Before we begin, I must first admit that when I saw ‘Building a Professional Development Plan’ in the SQL Saturday 85 Schedule in Orlando back in September, I was not enthusiastic about attending this session as I thought it was more for consultants or for those looking to start their own business.  Quite simply, I was thinking business plan and not individual plan.  In hindsight, I wish I had attended this session back then, but I digress.

As most everyone knows, Andy Warren is the father of SQL Saturday and his status in the SQL community is legendary.  With that being said I will now list the things that I learned from this session.

• Generally we do not like setting goals as there is an inherit risk of failure.
• The professional development plan, or PDP, is essentially your business plan as you are essentially a business with a plan.
• The PDP…