Databases, clouds and more.
@AndyLeonard: “You got your SSIS in my Twitter!”
@JessicaMMoss: “You got your Twitter in my SSIS!”
That’s right, like peanut butter and jelly, we’ve got a hookup that produces better than the sum of its parts. Andy and Jessica will be unveiling their magic at their PASS session on Wednesday at 3pm in room 602. I’ll be there - I’m taking Brian Knight’s SSIS Boot Camp class on Monday, and I will be mashing up Twitter and SQL like crazy.
PASS has posted the list of candidates, but there’s no bio info yet. Fear not - the community is doing a great job of not just keeping up, but getting ahead! I love communities in the age of social networking.
TJay Belt is doing a great job of centralizing information about the candidates for PASS Board. Check out these two posts:
Bookmark those pages and check them before you vote - I’m sure they’ll be updated as more candidates blog their answers. Andy Warren just posted a fantastic article about why he wants to be on the PASS Board that’s really worth a read.
If my blog entry yesterday about my job as a SQL Server Expert at Quest Software sounds cool, then listen up: I’ll let you in on how to get a job like this.
I have the coolest job in the world - for me. My job would be absolute torture for some people, but I love it, and I think that’s the key.
Whether you’re a DBA, a developer, a project manager or a tester, whatever field you’re in, you need to be wildly passionate about it. This isn’t something you’re going to learn, but I mention it because it’s the only way you can succeed in a job like this. If I only worked with SQL Server from 9am to 5pm, five days a week, I would be way behind. I work a lot more, but it’s because it doesn’t feel like work to me. I love what I do, so working 50-60-70 hours a week doesn’t feel like work - it feels like a hobby too.
If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, don’t despair: you may not get an “expert” job in what you’re doing now, but careers change. Your expertise builds as you move from job to job, field to field, and hopefully you’ll find a field that you get absolutely crazy about. When you find that field, that’s where you can succeed as a subject matter expert or an evangelist.
I spent years working my way up the ladder in hotel management, but I couldn’t have succeeded as a hotel management expert or consultant. I was doing what it took to make a living, but not really passionate about it. I didn’t read hotel management books in my spare time. Those years of my life aren’t lost - they made me a better subject matter expert, oddly, because they helped me work better with the public. If you’re not passionate about your current field either, keep moving until you find the right fit for you. (Or keep doing it - there’s nothing wrong with makin’ money!)
Being a subject matter expert isn’t just about absorbing material: it’s about passing that material on to others as fast as possible.
This is not a natural skill for anybody, and if you think it’s natural for you, you don’t know what really good communication is. Here’s a few examples of great communication:
Notice that my work is not in that list.
I thoroughly enjoy communicating via blog posts, articles, chats, real life conversations, presentations, you name it, but I’m not good at it. Yet. I’m still working on that though. Every time I think I’m getting better, I see a Steve Jobs keynote, and I say to myself, “Self, you’ve got some work to do.”
Start small: take a writing course at your local community college. Technical writing isn’t all that different from any other kind of writing. You need to mesmerize your audience, deliver great information in a captivating way, and sell books - or articles, or blog posts, or whatever else you want to write.
After you’ve learned a little about writing, start exercising your knowledge by blogging, writing SQLServerPedia wiki articles, or just posting informative answers on forums like StackOverflow. The more you communicate, the easier it’ll become.
Write under your own name. It doesn’t do you much good to get famous under a pseudonym. It’s fine to use a funny nickname like SQLAgentMan or SQLBatman, but make sure people connect your real name in there somewhere because you want to build a reputation for what you’re doing. That’ll pay off as you start to…
If you’re into SQL Server, join the local chapter of PASS, the Professional Association for SQL Server. (No, that name doesn’t make any sense to me either, but the group rocks.) If you don’t have a local chapter, go start one.
Helping other people is a great way to learn a topic, but it has to be more than just one-way communication. Working directly with someone else, answering their questions and helping them out, deepens your knowledge of the topic and gets you to explore new challenges.
Tim Ford said it best when he said, “I have a junior DBA, his name is Google.”
Being an information worker in the Google age means that it doesn’t matter if you don’t know the answer to every question - you just have to know how to find it. You have to be able to navigate your way through countless search results, many of them filled with spam, and use your finely tuned bullshit detector to weed out the valuable answers from the not-so-valuable people who copy/paste Books Online.
Being an expert means having credibility. It doesn’t matter how much you know if people don’t trust your answers.
If you don’t know the answer to something, don’t fake it. Say you don’t know, shut up, and get out of the way. People will be refreshed with your honesty, and they’ll be much more likely to believe you when you do open your mouth about something. If they want you to find out the answer, that’s cool, but don’t fake it.
Make a clear distinction between your opinions and your known facts. When I make guesses about things, I go out of my way to make it clear that I’m guessing, and that I don’t know the answer for sure. Otherwise, next thing I know, someone will be repeating my opinion and saying, “Brent says it must be this, and he knew it for sure.” Ouch - bad.
If somebody points out an error in your work, thank them profusely, correct it, and give them credit. Knuth checks are a great example of this.
Ugh - leaves a bad taste in your mouth, right? I know, this one’s hard for us IT guys, but the reality is that you’re a self-contained corporation. You are building a brand with the people around you. If nobody knows your name, and if you just lurk in forums without posting anything, then nobody’s going to think of you when they need help.
Promoting yourself doesn’t mean taking out banner ads on web sites. It doesn’t mean jumping up and down in meetings and saying, “This was all my idea!”
It means leaving people with a positive impression of who you are and what you do. You do that by doing fantastic work, helping those around you, and helping the community in a way that people will take notice.
Here’s the part where I make an elegant segue into how you can promote yourself by writing articles on SQLServerPedia, but like I said, I’m not that good at communication. Like I said, I’m working on that.
People who got these expert-style, evangelist-type jobs did it because they like helping people. That means they want to help you too. If you’ve got questions about how to advance your career, what you should do next, or whether something is a good idea, email somebody who has the job you want. I have email conversations with people like this all the time, and I always take time to respond. I remember all too well what it was like to have a really crappy job, and I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. If there was a way I could get every one of my readers the same job I have, I’d do it.
But only as long as it didn’t decrease my salary. I want a Porsche 911, people. (That link, by the way, is Jeremey Clarkson reviewing the 911 Turbo - fast forward to 2 minutes 45 seconds for a hilarious take on why Porsche rear seats are so small.)
Things I found interesting this week:
PASS Summit 2008 Event Calendar - Rob Boek put together a calendar of the parties and events going on next week in Seattle for the Professional Association for SQL Server Summit. I’m psyched, despite having to take four plane flights in the next 48 hours to get there. (Don’t ask.)
SQL Server 2008 Plan Guides - this topic is gaining some traction among the high-end DBAs. Andrew Fryer put together some great sample queries to help you get started with ‘em.
Auto Generate your Restore Scripts - when you’ve got a lot of servers with different backup plans, it helps to have a fast point-and-click way to restore complicated sets of backups. This article shows how to generate the scripts along with each backup - a real timesaver when disaster strikes.
Gigs, I Tell You! Gigs! - funny story that conveys the frustration of dealing with a new client for the first time.
VMware vCloud versus EMC Atmos - neither of these are really going to impact SQL Server for quite a while, but if you’re a storage or virtualization geek, it’s interesting to read through these future technologies.
Dynamism has the Gigabyte M912 in stock - last week I mentioned a $349 netbook deal and my marketing peeps Andy and Christian asked why I hadn’t bought one yet. The M912 is why: it’s an $800 tablet netbook that can run OSX, has a 1280×768 touch-sensitive screen, an ExpressCard slot, a touchscreen, a 160gb hard drive, and a rotating touchscreen. Did I mention the touchscreen? Check out this video of an M912 in action. Yes, it’s twice the cost of an Asus Aspire, but $800 for a touchscreen netbook? Humina humina.
Enabling the flashy features in Windows 7 - during the PDC demos of Windows 7, Microsoft showed off some cool features. As it turns out, those UI features were disabled in the versions of Windows 7 that were handed out, and this article explains how to enable them.
Repeating this post from last month because I found out there’s still room available:
This year at the PASS Summit in Seattle, Quest Software is sponsoring an expert panel event on automating SQL Server processes. Sounds boring, right? Think again - here’s when you need to check out process automation:
I’m always amazed that Microsoft SQL Server has been around for so long, but there’s very few standardized automation scripts. So many of us have our own duct-taped SQL Server backup T-SQL scripts, have disdain for the built-in maintenance plan approach, and would never think to Google for an automation script instead of rolling our own.
The experts with their fancy opinions:
Why am I on the list? Because I, for one, welcome our new robot DBA overlords.
When: Thursday, November 20, 2008
7:00 - 8:30 a.m. (breakfast served until 7:30)
Where: Seattle Convention Center
Room 613 (6th floor)
If you want the free eats, you gotta RSVP online for the event. Afterwards, let’s track down the nearest open establishment for some Bloody Marys. (I kid, of course. They don’t have to be open. There will be enough of us to storm the doors.)
When I was a DBA, before I got this “rock star” job, I didn’t have the time to get involved enough with the SQL Server community to really know the people running for the PASS Board. I had a “real job”, and when I cast my vote, I was basing my decision off a paragraph or two of information about the candidate.
Now that I have a “fake job” where I get to spend time in the SQL Server community, I have the time to get to know more people. If I was you, and I had a “real job”, I would want to hear a personal opinion about the candidates.
So here’s who I’m voting for:
Tom LaRock - Upgrade You Can Believe In
Yes, I just outed SQLBatman on my blog, but if I was a voter, I’d want to know the man behind the mask.
Tom is funny as hell, as evidenced by his virtual campaign poster. I first met him at a Quest event for customers, and we hit it off right away. Everybody found it easy to talk to Tom - he’s a natural conversationalist - and to me, that’s really important in a SQL Server community leadership position. You want a person in there who you can just walk right up to, start asking questions, and get relaxed, funny answers.
He ran into problems with one of my favorite Quest products, but he didn’t just say, “This thing is borked” and throw it back at us. He took the time to trace the SQL the product was running, look at how it was working, and suggest a couple of indexes that would improve performance under load. He implemented it on his own lab systems, tested it, DOCUMENTED it, and passed it on to us. He documented it. Think about that for a second. How many of us write documentation on our OWN stuff, let alone a vendor’s?!?
His attitude shows in his written communications, too. Check out Tom’s Twitter stream. Regardless of whether or not you use Twitter, you have to appreciate how involved he is with other SQL Server professionals, and how easy he is to work with.
That right there - the Twittering and blogging - are big reasons that I’m endorsing Tom LaRock for PASS Board. I think it’s important for the future of PASS that we bring more DBAs closer together because it gets our SQL Server questions answered faster and makes our jobs easier. At the end of the day, that’s why I get involved with the community - to help other people get their jobs done easier - and I think Tom does too.
When Tom told me he was running, I asked him a few questions about why he was running, whether or not he’d have the time, and so on. We had so much fun that he asked if he could combine the emails into a blog post about why he’s running for PASS Board.
Disclaimer: I’ve never met Douglas in person, only over the phone. He may smell like a Newark telephone booth on a hot day. I reserve the right to revoke this endorsement should I determine that to be the case.
I first interacted with Douglas only recently - when we asked him if he’d like to be the BI Editor at SQLServerPedia. Of course we picked him for the quality of his work and his track record with the SQL Server community, but that’s not why I’m endorsing him here, because all of the nominees have awesome track records.
I’m endorsing Douglas because of a skill he’s repeatedly demonstrated in every interaction we’ve had: the ability to quickly dissect topics he doesn’t normally deal with, find the problems, and communicate them in a non-threatening way. He really displays an analytical mind that doesn’t just try to comprehend what you’re saying, but what you’re NOT saying, and what made you come to your conclusion.
That’s important to me in a PASS Board member because board members have to deal with a lot of ideas coming from every direction. It can be an exhausting job of taking suggestions that might be brilliant - or really crappy - and they have to figure out the right direction to take the SQL Server community. That’s why I’m voting for Douglas.
They’re awesome. Seriously. There’s nothing negative I can say about the rest of the nominee list - these are all people who devote their time to educating and serving the community. There’s other people in my circle of friends that are going to vote for other people. I know Andy Warren’s gathered a lot of buzz, and very rightfully so - read Andy’s blog entries about the PASS process, and you have to love the transparent approach he takes with it. There are a lot of good people who want to help others by serving as a PASS Board member, and we have the luxury of choosing from great candidates. (Sure beats the political elections I’m used to.)
If I had something negative to say about any of the candidates, believe me, I’d say it. Don’t believe me? Go search the web for SQL Server 2008 sucks and see who comes up.
Check out this page explaining the PASS Board of Directors election process. If you get an email, vote. If you’re in Seattle for PASS, swing by the voting kiosks. But whatever you do, vote, because it really does make a difference - last year, the difference between winning and not was 13 votes.
I loved the flash-in-the-pan band Semisonic, best known for - okay, only known for - their hit song Closing Time. I thought the rest of their stuff was just as brilliant (She’s Got My Number is one of my favorite songs ever), but I was in the minority, because they disappeared off the rock radar pretty quickly.
The band’s drummer, Jacob Slichter, wrote a book about the rock star experience called So You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star explaining what it was like to rise and fall in popularity. I bought it just to get a glimpse inside the crazy rock star lifestyle written by somebody who hadn’t been strung out on drugs. Great book.
This week on a plane to San Francisco, I found myself staring at a copy of Quest Software’s ad in the latest SQL Server Magazine, and the part that grabbed my attention was the bottom:
Be a SQL Server Rock Star with Quest
The tagline of Quest’s SQL Server marketing group is, “Be a SQL Server Rock Star with Quest.” Then it hits me: I should probably write a blog entry about what I do for a living. I’m no Jacob Slichter, but I have one hell of a fun job. I’ve gotten a couple of questions about what the job title “SQL Server Expert” really means, and how you get a job like this. Today I’ll focus on the job, and tomorrow I’ll talk about how you can get a job like this. (No, really.)
I’m an in-house resource for people at Quest who need to know something about SQL Server. Now, keep in mind that Quest has over 3,000 employees, hundreds of which make their living working with SQL Server. I work with people who write code to work with SQL Server, people who write documentation on SQL Server products, people who test SQL Server in ways I never knew existed, and people who support huge companies using SQL Server. Most of the time, when these people ask me a question, I look at them and think, “Holy cow, your question is so smart I can barely comprehend it, let alone answer it!” Quest hires smart people, and they ask hellaciously tough questions. Sample of one in my in-box right now: “Can logical fragmentation of a heap ever hit exactly 100%?” Whoa. I understand the question, and I think I’ve got a handle on the answer, but I don’t know for sure and I’m going to have to do some cool experimentation just to find out.
Sometimes they’re easy, but sometimes they’re hard-core technical questions that require serious research and testing. At times like that, I have to go find the answer out, and that usually means some pretty cool research. I maintain a big virtual server lab with my own Active Directory domain, mail server, file servers, and a dozen SQL Servers with various test databases in wacko configurations. That helps me find out strange answers fast.
My job revolves around getting these questions answered. At any given time, my to-do list includes questions like:
I work with my internal customers and my managers to prioritize the flood of questions and then solve ‘em. As soon as a question comes in, I need to figure out:
This communication need is one of the reasons I’m really excited about the new SQLServerPedia wiki. If you’ve been reading my blog a while, some of my posts are really, really long - frankly, too long for blog posts - because I’m covering a technical issue in-depth. My SQL Server tuning with Perfmon article comes to mind. Instead, it makes sense to shove that into the wiki as an article and let other people edit it and enhance it.
Anyway, that’s my job. In the process of answering questions, I get to learn a lot of cool stuff, meet a lot of cool people, and see a lot of cool places. As I write this, I’m on a flight to San Francisco to meet with our SQL Server marketing guys for a couple of days.
So how can you, dear reader, get a job like this? Stay tuned for the next episode.
A while back, Bryan Oliver, David Gugick and I went to Redmond to take part in a SQL Server 2008 auditing and compliance lab. JC Cannon and other Microsoft SQL Server 2008 pros talked about the new 2008 features that help DBAs with their SOX/HIPAA/PCI/etc compliance needs.
I’ve dealt with some of these regulations in a limited way before, but I learned a lot out of the lab. JC and crew taught us a lot about risk management, government and compliance, and we had a set of lab exercises where we stepped through implementations to put what we’d learned into practice. We were essentially guinea pigs for this whitepaper:
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Compliance Guide Whitepaper
As somebody who’s gone through the whitepaper start to finish (with a lot of guidance from JC’s team) I can tell you that this is really good stuff. If you work for a public company subject to regulations, if you work with sensitive financial data, or if you work with health care data, you need to read this doc.
If you WANT to go to work in any of those areas, you need to read this doc, because it’s the cheapest way to get compliance training. Read pages 7 through 12, and you’ll be well on your way to understanding the complexity and difficulty involved with supporting SQL Servers subject to regulation. If you keep reading, you’ll be pleasantly surprised - this is a good whitepaper in terms of a balance between technical content, business content, diagrams, and sample code.
If you’ve got feedback about the report or if there’s things you’d like to see added, let me know and I can pass your feedback on to JC Cannon. I promise not to take credit for your good ideas, hee hee ho ho.
What if you could sit down with these guys and ask ‘em any questions you wanted:
Well, speaking of that blogger access, it happens that I’ll have a chance to sit down with these guys and talk shop during the PASS Summit in Seattle next week. Normally, my hard-hitting interview style consists of questions like “What are you drinkin’?” and “Are you ready for another one?” For these interviews, though, I’m pulling out all the stops, so I’m asking you, dear reader, what you would like to ask them?
Not to tip my hand too much, but here’s some of the things that have popped into my head so far:
Help me out - what would you ask?
In the latest Voice of the DBA podcast (love the outtakes at the end, totally awesome), Steve Jones of SQLServerCentral talks about his use of Twitter. Like a lot of folks I know, he’s struggled to find the real-world benefit of it, and I really applaud his honesty. Twitter’s one of those things like MySpace - either you get it or you don’t. (Just for the record, I don’t get MySpace. I’m sure that statement will come back to haunt me later in life.)
He mentions a possible use case: private Twitter shared between employees of a company. Good news - it’s out, and it’s called Yammer.com. It’s exactly like Twitter (even the same APIs, if I remember right - I update it through Ping.fm) but it’s based off your email address, and your updates only go out to people at the same domain. Anyone can join with their company email address, which gets verified, and then you have a private in-company messaging stream. Basic accounts are free, and they have premium accounts with extra features.
