Voice of the DBA

Tag: travel

  • A Quick Turnaround

    I visited a customer last week and attended SQL Saturday Baton Rouge 2024. Both were fun events, and an enjoyable week, though I was away from my wife for 4.5 days, which she didn’t love. Today, I had a quick turnaround, heading to Wisconsin Dells for THAT! Conference, which I attended last year and enjoyed. I didn’t submit this to the event, but got asked to go as part of my job. I accepted, and I’m gone from home for a week between these two trips.

    I do travel a lot, but these trips got me thinking about how many of us might handle the unexpected demands from our companies. In this case, I had planned on SQL Saturday Baton Rouge, but not a customer visit. I got asked a month ago to add this in, which was fine, but two weeks ago the trip got extended by another day. Just before I got the update from that call, I agreed to go to THAT! for a quick presentation.

    As a developer, I’ve been given last-minute work. It might have been a bug that was discovered or a new request that was high priority. In those cases, I’ve often had to work more hours for a short period, usually long days or even weekends. I’ve lost personal time because of the hours, but also the stress, as my mind is elsewhere. As an Operations person, I sometimes get stuck at work overnight or for long parts of many days.

    In most of my jobs, I’ve been a strong performer and had a good relationship with management. I’ve almost always been able to negotiate comp time for the extra hours spent. In some cases, I’ve been paid for them, but usually, there is the equivalent of shorter days for a period or even missing some days of work. Often this is off-the-books as most HR systems don’t cope well with this.

    For those of you who get unexpected demands, how do you handle things? Do you get something back from the company? Time, days, compensation, maybe even a thank you and a gift? It’s not something that I think is universal, but I’d like to think it’s common.

    And if you’re at THAT, say hello to me this week. I don’t know when I’ll get some shorter days, but likely they’ll come in the next month as I try to catch up on ranch work.

    Steve Jones

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  • THAT Conference 2024 in Wisconsin Dells

    THAT ConferenceI’m headed back to Wisconsin Dells next week for THAT! Conference 2024. This is my second time in Wisconsin and third THAT overall. This time I didn’t submit, but Redgate is sponsoring the event and they asked me to deliver a session. I’ll be talking about Best Practices for Seamless Database Deployments on Tuesday morning, but there are a bunch of other good sessions taking place on Tue-Thur.

    Each time I’ve gone, it’s been an enjoyable experience, learning about various developer and database technologies from others. It’s a fun family atmosphere and I recommend this conference as one to consider if you want to learn about any development topics.

    Last year I learned about Rust and hummus in one talk, about containerized builds, and TDD. I also learned about Mind Over Milkshakes, which inspired that piece.

    If you’re near Madison, this is a short drive. It’s worth checking out THAT and trying the conference if you want a family friendly developer event.

  • The Annual SQL Saturday in Baton Rouge

    I’ve been to quite a few of the SQL Saturday Baton Rouge events. There have been 10 with the 11th coming in a couple weeks. The crew down there has done a great job over the years, and I’ve met lots of friends there: Patrick LeBlanc, William Assaf, Kenny Neal, and more. Too many to list, but this has been one of my favorite events.

    This year, SQL Saturday Baron Rouge 2024 is on July 27, and it’s once again at LSU. You can register today and join me for a fun day of learning inside, away from the heat. There is a packed schedule of all kinds of data related sessions. Learn about performance topics, Power BI, app dev, cloud, Data Ops, and more.

    I used to fly to New Orleans each year and drive up. It’s an easy drive, and I even went to the Saints training camp one year. This year I’m going to Baton Rouge direct (well, I change planes) because I’ll be visiting a customer the day before.

    However, if you don’t have plans Friday, there are two precons:

    These are great ways to get some fairly inexpensive training. Ping your boss and ask him to send you to one.

    Register for SQL Saturday Baton Rouge and join me next week. Hope to see you there.

  • 25 Years of Redgate

    Redgate Logos_RGB_AllinOneI’m in Austin today, ready for the Redgate Software 25th Birthday celebration. The company started in 1999 and this is their 25th birthday. All of our offices are celebrating, with most of us in the US coming to Austin for a party last night. My wife (and many partners) are here as well, emphasizing that we care about our people and recognize that partners support our employees.

    I haven’t known Redgate for 25 years, but I have known one of the founders for 22 years. I first met Simon Galbraith in 2002 at the PASS Summit in Seattle. They were our first advertising customer at SQL Server Central in 2001 and the relationship continues through today. Redgate purchased SQL Server Central in 2006 and I’ve been working for them ever since.

    In that time, it’s been interesting how my job has changed and evolved. I remember the early days of SQL Monitor being released and me demoing it from horseback.

    There was the DBA in Space promotion, which I was only lightly a part of, but it was fun.

    We had the
    SQL in the City events, which included a tour around the US.

    I still remember the first one in London at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. That was a treat.

    and SELECT Star beer.

    We ran that series for a long time, with quite a few live and virtual events. It was a fun time for my coworkers to get together in various places in the world. One of our last live events was in Cambridge at the Redgate office, with our 4 advocates.

    2024-07-15 11_37_41-Window

    Now we’ve evolved to the Redgate Summits, one of which is coming to New York next month.

    I’ve watched Redgate grow to include Flyway (I’ve got a tips series), SQL Provision, and now Test Data Manager. I’ve done so many blogs and promos, the latest of which is TDM in 10 minutes. One of my favorites was a photo shoot in Cambridge, where they got me on another horse.

    dbateam8

    It’s been a great time for me and I’ve enjoyed my job with Redgate. I continue to do so today and look forward to the future. I truly hope this is the last job I have.