Voice of the DBA

Tag: career2

  • SQLInspire

    I’m off to New York City, center of the universe, and SQLInspire today. This is my last trip of the year, and I am very glad for that. This will be my 15th event of the year and that’s a lot. I’m looking forward to a run in Central Park, however, and seeing the bright lights and big city for a day.

    This is one event, however, that I’m very much looking forward to. The SQLPeople people, Andy Leonard (blog | @AndyLeonard)  and Brian Moran (Linchpin People | @briancmoran), put together this event based on the TED events that occur all over the world. I love TED talks, and find myself learning some amazing things from them. This event is more SQL focused, but designed in the same way. To bring new ideas to you, inspire you, and get you to think about the world around you.

    My session is Finding Your Balance, and I’m hoping to goes over well. I’ll post a transcript of the talk after the event. If you attend, please come by and shake my hand.

  • Quite a salary

    If this article is true, and I suspect it is for some software engineers, why aren’t more people learning programming?

    I think that we have a few problems in the industry, and I have an editorial coming out soon on this. One is that this type of money is rare. So many people work for companies and they make a good living, but they work hard. We have a perception issue of this industry being geeky, long hours, not a lot of respect, etc. I hear so many complaints from people that it’s hard sometimes to decide if they really like their jobs or they’re stuck in them, much like I hear complaints from people in accounting, or sales, etc.

    The other issue is that we haven’t done a great job of getting younger people interested in computers. We require more computer work in schools, and my kids use computers as much as I did when I was 12 and a geek, but they’re using computers as tools to produce an end product, not as a way to build another tool.

    We need to advocate, interest, and excite more kids about technology as a career if we want it to grow.

  • Slide Decks for PASS, SQL in the City, and SQL Server Connections

    I’ve sent my slide decks to the organizers, but I know they don’t always get posted. So I’m putting a few links up here for my talks.

    If you check the page for my Preparation for Disaster talk, you’ll find I have links for the two recent events to the decks. I often version the decks after talks, and so I’ve decided to keep all versions live.

    I’ve also uploaded the decks from PASS if you’re interested.

    PASS Summit 2011

    SQL in the City – LA 2011

    SQL Server Connections

  • Document Your Day

    You should be documenting your day, your week, your month, on a regular basis. Take a few minutes when you accomplish something and make a blog entry. This is a great way for you to keep track of what you’ve accomplished during the year, and be ready to talk about it in an interview, or in a performance review.

    You don’t have to publically blog this. You can use Word, emacs, Live Writer, text files, whatever works, but, keep track of it. Read through it when you need it and summarize your accomplishments for the quarter or year. This is also something you consult every quarter when you touch your resume.

    And when you get ready for that review, read Kendra Little’s post on asking for a raise.