Tara Kizer is starting a new job today, and I’m proud to say that it’s with Brent Ozar Unlimited.
You might know Tara from:
- @TaraKizer on Twitter
- Her wildly prolific participation in the SQLTeam forums and her blog there as well
- Her performance tuning chapter in the Tribal SQL book
- Her 9 years as a Microsoft MVP
She has two decades of experience working with SQL Server. I’ll let that sink in for a moment. Two decades. I don’t know if this is true, but I heard that when Santa migrated his naughty and nice lists into a database, Tara did the design.
Brent: Welcome to the team! It’s great to have you here. Twenty years with SQL Server – wow, that’s awesome. It sounds like you’ve found your calling. What is it that calls to you about databases?
Tara: It was a natural fit. When I was a student worker in college doing paperwork, a friend got me in touch with a manager in the IT department. The manager was in charge of the database team, and they were looking for a new student worker. He hired me with zero experience. He liked my attitude and how I presented myself. After I graduated from college, they hired me full time, and the rest is history.
Brent: You’ve been giving back to the community for quite a while too. How’d you get started, and what keeps you going?
Tara: I had some free time at a new job and was eager to learn more about SQL Server. I decided I would start answering questions on the Internet and would seek out questions that I didn’t yet know the answer to. It grew into a passion and later extended into a blog.
Brent: When you’re not working with SQL Server, what are you up to?
Tara: When I’m not working, I am spending time with my family or hiking. Sometimes if I’m lucky, the family comes hiking with me. I also like to camp and run. I love the outdoors.
21 Comments. Leave new
congratulations Tracy and Brent Ozar to get a awesome employee , keep you all the good work you guys do.
Uhhh, it’s Tara, but….yeah. Thanks! 😀
Hooray! This is a great fit for the Brent Ozar Unlimited team!
Congrats Tracy and congrats to Brent and team! Looking forward to your contributions.
Welcome to the team! I want to see the blog but the link is broken?
Blog is back up now! 🙂
The link to the blog does not work.
The link to the blog is working fine here – what’s the error you get?
I remember this blog post many years ago 🙂
Congratulations Tara! And of course to you to Brent.
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/jhermiz/archive/2007/12/17/What-If-The-Dream-Company.aspx
I didn’t remember that one! I wonder what happened to Jon, haven’t seen him on SQLTeam in forever.
Thank you!
Wow, Hats off to you Brent…I only came here because I was lurking on dba.stackexchange.com and somehow managed to go onto your twitter page. I then saw a cartoon figure and the name Tara stood out. Tara I thought…she was that gal on sqlteam that helped me a ton when I first started out back when I was..well I don’t know 21.
I just want to say Brent, you got yourself some awesome help…without Tara I would probably not be where I am today..she saved my ( Y ) quite a few times when it came to sql server. I read the post and decided to read the comments (to congratulate both of you of course)..and can’t believe Peter Larsson is here. Sorry folks it’s like a reunion for me, so happy to hear from both of you. Peter – even I remember that post – holy toledo seems like decades ago…
Sorry Tara, I haven’t been on sqlteam.com much, been busy..I’m 37 now with three little girls (7 year old, a 16 month old, and a 5 month old) and married for over 10 years now. Life has been very busy but I’m still working for the same company! It’s been like 16 years here…supervising a small team (but my options are always open ;-). You can find me sometimes on stackoverflow or meta.stackoverflow as JonH (http://stackoverflow.com/users/168703/jonh).
I’m so happy for you on this opportunity, Brent always posts great stuff…good luck to you in your new career and wish you and the entire sqlteam.com folks a great 2016 (I miss all of you). It looks like Brent has the dream company I once posted about. God Bless!
Hahaha, awesome, glad we got a good one! 😀
Gender parity on your team! Way to go!
Congrats, Tara, we were getting seriously tired of Brent getting all the screen time. 🙂
HA!
Congratulations Tara and Brent
Congratulations Tara!!
Congratulations Tara! I’m still bummed paths changed and I didn’t get a chance to really work with you before.
Congratulations TARA….!!!!
This morning, when I come a cross update through mail. I just shouted loudly, hey everyone look who joined a great team. Tara Kizer. Our all time favorite.
Congratulations Tara!!
wow,great news…I have been following Tara’s posts on sqlteam for about 6 years now.This will give more strength to your team.Congrats to the team BrentOzar.