Today, I’m thrilled to see that my very good friend Jeremiah Peschka is the newest community guy at Quest Software.  (They’re going to say he has a “new” job, not “my” job, but that’s because the Quest folks are very smart and they tailor the job to fit the person, not the other way around.)  Note that I’m not getting paid to write this – I’m not affiliated with Quest anymore, but I’m covering this because I believe it’s more evidence that the job market is continuing to change in a way that will affect you – yes, you.

Jeremiah’s new job is important to you for two reasons.  First, you should be my friend, because my friends get cool jobs.  No, wait, not really – people who blog, tweet, and volunteer for PASS get cool jobs. These things don’t cost money – they make money.  I’m almost ashamed to say this again because I keep repeating it, but I feel so passionately about it, so here it comes: blog, tweet, and present if you want a better job.

Second, Quest is signaling that they’re still committed to giving back to the community.  After I left, it would have been all too easy for the bean counters to say, “We poured all this investment into Brent and he left us anyway.  We won’t do that again.” Instead, they hired another community guy, indicating that they must have gotten some ROI out of me, and they want to repeat the experiment again.  Companies can make money by having a credible presence in the community, and that’s where you come in.  The SQL Server community has a great reputation for being lively, helpful, and open.  Vendors get involved by sponsoring events and encouraging their staff to give back:

• Quest Software – Jeremiah Peschka, Kevin Kline
• Red Gate – Brad McGehee, Steve Jones
• Confio – Tom LaRock
• SQLskills – me

But there’s more companies servicing the SQL Server market – more software vendors, consulting companies, hosting companies, and service providers.  Quick – can you name five of them?  No?  Maybe it takes you a few minutes to think of more names?  Wonder why?  Maybe because they’re not as involved with the community.

Over time, more companies are going to notice that giving back to the community results in higher revenues.  When they do, they’ll want to hire active community members to represent them.  You should be ready for them by having an active online presence with a great reputation that they’ll see as worth an investment.

In 1960, architect Morris Lapidus redesigned Lincoln Road in Miami Beach.  He closed off the street entirely, turning it into one of America’s first pedestrian malls.  When he was asked why he closed the street, his answer was simple:

Cars don’t buy things.  People do.

Today, in the age of global corporations, we’ve forgotten this again.  Marketing efforts have been focused on bland corporate magazines that supposedly encourage company executives to make decisions.  This worked for a while, but now there’s a better way.  Social media – the tools that connect one person to other very similar people all over the world – are bringing us back to Lapidus.

Companies don’t buy things.  People do.

Even at the largest companies, buying decisions are made by people, and people want to deal with other people they trust.  In the past, big company decisions were made in country clubs, golf courses, and expensive dinners.  Today and tomorrow, these decisions are made right here – in blogs, on Twitter, on Facebook, where one person (you) builds a relationship with someone else (me), watching how that person treats others and conducts their business.  I show you what I do, and I show you how I do it.  As a result, every dollar I make is because someone read my blog or watched my webcasts and said, “I need Brent’s help, and I know I can trust him.” I switched into consulting because I could make more money directly – bringing in business to my own bank account instead of a company’s – but notice that Quest knew they had to keep building these personal community relationships.

Ten years ago, the Cluetrain Manifesto stated that markets are conversations.  Companies need people to have these conversations with customers to create sales.  In a perfect world, products would be built in a way that encourages customers to have these conversations with each other – for example, good multiplayer games build in social networking tools that let you invite your friends to play along.  Customers become salespeople. Today this idea has gathered mainstream support, and new books like The Referral Engine by John Jantsch explain the practical mechanics of pulling it off.  (Great book for consultants, by the way.)

SQL Server software, on the other hand, doesn’t have any social networking built in, so no matter how much you like a particular product, there’s no easy way to get your friends involved and spread the word.  Sound ridiculous?  Well, on SQLCruise, one of our games was a Hairy Execution Plan Contest, and it got me thinking.  Wouldn’t it be cool to have an SSMS tool that let you instantly post execution plans to Twitter?  You could show off the scariest plans you’d ever seen, show your before-and-aft tuning results with pride, or just ask for help easier.  All work is social, and in making it social, we start conversations and open doors to sales.  Consultants could jump in and say, “I’ve got some free time – I’ll connect in and help you fix that for $X.”. You could see the consultant’s reputation via their social media scores (blog volume, tweet history, StackOverflow score, etc) and know immediately if they’re trustworthy.

The job you really want doesn’t exist yet, but it will, and you have to prepare now to get it. Three to five years from now, every company will be closely involved with the community to build up their online relationships.  We’ll have more of these social tools that grease the wheels of commerce, letting individuals jump straight into conversations and make money.  You have a limited window of opportunity to get in and blaze a trail.  No matter what you’re doing for a living today, get out there and start building your online presence.  Companies are going to want your help reaching and teaching other people just like you, and your online presence will be worth a premium in their rush to start conversations.

Or think of it this way – nobody stays in a job forever, so wouldn’t you like to be the one to get Jeremiah’s job when he moves on?