Professional Development

Who's Hiring

Is your company hiring for a database position? Do you wanna work with the kinds of people who read this blog? Let’s set up some rapid networking here. If your company is hiring, leave a comment. The rules: Your comment must include the job title, and either a link to the full job description, or the…

I’m on the KasperOnBI Podcast Talking About Careers and the Future of SQL Server

Last Updated May 13, 2021

I sat down with Microsoft’s Kasper de Jonge this month for an hour-long conversation about how I got started speaking, careers, and the future of SQL Server: You can also listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. In the podcast, we talk about my Epic Life Quest – that’s over here. If you’ve got followup questions,…

Who’s Hiring in the Database Community? April 2021 Edition

Last Updated April 29, 2021

Who's Hiring

I’ve gotten a lot of emails from friends lately who are looking for work. It seems that as some companies go back to the office, some people are realizing they want to work remotely forever. And on the flip side, other folks are realizing they desperately want to get back into an office, but their…

How My Attitude and Branding Changed Over 20 Years

Last Updated March 30, 2021

This month, to mark the 20th anniversary of BrentOzar.com, I’m stepping back and looking at the big picture rather than blogging about database problems & solutions like I usually do. It wouldn’t be a good navel-gazing series without a couple thousands words looking inward at myself. When I first got started writing online, I was…

My Live Streaming Setup for 2021: Iceland Edition

Last Updated February 1, 2021

Home Office, Streaming

Erika and I moved to Iceland for a while. For those of you who don’t follow my personal blog, here’s why we moved, and how we got here with a teleworker visa. You can spy on our adventures via my Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. We’re working half the time while we live here, and sightseeing the…

Which Microsoft Certification Should You Get?

Last Updated January 4, 2021

You work with data, and you’re thinking about getting a Microsoft certification. Which one should you get? If you need the certification to get a job… Then get the certification you see mentioned the most often in the descriptions of the job you’re looking for. This is just a little tricky because certifications shown on…

Are You Underpaid? Find Out in the Data Professional Salary Survey Results.

Last Updated January 4, 2021

Salary

We asked what you make, and 1,747 of you in 69 countries answered. Altogether, you made $171,879,034 this year. Hubba hubba, there’s some earning power in this audience. Download the Data Professional Salary Survey results (XLSX). A few things to know about it: The data is public domain. The license tab makes it clear that…

[Video] Office Hours: SQL Server Career Q&A, Part 3

Last Updated December 28, 2020

Here’s the last video in my vacation series with the answers to your most-upvoted professional development questions. Enjoy! I won’t be taking new questions in the comments, but I’m leaving the comments open on this post so that y’all can discuss the video together with each other. Just be mindful that your name will be publicly…

[Video] Office Hours: SQL Server Career Q&A, Part 2

Last Updated December 16, 2020

Last week, I posted a call for questions about SQL Server careers and professional development, and y’all asked a lot of good ones. Here’s the next video with the questions you upvoted the most, and I’ll post the last round of ’em next week. I won’t be taking new questions in the comments, but I’m leaving…

[Video] Office Hours: SQL Server Career Q&A, Part 1

Last Updated December 16, 2020

I posted a call for questions about SQL Server careers and professional development, and y’all asked a lot of good ones. Here were the questions you upvoted the most, and I’ll post another round of ’em next week. The audio on this isn’t up to my usual home-studio quality, of course! I won’t be taking…

Wanna Ask Me Anything About Careers & Professional Development?

Last Updated December 17, 2020

I’ll be answering your questions from right here. Ever wanted to ask me questions about careers or professional development? Now’s your chance. Post your questions here (update: questions are closed)– and you may wanna use a fake name if you’re asking something that’s a little revealing about your current job or employer. Don’t have a question?…

Are You Underpaid? Let’s Find Out: The Data Professional Salary Survey is Open.

Last Updated January 2, 2021

Salary

It’s time for our annual salary survey to find out what data professionals make. You fill out the data, we open source the whole thing, and you can analyze the data to spot trends and do a better job of negotiating your own salary: We pay Richie in query bucks Take the Data Professional Salary…

What It Takes To Write Two Blog Posts

Last Updated November 19, 2020

Blogging, Videos

This week, I published two blog posts: How Bad Statistics Cause Bad SQL Server Query Performance How Scalar User-Defined Functions Slow Down Queries Let’s talk about the process of writing ’em. A couple I was putting together this week’s First Responder Kit release, I realized sp_BlitzIndex didn’t have URLs for a couple of common families…

The 4 Presentations I’m Proudest Of, and What Inspired Them

Last Updated September 24, 2020

Videos, Writing and Presenting

I was thinking back about the presentations I’ve been the most proud of over the years. I’ve written and performed a *lot* of stuff over time, but here are some of the free public presentations I’m the most proud of, and the stories of how they came to be. #4: Watch Brent Tune Queries (2014)…

Upcoming Free Webcast: 500-Level Career Guide: Building Your Brand

Last Updated September 9, 2020

At SQLBits 2020 on Saturday, October 3 at 11:10AM Eastern, 8:10AM Pacific (calendar), I’m presenting a session called 500-Level Career Guide: Building Your Brand. Here’s the abstract: If you want to work for yourself, you need to be able to sell yourself. I know, I hate it too – it feels gross when I write…

It's never the compiler, it's always DNS.

What’s The First Thing You Tell Your Underling?

Last Updated September 2, 2020

You were just given permission to hire an underling, and today’s their first day reporting to you. What’s the first thing you warn them about? I asked on Twitter, and the replies were great: Don't be afraid to fail. Fail as much as you want, as long as you learn in the process and don't…

Where is the SQL Server Community Networking Online?

Last Updated July 13, 2020

You’ve stumbled upon this blog, and you’re having a pretty good time. Now you’re wondering, “Where else can I network with database folks, get to know them, and talk shop?” You’re not getting out due to the quarantines, so your local user group isn’t fulfilling your networking cravings. You wanna know what else is going…

How to Make Online Presentations Fun and Interactive with OBS Scenes

Last Updated October 29, 2020

Home Office, Streaming, Writing and Presenting

In my recent post about how I use OBS for training classes & webcasts, I mentioned that to keep things lively, you wanna have a variety of scenes that you can switch between to keep the viewer engaged. Imagine a TV show or sporting event that only used one camera angle and screen layout for…

I’m On the 6 Figure Developer Podcast

Last Updated May 18, 2020