My friend Jen McCown of MidnightDBA fame issued a challenge last week called “Un-SQL Friday”. The inaugural topic is on branding. Although I’ve written a little about personal branding over the years, I don’t pretend to be an expert, but I have learned a thing or two that works for me. As I mentioned in a comment on Brent Ozar’s…
There are some questions that can’t necessarily be answered in a book or a training video. Those are often the questions revolving around “why?” rather than “how?”. A prime example from my own experience is my lack of understanding of the criticality of transaction isolation levels. As a very green SQL Server professional (and in this case, I define professional…
Way back during my days as a retail clerk, I had a customer who had a, um, clothing malfunction. The store was very busy one afternoon, and as he approached me to ask a question, it was readily apparent that his barn door was left open. As discreetly as I could, I leaned in and whispered to him that he…
I’d like to share a networking success story. Last year, I blogged about my experience at the PASS Summit of 2005, where I was essentially a wallflower and didn’t really do any networking. Since then, I’ve realized its importance and have embraced professional networking as a key component in a successful career. Ever since then I have carried through on…
So for the latest database geek meme, Paul Randal started this thing off and tagged Tom LaRock, who enlisted Grant Fritchey, who finally tagged me. This one simply asks, “What 3 things or events brought you to where you are today?” The Eyes Barely a year out of high school, I was working full time in retail and occasionally attending…
So I’d planned to already have this done and published before the new year rolled around, but life got in the way… and I mean that in a good way! I’ve said this before but it bears mentioning again that creating and sharing a list of goals helps to serve as a reminder and a means of accountability for meeting…
Late last year, I blogged about some goals I had set for myself to accomplish during 2009. No goal-setting session is complete until you spend some time reviewing your completion of, or progress toward, those goals. To that end, I’ll address those goals and how well I did for each of them during the past 12 months. Presenting: I give…
I have a sad story to tell you. Sit down and grab a tissue. It was 10pm on a cool night in September 2005. Somewhere in Grapevine, Texas, a junior SQL Server professional was sitting alone in a hotel room watching TV. He was tired but not exhausted, having spent all day learning his trade at the Super Bowl of…
If you are a blogger and you post product reviews on your blog, you may have to answer to the FTC starting in December. An article in the New York Times earlier this week outlines a new Federal Trade Commission regulation currently under review which, if approved, would tighten the rules of disclosure that must be followed by those who…
In a couple of previous posts (Part One and Part Two), I shared some thoughts about starting a career path as a database professional, including some notes from my own journey. In this final segment, I’ll share a few discrete tips that will hopefully be useful to those interested in this field. Build Your Foundation: You’re going to need some…