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The #SQLNewBlogger Challenge: Git ‘er done!

This week my friend Ed Leighton-Dick(@elieghtondick) announced his New SQL Blogger challenge.  It’s an effort focused on getting new bloggers to write regularly and build a habit of blogging. We’ve heard a lot about how blogging can build your personal brand, so I’m a big fan of this challenge and will participate, even though I’ve been blogging off and on for the past few years.  So far, some big names have come out in support of this challenge. Awesome to see. Not to try and ride their coat tails, but I want to add my own thoughts because I think it’s incredibly important to participate.

Most community members will be intimidated by this challenge. I say this because I’ve heard (and said) all the excuses that are probably going through your head when you think about blogging.  I want to show you how you can overcome that intimidation and participate successfully, jump starting your blogging career.

I don’t have anything to blog about

I hear this all the time. Really what people are saying is “I don’t have anything valuable to blog about” and I completely call shenanigans on this attitude, for much the same reason as why I tell folks they should start presenting. Everyone has something to share. Even if you think it’s simple or a no-brainer, I guarantee you someone will benefit from your knowledge.

Let’s consider why new bloggers get so intimidated. The perception is that current bloggers, especially the BIG names, always seem to have some clever script or gotcha to contribute. Something no one else has ever thought of. It’s a tough act to follow, especially if you are just getting started.

However, to butcher a song lyric, “Any blog is a good blog”.

I always recommend that new bloggers approach their blogging as self documentation. Write for yourself, don’t expect anyone else to read it (and if they do, BONUS!). There have been a number of times where I go back to my blog for a technique or script I wrote in the past. It’s a great entry point to get you to started writing and reduces the “freak out” about other people reading what you wrote.

They’re All Going to Laugh at Me

This could also be the “what if I’m wrong” clause. For new presenters and bloggers, there seems to be a permeating fear about getting called out for something wrong or bad that they publish. I’m sorry, have you met the #SQLFamily? What I love about the SQL Server community is that most folks out there are extremely supportive and helpful. If something is wrong, the community will help you fix it and learn from it.

The bonus of doing this in the internet is making corrections and updates is easy. If someone corrects you or shows you a better way, you can blog about it! If there’s an error, you can fix it! Consider your blog a living diary that can be adjusted as necessary. The only caveat here: Be public about your changes. Either write a new post or make an addendum calling out your edit. Stealth edits look fishy, be public.

Who Has Time To Blog?

Blogging is like any other part of your life where you need to grow: you need to make time for it.  It doesn’t have to be much, an hour or two. The trick is to schedule it like any other commitment and stick to that schedule.

My routine is to write every Saturday morning. I found a nice little tea shop near my house and include that in my morning routine:

  1. I’ll walk to the tea shop around 9 AM. It’s a 30 minute walk and gives me time to think about what I will write about. Plus, the physical activity energizes me.
  2. Once I get to the shop, I order my tea and breakfast (oatmeal, ‘cause I’m trying to lose ‘dat weight). Then I find a space, get plugged in, and start writing.
  3. The writing process is very stream of consciousness. I use Google docs and basically just spitball out what’s in my brain. I don’t worry so much about grammar or sentence structure, the idea is to get my thoughts on paper. This also might include hacking out scripts or testing the stuff I’m blogging about if it’s technical.
  4. Once the writing is complete, I’ll take a Twitter/Internet break (note, I shut Twitter down during the writing, reduce those distractions). Not long, maybe 15 minutes.
  5. After the break, I’ll do one major pass to clean up sentence structure and grammar. Then I shut it down and go home.

 

It should be noted that at this point the blog isn’t quite complete, but the bulk of the work is done.  Next steps for me are to get to get the post into WordPress and schedule it. I always schedule my blog posts for Tuesdays at 8 AM MDT, giving myself a deadline.

You need to commit to this to make it work. The best way I’ve found to hold myself to commitments is to set deadlines. Need to build a presentation? Commit to giving it on a specific date. Need to get a blog post up? There’s my weekly publish deadline. Will you hit those deadlines every the time? Probably not, but as long as it’s not a habit and you don’t let yourself get away with missing a deadline, you’ll be fine.

How Can I Help?

While I think this is a great challenge, I think it’s fairly obvious I’m not a new blogger. How I’m participating is lending my less-than-expansive blogging experience to get others started. This post is the first portion of me owning the challenge as I hope to show you the path to getting started. There’s yet more that I can contribute. So here’s the next steps:

  • Need someone to review your blog before you post it? Hit me up.
  • Want to bounce blog post ideas off of someone? I can do this.
  • Lacking inspiration for what to blog about? Let’s talk.

Let me help you make the most of this challenge. I’m not a expert, I’m not a big name, I’m just a dude doing his SQL thing. But I think I can share some of that with you to make the road a little easier.  Email me via mike at this blog.

Own that $#!+

Blogging, like presenting, is a huge part of building your career and personal brand. It will make you more visible to your peers, help you retain knowledge, and improve your writing skills through practice. By blogging you strengthen the larger SQL community by adding to the pool of tribal knowledge as well as making yourself a stronger member of that group. Remember, you have something to contribute, a unique piece of knowledge that you can share with your comrades in the community. I encourage you to step up and answer the challenge.

#tsql2sday 52: Stop depending on “it depends”

depends-on-who-is-askingIt seems to be a standard practice for data professionals to say “It depends” when asked for suggestions, recommendations, or outright solutions.  This isn’t surprising, because in the “magic” world of technology the actual solution for a problem usually requires some very specific information and that any number of solutions could work.  Add in to this the nature of our world usually puts you at the whip end when things break, so we are natuarally hesitant to draw a line in the sand.

Stop it.

Let’s face it, much of what we do is fairy dust and moonbeams to those outside our industry.  They don’t understand what we do, just that we make it happen.  And that’s what managers, directors, veeps, and c-fillintheblank-os want when they ask us questions: How can we make it happen and/or how to we make the broken thing go away.  The problem with saying “It depends”, especially in situations like that, is that it sounds more like “I don’t know” and that’s not what you’re getting paid for.  You’re the technical expert.  Whether you’re a consultant or a full-time employee, a seasoned veteran or a fresh-faced n00b, you’re being paid to understand the technology and be able to implement solutions.

Many data professionals, however, are afraid to take this sort of stand.  A lot of this stems from the tremendous amount of risk involved, particularly when tied in to the heavy responsibility we tend to bear.  Our job is to protect the company’s data assets and if we screw up it’s not just our head, but it could be seriously damaging to our company.  So we like to hedge our bets.  Unfortunately, a lot of people in our profession will use the phrase “It depends” as a dodge because they’re afraid of completely taking on that responsibility.

Ultimately, they’re afraid of failure.

It’s a common mantra in life coaching that we can’t be afraid of failure.  Failure is what we learn from and how we grow.  Make a mistake, analyze it, and grow from it.  We’re only human, however, and screwing up is scary.  We don’t want to look bad and we don’t want to get in trouble.  That doesn’t help the people who are looking to us for help.  This is when saying “It depends” as a shield turns into a roadblock, hindering both you and your organization from getting anywhere.

So what do we do about it?  Next time someone asks you for a technical opinion and you don’t have enough detail, ask for that detail.  What’s the RTO/RPO? How quickly does this need to perform?  What’s our budget?  Questions like that to refine the answer.  Maybe outline a solution, but caveat it with qualifiers, such as “I’d probably put tempdb on SSDs, but that assumes we can afford that sort of hardware.”  Maybe there’s a better way to do it, maybe you’re just wrong.  But it’s ok to make a mistake, as long as you’re not making the same mistake.

Most of all, I’d suggest to simply remove “It depends” from your vocabulary.  There’s a dozen ways to get the point across that a solution will require some thought and planning, but I found that when I was forced to use something other than this two-word quip, I had to work harder on my response to really explain the dependencies for a solution.  And the non-technical folks around you are ok with that.  Sure, they don’t want you talking above their head, but they also need to know why things need to be done a certain way.

Some folks might call this leadership.  Others, sticking your neck out. Still others might call this being unnecessarily risky.  I call it doing your job.  Like I said, companies pay us to know our field, it’s time we act like it.  Data is our world, very few people live it in and understand it the way we do, so own that knowledge and champion it.  And stop hiding behind that phrase, “It depends”.

(This month’s T-SQL Tuesday, a grand tradition started by Adam Machanic, is being hosted by Michael J. Swart(@MJSwart).  Great topic choice, sir!)

2013 in review, 2014 in anticipation

As is my custom, I want to blog about what I did last year and my goals for the upcoming year.  Since I have more “regular” stuff to blog about, I figured I’d sneak this in on a Friday just to get it up here.  :)  The primary reason I do this is that which gets measured, gets done (hat tip Buck Woody).  2013 was a pretty eventful year, but I didn’t quite get everything I had wanted to.  So let’s look back at…

2013

Speaking – Did pretty well here.  I met all my goals as well as actually speaking at the 2013 Summit.  I love presenting and now it’s a matter of building new presentations.

Blogging  – Not quite an epic fail, but this one was not a passing grade.  I basically blogged regularly through to about March, then fell back to my sporadic pace.  I didn’t even blog for about 3 months over the summer.  I’m very disappointed with myself and can do better here.

Certification – This was a success and was a lot easier than I had anticipated.  I sat down to take four of the five exams cold to evaluate where I stood and ended up passing them.  The one I had to study for (and I knew this going in) was the Data Warehousing exam (70-463).  Pretty happy here, but now it’s a matter of finding other options for certification.

I know a lot of folks have a dim view of certs.  I agree with the premise, that the exams and certifications (mostly) are no substitute for real world experience.  The fact that they can be crammed for removes some of the validity.  But at the same time, I think that they can be a valuable barometer for someone’s knowledge.  I fall in Glenn Berry’s camp here, that certifications are like extra credit.  If I see a cert on a resume, I won’t assume knowledge of the subject matter, but it at least shows me the candidate was willing to make an extra effort to improve themselves.

Secret Project – Ok, this more or less flopped.  Basically, I wanted to either write a book or build a pre-con for database monitoring because I feel there’s a real gap out there.  These are still on my slate of things I want to do, but I did not get that done in 2013.  Boo me.

And that was 2013.  I’d give myself a B for the year, mostly because while I whiffed on some of my goals, I also managed to go beyond on a few things.  In addition, I’ve made some career choices and moved things in that direction.  Which now brings me to….

2014

Several of the goals will be maintenance or the same.  I want to maintain on the presenting, so we’re looking at at least 4 SQL Saturdays and a Summit submission.  Blogging needs to be once a week.  This is a real stretch goal, because it’s harder than it looks, but I need to strive for it.  These two items are the base foundation my career grows from, so I need to keep that foundation healthy.

New stuff for 2014 will be:

  • I’m trying to move my career more towards being a data architect.  So for that goal, I will write more posts on general data concepts and higher level planning.  There will still be plenty of administrative stuff, but I need to broaden my blogging scope.

  • I also need to start reading more on cloud computing, modelling, and larger design concepts.  Right now I’m reading Domain Driven Design and my goal is to read 1 book a month on a related topic.

  • I will identify and start working towards a new certification path for design and architecture.  Not sure what this is, but I’ll have something identified by the end of March and start working on it the rest of the year.

2013 was a year of change in my life.  Not earth shattering change, not seismic shifts, but a definite redirection in my aims.  2014 will be solidifying my plan and starting down that path.  My biggest challenge will be sorting out the things that are new and uncomfortable from those that are the wrong direction.  The question I will continue to ask is “Does this move me in the direction I want to go?”.

 

T-SQL Tuesday #41: The Hook #tsql2sday

Bob Pusateri(@SQLBob) is this month’s host for T-SQL Tuesday with a topic I definitely can relate to.  Bob asks bloggers to talk on their presenting experiences:  how they got introduced to it and why do they keep doing it.  Since I’m right on the heels of giving my Server Core talk at SQL Saturday 197, it’s perfect timing.

To put my presentation experiences in context, let’s first talk a bit about some of my performance philosophy.  I’ve written about my musical background before and how it relates to giving technical talks.  One of my chief theories of performance (and art, for that matter) is the requirement of an audience, that art is not really art until you have an audience to appreciate it.  It’s all well and good for me to practice and play by myself, honing my skills and rehearsing pieces, but none of this becomes music until there are people to listen to it and hear my message.  Art is about communicating with that audience, sharing something of yourself through your performance.

This is a philosophy that directly translates to the presentations we give in the SQL community.  The main driver is for us to share our technical knowledge with our peers, to create and education conversation with those who do what we do.  For many, it’s intimidating to present when you think you have nothing to share.  When we realize that we can teach our audience something new, it’s an epiphany of what our impact can really be. This was exactly the “hook” that got me into presenting.

It was March 2011.  I had recently read Brent Ozar’s (@BrentO) landmark post: Rockstars, Normal People, and You.  I wasn’t sure about presenting, but I’d figure I’d give it a bash, so I reached out to the Denver User Group to see if I could sneak in for a slot.  After initially being told that my first chance would probably be something in the summer, I got a call from the VP of Events to see if I could give a short talk for the March meeting.  Apparently, the regularly scheduled speaker had to cancel and the group needed someone to fill in on short notice.

I had about two weeks.  In retrospect, that is a TON of time, but as a new speaker I felt like I was cramming last minute for an exam.  I put together a short presentation on database security, built around this cool extended stored procedure I found: xp_logininfo.  The night of the meeting came along and I went to the podium to warm up the room for Doug Lane(@thedouglane) with my “dinky, little presentation” .  The 30 minutes flew by, I think partly because of my nerves and I talked quickly, but everything went fine.  My demos worked, no one laughed at me, and my biggest sin was not speaking up so the back of the room could hear me.

Then came the “hook”.  As I was packing up for the evening, Tom Norman(@ArmorDBA) came over to talk with me.  Tom’s been a regular at the user group for a while who has given his own share of presentations.  To this day, I remember what he said:

“I’ve been a DBA for over twenty years.  You taught me something new tonight.”

Needless to say I was flattered, but it took a couple days to sink in.  When it did, it hit me: these were people that benefited from my performance, an audience that enjoyed my performance.  I was able to take my technical knowledge and mold it into something more.  Two years later and I’m a regular speaker in the mountain west area as well as VP of Events for the Denver group.  I’ve had the opportunity to speak at SQL Rally and many other SQL Pass events.  Presenting has been so much fun and it’s opened countless doors and started numerous friendships.

I want to thank Bob for giving speakers a chance to share their experiences.  My biggest hope is that we can encourage those who haven’t started speaking to do so.  If you’re reading these T-SQL Tuesday posts and you haven’t given a talk yet, go talk to your user group right now.  The SQL community is always looking for speakers and, whether you believe it or not, you have something I want you to teach me.

Speaking Out

Every January, many talk about what they want to accomplish in the New Year.  Goal, resolutions, attempts to improve both personally and professionally.  Within the community, a lot of my friends have set goals for public speaking, aiming to talk at user group meetings, presenting to their peers at their jobs, or larger aspirations.

Time and again, we hear the refrain about how presenting can boost your career.  I know I’ve spoken about it myself on a number of occasions.  The problem for most is their first presentation and how daunting it can be.  Sometimes someone’s not sure where they could first chance to speak.  Other times it’s a question of finding the “right” topic to speak on.  Not surprisingly, I’ve had a number of conversations in the past months with community members who are grappling with these issues.  The desire is there, but they need a little guidance in order to start down the path.

Finding the audience

I think the issue of finding a venue is the easier problem to handle.  Over the past two years I’ve become more involved with the Professional Association for SQL Server and I’ve gotten to know many of the local and regional organizers.  Recently, I’m became one of those people as well, joining the board of the Denver SQL Server group this past January.  Over this time, I’ve learned that your local user groups are always looking for speakers and typically have several different ways to help new speakers get started.

For example, we have three established groups here in Colorado, with fourth one getting started.  The three established groups all provide the same general format for speaking slots:

  • A 30 minute “lead off” slot, where the meeting will usually have someone speaking on an introductory topic
  • A 60 minute “main event” slot, typically featuring a local or national name on a more in-depth topic.

When I started my own presentation path, I got my feet wet with the 30 minute intro slot.  60 minutes is a bit much to take in for a first presentation, both for assembling material and also for the intimidation of talking for a full hour.  Also, when it’s the first of two presentations in the evening, it takes some of the pressure off because there will be someone else speaking after you.

I also know that many local groups are looking at other options with their formats in order to promote new speakers.  With the success of lightening talks at the Summit, many user groups have been talking about implementing that format within their own meetings as a way to give new speakers an even easier way to get started.  For those unfamiliar with the format, several short presentations (8-10 minutes each) are lined up next to each other.  Topics are fairly limited, as there’s only so much material you can cover.  In Denver, we’re planning on using this format to open our March meeting and having only new speakers

Speaking….in the Cloud?

Unfortunately, local user groups only meet once a month and aren’t always convenient for everyone.  The good news is there are other speaking opportunities outside of these meetings for new presenters to make use of, found in the PASS Virtual Chapters.  There are many of these groups built around various areas of interest within SQL Server and they’re always looking for speakers.  The great thing about these meetings is that they’re held online, so that many of the scheduling and possible travelling difficulties are avoided.

I personally had the opportunity to present to two virtual chapters last year and they were great experiences.  It took a little while to get used to the limited audience interaction, but it also meant that I was a little more control of the flow of things.  For new presenters who may be intimidated by the audience, this is a great in between step.  Also, you’ll have a meeting moderator who can assist you getting things going, which helps expand the comfort zone because you basically have someone backing you up.

We always talk about the Cloud and how it will change our careers.  This is yet another way that it’s impacting us.  Through virtual chapters, we have even more opportunities to present and reach a larger audience.  Certainly, we hear every day how many of the top consultants are reaching out to the community through free training and it’s easy to observe the success they’re having.  There’s no reason new speakers can’t have the same success with these very same tools.

Yeah, I’m Region Wide

If you’re involved the community, it’s hard at this point to have not heard about SQL Saturday.  I love these events and I’ve been very pleased to see the explosion in the number of SQL Saturdays over the past year.  One of the reasons these events were started was to grow the SQL Server speaker base and, by necessity of the sheer number of these mini-conferences, they are continually in need of new speakers.

While it may be a little intimidating to start speaking at one of these events, the benefits are amazing.  Even if you have had a chance to speak once or twice already, it can’t be understated how important it is to speak at one of these, even if you have to drive a couple hours or plan a quick weekend getaway.  It’s not just about the opportunity to speak, but also to network.  While attendees get a chance to meet local SQL Server professionals, speakers have a chance to talk with regional and national speakers that are also in town for the event.  For example, if you were speaking at SQL Saturday Albuquerque, you’d have a chance to chat with Aaron Bertrand, Steve Jones, and Denny Cherry.

Keeping it in house

Lastly, the easiest place to present could be no further than your workplace.  Presenting within your company has several advantages, the biggest being that you are probably already familiar with your audience.  Also, you can probably have an easier time scheduling your presentation, which becomes more convenient for you.  Overall, presenting to your co-workers provides you a more comfortable experience, which might be an easier first step if you’re not sure about getting up in front of a bunch of strangers.

The Longest Talk

Whether you speak at a user group meeting, online, or to your team at work, you have plenty of options for a venue.  “I don’t know where I could speak” is not an excuse that’s available to any SQL professional.  I used this excuse for a while, but then when I spoke with my local speaker wrangler for the Denver SQL User Group, it committed me.  Suddenly, I had a time and a place where I had to speak and I couldn’t back out.  Well, I could, but what would that say?  We’re in the tech world because we love challenges, we take on new problems, and we push ourselves outside of our comfort zones.  This is just another challenge, so grasp it and help your career go further.

Next week, come back and I’ll provide some additional information on the second hurdle:  How to choose a topic.

Matters of Opinion

The common creed of I.T. and data professionals is “just make it work”.  Commonly we’re tasked with crazy problems, weird situations, and difficult challenges and we just get our heads down and get the work done.  It’s not often that we look up and plan beyond the current project or task.  We’re a cog in the machine, a smaller piece of a larger process, focused on getting the work done that we can control.

It’s a position we often struggle with.  How can someone come to you with a half-baked solution?  Something a user doesn’t fully understand even though they insist that “this must be the problem”?  I know I’ve been there, asking myself these questions while gnashing my teeth and shaking my fists at the sky.

Stepping up

The unfortunate truth is that these situations, like many other problems, are somewhat of our own making.  It’s a matter of trying to ride the proverbial tiger instead of trying to cage it.  The fact of the matter is that very few people, especially at a management level, understand database technologies the way we do.  If they do, it can make our lives a little easier, but typically we in the trenches will know more about the new features and limitations of our platforms.

How do we leverage this to our advantage?  By becoming thought leaders at our jobs.  Our management needs to plan to leverage new technologies and want answers about capabilities and options in order to find a way forward.  Do they go to the cloud? Should their databases be hosted on physical or virtual servers? How can we improve system response?  We can answer these questions, but can’t wait around for someone to ask us.

Resource of Record

How often do you talk to your managers about what you could do?  Information they’re looking for?  Opportunities for improvements that you can provide, either through current or new elements of your platform?  Our managers only know what they know, so we need to educate them by getting in front of them and sharing our knowledge with them.

So how?  If you’re one of the many professionals following the advice of Brent Ozar(@BrentO), you’re already well on your way.  Blogging?  Make sure your boss is reading your blog, so that he’s aware of what you know and are thinking.  Presentations?  Make sure your management is aware that you’re speaking on technical topics and what those topics are.  Building your personal brand is as important to your current job as your next.

You also need to have an opinion.  Sure, we live by a creed of “it depends”, but when someone asks as “how” or “why”, we should have a good answer for them.  Physical or virtual?  Cloud or on site?  Should this index be added?  As thought leaders, we need to provide more than just options, we need to provide answers and the knowledge to back those answers up.

Throughout my life, I’ve had this concept of “having the initiative”.  Basically, it means that I try to take control of situations, not letting them take control of me.   This is very much in that vein.  By advertising my knowledge to those around and above me and selling my expertise, I become the first stop for a question instead of a second or a third.  If you were the first stop, what would do that for you?

Looking Forward

Last time we met (ah, such a wonderful time), I did a once over of my accomplishments for 2012.  While I was pleased with the results, we must remember that career development is an ongoing process.  With 2012 in the review mirror, it’s time to put my 2013 goals to paper.

Speaking

I’m not going to lie, I really enjoy presenting.  It’s addictive and makes me think the tests are right(ENTJ, by the way).  I pushed myself to the edge on this last year by speaking at 5 SQL Saturdays, 2 Virtual Chapter meetings, a handful of user group meetings, and Rally.  This was a good stretch, so no reason not to match it.  In 2013, I will aim to:

  • Speak at 4 SQL Saturdays (and I’ve already got 3 on the books, which will be number 4???)
  • Submit to speak at the PASS Summit.
  • 3 chapter presentations (a mix of virtual and “meat-space”).

Note, I’m just submitting to Summit.  I have no illusions about this one, many people tried for years before they were accepted.  I need to get my foot in the water and start beefing up my presentations to Summit quality.  No, I won’t be doing Bob Ward(@bobwardms) or Adam Machanic(@adammachanic) level stuff, I’m quite happy in the 100-300 range, but I feel there’s a real need for that sort of stuff in the community and I plan to bring my A game.

Blogging

Ugh.  Blogging is what I struggle with.  Not that I don’t have things to write about or I dislike writing, it’s more that I dislike making time to write.  It feels like homework (and it is, after a fashion).  Blogging, however, is a GREAT way to get ideas out of your head and self-document your work.  To that point, I plan on:

  • Blogging once a week.  (ALWAYS commit to a regular schedule)
  • Continue to focus on automation and monitoring.
  • Blog about my server inventory and automated restore testing processes.

Certification

In general, I’m in the camp that certification doesn’t necessarily prove competency.  Many of the smartest people I know don’t have any certifications at all.  However, I agree with Glenn Berry(@glennalanberry) that self-acquired certifications (i.e., you didn’t go to a boot camp) show a willingness to go the extra step, much like community involvement.  Also, having them doesn’t hurt your resume, an overall net gain in almost any case.  My plan for 2013:

  • Get the Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA) by June.
  • Get the Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert(MCSE): Data Platform by end of year.

Seeeeeeeeeeeekrit Project

Wow, how’s that for vague?  That’s intentional, as I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but I want to put this to paper to hold myself accountable.  Basically, I had a really cool idea at this year’s Summit and I really want to go for it.  Keep your eyes open for more on this throughout the year.

It’s Gonna Be HUGE

As you can see, I’m loading up on 2013 like a starving man at an all you can eat buffet.  It’s exciting and intimidating, but most of all, it’s achievable.  Nothing on this list is out of my reach.  Also, many of these things fold into one another, such as my presentations meshing with my blogging meshing with my seekrit project (ah HA!  Parallelization!).  I’m ready to take it all on, ‘cause it’s gonna be awesome!

A Look Back

The end of 2012 has arrived, despite the best efforts of the Mayan calendar.  It’s been quite a year for me, with a lot of ups and some downs, but overall pretty pleased with where I am regarding my career progress and community involvement.  For those of you who were around this time last year, I had laid out a series of goals for this year.  In order to keep myself honest, I thought it would be appropriate to hold myself to those goals.

Adjectives

My first goal was to get people to associate me with several adjectives.  For review, these adjectives are:

  • Smart
  • Creative
  • Reliable
  • Professional

Considering a lot of the comments I get from friends and colleagues, I’m pretty happy with my progress here.  I’ve had co-workers tell me that I’m looked to for creative approaches to solving problems, both using current and new aspects of SQL Server.  Many people, both in and out of my job, look to me for help and advice.

My biggest struggle, though, is still being “professional”.  I wear my emotions on my sleeve and sometimes that gets away from me, particularly when there’s friction between me and others I work with.  I need more focus in this area, but I also need to keep the other adjectives on my mind.  I’m on the right track here and need to keep moving forward.

Speaking

This is where I had my biggest accomplishments.  My goal was to speak at 4 SQL Saturdays and SQL Rally and, fortunately, I managed to do all that plus an additional SQL Saturday, several virtual chapter meetings, and a handful of user group presentations.  All of these went very well and I got plenty of great feedback.

What I’m most proud of was my SQL Rally presentation: Eating the Elephant – Understanding and Implementing SQL Server Partitioning.  I had a full room with 100+ people in attendance and got positive feedback from most of the audience (though I did get one guy saying he found a great place for a $3 Coke).  I was nervous right before I started, but once I was “on”, things went very smoothly.  I really want to thank folks out there in the community for their support, because without them I wouldn’t have gotten so far.  It can only go up from here.

Focus

I’ve only had moderate success with getting focused here.  Certainly, I have learned a lot more about automation and monitoring in SQL Server.  In reviewing my blog posts over the year, I’m definitely happy with what I’ve written on regarding this.  But I could have done more.  I think my biggest disappointment is how I didn’t blog nearly as much on this topic as I could have.  I have more ideas on my head and I need to be more disciplined about putting them to “paper”.

Summing it up

Self-evaluation is a huge part of personal growth.  We need to set measurable goals for ourselves and then periodically check where we are against those goals.  If I were to grade myself for 2012, I’d probably rate a B.  I should have blogged more, but made great progress with speaking and self-learning.  I have definitely have stretched myself professionally and feel positioned myself well to take things further.

This is an ongoing process, though.  Doing well in 2012 only means I need to stay on track and set goals for the next year.  There’s been a lot of thoughts floating around in my head over the past few weeks, trying to sort out what is both reasonable and measurable for 2013.  I should be ready to commit to those goals and share them with folks next week.

SQL Superstars

Michael Jordan.  Peyton Manning.  Joe Sakic.  Kobe Bryant.  Tom Brady. Andy Pettit.

Sports superstars. We watch them throughout the year, enjoying their athletic performances and last minute heroics.  Whether you love them or hate them, their abilities are amazing.  But there’s more than that.  We also watch as these special athletes also become a focus for their team, a linchpin for their team mates, a fulcrum upon which their organization’s efforts are leveraged.

I typically listen to the local sports talk radio on my way to work.  One day, the hosts were discussing superstar qualities, such as the ability to make plays and elevating the play of their team mates.  Since I was heading in to work, I started wondering how that translated to my job and if I was trying to bring these same superstar elements to the database court.  After all, I’ve always considered myself smart and able to handle any technical task in front of me, but being a true superstar is more than just being good, it’s also about being a leader and a force that drives the people around you to success.

I don’t think it’s quite that far of a leap from sports superstardom to the corporate world.  While we can’t do what these guys do (or get paid millions of dollars to do it), we can approach our jobs with the same mindset.  Here are some of the qualities that bounce around in my head and how the can be brought to our jobs:

  • Talent – Successful athletes all have some basic level of talent.  You don’t have to be the best, but you do need to be good.  I think all people in the technical field have this capacity, since we wrap our brains around some pretty involved concepts daily, so this is the easiest to attain.
  • Drive – It’s not enough to be ok.  It’s not enough to do the minimum.  Superstars are ambitious, want more, and strive to be the absolute best they can be.  For the technical field, this means we embrace the constant change, the continual learning, and the desire to find better ways to get our day to day work done.
  • Leadership – Now it gets harder.  Superstars realize that they’re on a team, and have to be a part of that team.  But true superstars step forward and lead the team, they set the tone for the people around them.  As data professionals this means we look for projects and weaknesses in our environments and improve them.   Don’t ask for permission, don’t look for approval, just lead.  Is there a better way to run your backups?  Do you see poor performance due to bad query or table design?  Where ever you see a place where something can be made better, lead the way and those around you will follow.
  • Make those around you better – Once people start following, you need to help lift them up.  Your team is only as strong as the weakest link and, as a superstar, it’s incumbent upon you to strengthen those links.  Maybe a teammate is struggling with escape characters in dynamic SQL or they have questions about creating a server side trace.  Whatever the case, withholding your knowledge or doing the work for them doesn’t help the team.  True superstars raise up those they work with, because they know that the success of the team is dependent on the ability of the team, not the ability of its superstars.

The work we do every day is a team sport.  We can be good as individuals, but we are rarely viewed as that.  Take John Elway and Dan Marino, two of the greatest quarterbacks of their generation.  In almost all cases, Elway is seen as the better quarterback because of his team’s success.  While he’s recognized as a proficient individual talent, the Superbowls he led the Broncos to set him apart.  That’s the key, that he led the Broncos.  His superstar status is more a result of what he did with his team than what he did by himself.

We want to have the same effect.  While there might not be a championship on the line, our own talents and abilities are enhanced by what we do for those around us.  These people might be team members, co-workers, or even the extended SQL community.  Note that a lot of the superstar SQL contractors we know (Brent, Paul, Denny, etc.) are heavily involved in sharing knowledge with the rest of us.  Their sharing makes us stronger, resulting in a better database community.

The next time you watch a major sporting event, look at how that team is being led.  Consider the superstars and what you can do to emulate them.  While we may not have the money, we can certainly have that same success by choosing to make their habits our own.

SQL Rally 2012: It’s all about the sauce

Consider, for a moment, the Eggs Benedict.  Most breakfasts involve egg, sometimes with toast, sometimes with meat (bacon, sausage, etc.), various combinations.  However, this one signature dish is special because it combines all this and then covers everything in tasty hollandaise sauce.  This unique combination sets the dish apart from your normal breakfast.

Our database careers are similar.  Any of us can get the job done with some basic combination of study, practical experience, and some community involvement.  What sets one path apart from another?  What gives us that extra boost that makes us stand out from our peers, that carries us up to a new level of success?  What, in short, is the hollandaise sauce of our own personal careers, providing that flavor that makes us special and unique?

This week I had the opportunity to attend the second annual SQL Rally.  For those of you following along, I wrote about my experience at SQL Rally Orlando last year and the profound impact it had on me.  This year, it was a little different for a couple reasons, though the impact was no less significant on my work and my professional growth.

First off, I’m now a community “veteran”.  This doesn’t mean I’ve got a special status, but it does mean that it was now my turn to reach out to people who were attending for their first time.  I met many new folks, shared war stories and terrible jokes, and generally spread the infection that is the SQL Family.  This infection strengthens us, since having a good professional network provides us knowledge and opportunity on a logarithmic scale.

Secondly, this year I attended as a speaker.  Instead of just trying to soak it all in, now I had to get up and talk on my own topic.  That was a particular thrill on its own, because while I’ve done several local and regional events now, now I was speaking on a national stage to the largest audience I’ve had to date.  While I haven’t seen the feedback forms yet, I was blown away by the number of people who came up and personally thanked me for presenting.  Because of the encouragement I received from my audience, I’ve gone ahead and submitted to the PASS Summit for 2012.  It wasn’t on my goal sheet for the year, but I see no reason to hold back now.

Finally, these conferences are still primarily about learning, not just networking and speaking.  I still wanted to make time to attend sessions and add advance my own personal learning.  The sessions this year were better than last year and I got a LOT of great knowledge.  On top of that, all the rooms were packed with the exception of the very last slot on Friday.  My focus on administration and internals topics and saw some great sessions on extended events, integration processes, 2012 features (and, yes, Bob Ward pulled out the debugger), and other topics.  I also mixed in a couple development sessions to broaden my experience.  Overall, some great sessions from some top notch talent.

Sure, the Summit is bigger with larger names, but Rally is incredibly valuable on its own.  Since it’s a smaller conference, you can have more direct access to some incredibly smart people.  I had conversations with at least 4 MCMs , a number of other authors and MVPs, and members of the SQL CAT team.  I got guidance on professional development as well as technical problems, without the crush or general busy-ness that comes with the size of the Summit.

I want to reiterate that we can go through our daily work, study the blogs, and go to technical courses.  We’ll still be moderately successful in our professional lives.  Community involvement is what adds that special kick, that extra flavor.  It’s the hollandaise sauce that completes the Eggs Benedict and makes it more than just eggs, an English muffin, and Canadian bacon.  If you want to be that person in your company who makes a difference, who is recognized as being something more than a database administrator or developer, then conferences like these will not only give you the knowledge you need to succeed, but also connect you to the community that drives change and sets the trends.

I want to extend a huge thank you to the NTSSUG guys who made this all possible, like Sri(b|t), Tim(b|t), Ryan(b|t), and Dave(b|t) (as well as many others I KNOW I’m forgetting).  The fact that such a great event is hosted and supported directly by members of the community shows the strength of what PASS is doing.  I can only hope that reading this inspires you to go to your own local user group or attend a SQL Saturday.  Get involved, get connected, because if you aren’t you’re, quite simply, doing it wrong!