Category Archives: Career Advice
“You Can’t Sit Here!” Forrest
Do you remember the scene from Forrest Gump where he gets on the school bus for the first time and hears:
“This seat’s taken!”
“You can’t sit here!”
How many of us look for Jenny to invite us to sit down? Do you welcome new employees with open arms or do you throw them to the wolves? The environment in which employees work can determine their longevity and level of success. I would like to think that I am the male version of Jenny because that is how I would want to be treated. Do you teach others your SQL knowledge or do you hoard it?
What about you? Enjoy!
Upcoming Training…Yeah Baby
I’m stoked! My upcoming training class has been approved and my registration submitted! The class is three weeks away and I’m like a kid at Christmas waiting to open his present. Oh, it’s not your run of the mill Microsoft SQL Server training class….which would be great because I love training! This is Paul Randal’s (blog : twitter) Immersion Event for Internals and Performance (IE1). I cannot wait to blog about that class in three weeks!
Enjoy!
What Do You Wanna Be When You Grow Up?
When my teenagers were younger, I would often ask them this question and then I would ask their friends. The answers were amazing. I continued to ask them as they got older and the answers generally got better, more detailed. They were full of hope and promise. They were invincible.
I’ve asked this questions to my colleagues. Their answers aren’t generally as exciting and usually lacking in the hope department. When did we stop dreaming? When did we lose that dream we had as a five-year old?
Don’t ever stop dreaming. Make a list of goals. Create a personal development plan. Capture that magic you had as a five-year old! Enjoy!
Make the Time!
Learning SQL Server can be a full-time job. I hear from people in the IT community all the time that say they would love to learn SQL Server or some other cool technology….wait a minute, there is no other cool technology so strike that last comment. The response I give to them is simple: MAKE THE TIME!
If you want to remain gainfully employed it is necessary to take a proactive approach to continuing education. You cannot avoid doing this on your own, unless your employer sends you to several training classes every year. I love going to training classes! There I said it, I love training! On a routine basis, I beg my employer to send me to training and not just because I enjoy travel and hotel living. I love training classes! MAKE THE TIME!
In order to become a better DBA or programmer, you are going to need to spend time outside of work learning about SQL Server either through SQL Saturday, Code Camps, blogging or tweeting! MAKE THE TIME!
Enjoy!
Zest for Learning
In today’s competitive marketplace, we must have a zest for learning to remain relevant and marketable. While I am excited about the release of SQL Server 2012, its launch means that my 2008 MCTS has just become a little less marketable. The certification itself does not expire but it’s usefulness is definitely dated. I know many other DBAs have been testing and learning Denali for some time now. Time to pick up the slack.
Since my agency is in the process of implementing 2008R2 boxes replacing our 2005 boxes, we are in the forefront of available technology today. However, in a few months we will once again be one version behind. I can live with that, but my learning must continue. I have been planning on setting up a 2012 lab where I can be ready for the day that we migrate these new boxes.
The reality is that we must keep learning, we must keep moving, and we must remain relevant. Keep up the good work and enjoy!
Goals Updated
We are almost a month into the new year and so far I am on track to complete my stated goals for the year. However, I know one item that will not be completed due to a constraint by VMWare to end testing on the VCP certification this month. Normally you have one year from the date of attendance in the VMWare course to sit for the test before you have to take the class again. That date for me was in March and given my current projects I will not be able to be prepared to sit for that exam by the end of the month. This is not a big deal because VMWare is not my primary career focus, it was just something I thought I could add to my resume.
It appears that I am going to be able to take Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp’s Immersion training at the end of February, which is an incredible opportunity. Hopefully I will get to meet some other people in the #SQLFamily there.
The one goal that I am proudest of thus far is this blog. I thought it would be difficult to find something to write about everyday, however I have been able to keep writing everyday. It is getting easier every day. I am also trying to do one technical article each week. I will post updates as we go on this journey together. Enjoy!
Downsizing
Imagine my surprise when starting my current position seven months ago only to find out two months later that they would be downsizing. To give you some background, I have just survived two agencies’ downsizing with the last one trying four times over a three year period before they finally managed to outsource everyone. It is not a joyous occasion for anyone involved and I don’t recommend it if you have never experienced the joy.
After seven months, I can now say that I have survived two rounds of layoffs. IT is starting to feel like tours of combat with everyone just hoping to survive. To be honest, the hardest part is seeing colleagues leave, voluntarily or involuntarily, especially when there was great chemistry on your team. Morale suffers, productivity suffers, and you wonder who will jump ship next. Hopefully this is just another phase like Y2K, the Dot Com frenzy and subsequent bubble crash. I have survived them all and I will survive this too. Through it all, my databases remain, DBA to the very end!
Enjoy!
MCITP: Moving Forward!
Yesterday I attended a Brent Ozar PLF webinar with Kendra Little (blog : twitter). The webinar, Anatomy of the SQL Server Database: Settings and Secrets, was great, as per usual. What transpired at the end of the training was magical. As you know, if you have been reading my blog, I have been contemplating moving forward to pursuing my MCITP for SQL Server 2008. Kendra made an announcement that Brandon Leach (twitter) was forming an MCITP study group of like-minded professionals to get together online and help each other out. Hey that is exactly what I have been looking for! My #SQLFamily is really an amazing group of people, and I wish I had discovered them years ago while banging my head against the wall upgrading SQL 6.5 to 7 and then on to 2000. At the time, I was an accidental DBA. Those days have long passed, thanks to my MCTS. MCITP: Here I Come!
Enjoy!
MCITP…Should I do it?
I have been contemplating my next move for SQL certification. Last spring, I earned my MCTS for SQL Server 2008 Implementaion and Maintenance passing the 70-432 exam after a couple of months of preparation and a TechSherpas course. The next logical step is the 70-450 which is Designing, Optimizing and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution using Microsoft SQL Server 2008. The title alone is impressive. I think with this budget year I will have the opportunity to take a bootcamp for this certification.
Should I wait before pursuing this level? Is it recommended to have more experience before taking this exam? What do you think?
Personal Development Plan Part Dos….
Having posted yesterday about my Personal Development Plan, I read a blog post from Neil Hambly regarding his 2012 goals. Now, I realize that my goals were somewhat vague and easy to worm out of. Here are the goals that I had mentioned yesterday:
- I want to dedicate time everyday to this blog and giving back to the SQL community that has helped me so much over the years.
- I want to continue to dedicate time to the SQL community in social media.
- I want to attend at least ten events this year consisting of SQL Saturdays, training, code camps, and possible SQL Rally and/or SQL PASS.
Let’s revise those goals to the following:
- I will post daily to this blog in order to give back to the SQL community that has helped me so much over the years.
- I will spend time daily helping people on twitter, SQL blogs, and various SQL-related websites such as SQL Server Central.
- I am setting a goal of 300 followers on Twitter which would double my existing followers for 2011.
- I will attend at least ten of the twelve Tampa Bay SQL Server User Group meetings.
- I will atend three to five other SQL User group meetings, such as the Tampa BI group or Orlando’s MagicPASS.
- I will attend every Tampa VMWare User Group meetings which occur quarterly.
- I will attend other events that interface with SQL Server or VMWare such as the Orlando IT Pro Camp scheduled for January 21, 2012.
- I will attend one Microsoft SQL training course this year, but I cannot say at this time what that course will be as that will depend upon my employer ;-). I would like to attend Course 2778a (Writing Queries Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Transact-SQL) and Course 6234 (Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services.
- I will attend every SQL Saturday offered in the Orlando, Tampa, and Jacksonville areas. I would also like to attend some others, if possible, within driving distance. I am already registered for SQL Saturday #110 in Tampa on March 10, 2012.
- I will volunteer to help with at least one SQL Saturday this year.
- I would like to attend SQL Rally in Dallas this year and I would definitely like to attend the SQL PASS Summit, but with one child in college this year and two more entering over the next two years, I may have to pass on this one for a couple of years until they are situated and my bank account returns to normal.
- I will continue to take at least one to two classes a semester online in order to complete my degree in Business Administration. All those Engineering and Computer Science classes I took 20 years ago are not relevant today and I would like to possibly return to consulting in five or ten years and that degree would be more beneficial in that long term goal.
- I will continue SQLAndy’s recommendation to meet at least three people at every SQL event. This is a great recommendation for networking. It is hard sometimes to break out of our introverted ways.
- I will attain my VMWare Certified Professional 4 certificate this year for VMWare.
- I would like to speak somewhere this year, my local SSUG, VMUG, or even a training session at work. I need to get over my fear of public speaking. 2012 is the year to step it up and take it to another level.
I think this is an adequate list on my second day of contemplation, but I will review this over the next week or so to decide if it is exhaustive. Stay tuned and enjoy!
SQL Swampland 