going through this thread, often venting and complaining about the way questions are asked, joking with each other, and providing examples of problems they see. It’s been a fun ride for those participating in the thread, or at least I think it has.

    None of these people are paid for their time and efforts, at least not directly. I guess I get paid, but I don’t have to be in the forums helping people as much as I am. Most of us do it because we want to help others, teach them something, and give back to the community that helped us grow and learn earlier in our careers. That was the reason I started this site with Andy and Brian: to help others.

    What’s amazing to me is how often I feel that I’m babysitting someone on this site in trying to lead them to an answer. I feel like I’m trying to teach 5 year olds about SQL Server some days.

    I know that people don’t like it when I don’t just give them the answer. I get frustrated sometimes when I post on other subjects, but I also understand I’m getting free help, and as long as I get “help”, I can deal with the hints and links given. I expect I might have to do a little more research or reading to figure things out. That’s what I try to do, give people hints, references, and links, to help them learn. I expect them to do a little work as well. I’m happy to help, but I don’t think I should be giving out free consulting to people.

    Why the rant today? I had someone post offensive language in a thread that I removed. I posted to say that we don’t like unprofessional language or personal attacks, but I also added I felt that the person responding to the thread hadn’t really provided enough information. The person got upset with me, which is fine, but they also frustrated me a bit in that they refused to acknowledge that they might be in the wrong, especially after multiple others agreed.

    The bottom line is that you should treat other people the way you want to be treated. You may get into an argument with someone and that’s OK. Keep it professional and respectful. However if 3 or 4 people tell you that you’re approaching something wrong, or behaving badly, perhaps you ought to stop and consider if you are in the wrong, or acting inappropriately.

    Steve Jones

    Note: I started this rant as a podcast, and then wrote the editorial from that, so to see the raw footage, watch the podcast. It’s why this rant goes a little off-course.

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    Everyday Jones

    The podcast feeds are available atsqlservercentral.mevio.com. Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.

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    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don’t like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you’d like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.

  • Beginner, Expert, or Both?

    It seems that there’s no shortage of interviewers complaining about the lack of qualified candidates for open positions. It seems to me that the best thing you could do to get a better job is work through all the articles and lots of forum posts from SQLServerCentral, complete all the exercises in your favorite SQL Server book, and improve your skills so that you shine in an interview. If most candidates are really that bad, it can’t be that hard to make yourself stand out with a little work.

    However it seems few people do that. In fact, it seems that quite often we find people that have 5 years of experience with SQL Server really have 2-4 months of experience repeated 15-30 times. What’s more disconcerting is that they don’t realize how much knowledge they lack.

    This article might provide some of the reasons why people think they’re more experienced than they are. They’re expert beginners, and since they can accomplish the things they’re asked to do at their jobs, they think they’re complacent. They have success because they’re not asked to do more, perhaps because their employer only needs a small fraction of SQL Server knowledge to keep their systems running along.

    I think this is a hard trend to break. Employers don’t want to pay you to learn skills that aren’t important to them, and they certainly don’t want to pay you to learn things that will move you to a new job. However that doesn’t mean you should have the same attitude.

    I think you should continue to expand your skills, grow your knowledge, and try new techniques. The best people in all professions continually question their current skills and techniques, looking for better ways to accomplish tasks. It’s good to use what works and ensure stability in your systems, but always be prepared to evolve if you find something that works better.

    And keep looking for ways to do better.

    Steve Jones

    Video and Audio versions

    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    Follow Steve Jones on Twitter to find links and database related items and announcements.
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  • The Ratio

    It seems we never have enough staff in many of our technology departments. I have worked in companies where I thought we had too many IT employees, but somehow it seemed my department was always short of resources.

    However one thing that I’ve seen almost universally is a larger number of developers than DBAs in most companies. That makes sense as I think there usually is more code to write than instances to administer, and I’ve usually found companies have to hire a few developers before they see the need for a DBA of any sort, whether production or development focused.  I’ve also found the relative levels of staffing have widely varied.

    This week I’m curious what ratios you’ve seen between these two jobs. I’d like an answer to this question, based on your experience:

    How many developers does a DBA support?

    I’m looking for the real ratios that you’ve experienced. In the places where I’ve developed code, or worked with developers I’ve typically seen about 1:10 DBAs to developers, but that number has varied. I’ve seen 1:5 and 1:20+, but in most cases it’s been near 1:10.

    Let us know this week and get a little market research that might help you convince your boss that you need a helper or two.

    Steve Jones

    Video and Audio versions

    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    Follow Steve Jones on Twitter to find links and database related items and announcements.
    Steve Jones Windows Media Video ( 12.5MB) feed

    MP4 iPod Video ( 15.0MB) feed

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    Feeds are available at iTunes and Mevio

    To submit an article, rant or editorial,
    log in to the Contribution Center

  • Networking at the PASS Summit: First timers

    The PASS Summit is just over a week away, and one again Andy Warren and I are hosting a networking dinner on Monday night. This is a free, informal event to help people get to know each other. Whether you are new to the community or have been to many events, you’re welcome to attend. We are targeting first timers, so if you’ve never been to the Summit, and don’t know what things you can do, if you don’t have other plans, come on by.

    We want to ensure that people are taking advantage of their time at the Summit, while encouraging them to do more than hang out with themselves or friends. Many of us have done that, but there are better things to do, like meet your colleagues.

    Andy and I will greet people and introduce some of you to others. Networking is easy, and this is a chance to meet some new people and make some contacts in the community. We’re providing a time and location, you just have to show up, and of course, pay for your own food and drinks. If you want to buy someone else a round, that’s a great way to make new contacts.

    Register and come if you are in town Monday night. There’s no charge, but we’d like to have an idea of how many of you will come by. It’s a Buffalo Wild Wings in Charlotte, from 6-9. The address is below:

    400 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
    Charlotte, NC 28202

    I don’t know how much I’ll get to talk to most of you, but I’d like to shake your hand and say hi.