Professional Development

Production Database Administration, Professional Development

“Question 1: how do you predict how long a rollback will take?” Brent says: “How many people are in the on-call rotation with me, and can I give them each a technical test?” Once you get out of the on-call rotation, it’s really hard to go back to the electronic tether. I’d be willing to…

Wanna speak at the PASS Summit? Here’s how.

Last Updated April 16, 2017

#SQLPass, Writing and Presenting

The PASS Summit is the biggest SQL Server community event, and a lot of us speakers have “present at PASS” on their bucket list. Getting in is legendarily difficult because competition is fierce. Many sessions are submitted for each one that’s accepted, and you have to work hard to stand out from the pack. This year’s Call…

Announcing Our New DBA Job Interview Q&A Course.

Last Updated April 5, 2017

Interviewing

Whether you’re applying for a DBA job or getting ready to hire a DBA, you probably don’t know what questions to ask to tell if somebody really knows what they’re doing or not – or what answers to look for. There’s the classic tired question, “Tell me the difference between a clustered and nonclustered index,”…

What Kinds of Raises do DBAs Get?

Last Updated December 9, 2017

Professional Development, Salary

I took the data from the 2017 Data Professional Salary Survey, and filtered just for database administrators in the United States. Then, I pivoted it on the two experience questions. First, we’ll cover database experience, and then we’ll cover job experience. How many years of experience do you have with this database? I stopped the analysis at…

The 2017 Data Professional Salary Survey Results

Last Updated December 9, 2017

Professional Development, Salary

We asked to see your papers, and 2,898 people from 66 countries answered. Download the raw data in Excel, and you can slice and dice by country, years of experience, whether you manage staff or not, education, and more. Community bloggers have already started to analyze the results: Analyzing Salary with Power BI by Cláudio Silva – He…

Tell Us What You Make: The 2017 Data Professional Salary Survey

Last Updated December 9, 2017

Professional Development, Salary

Not what you’re worth, dear reader: we know your worth cannot possibly be calculated in base-10 numbering systems because you’re just so awesome, but what you make. A few things to know: It’s totally anonymous (we’re not getting your email, IP address, or anything like that) It’s open to all database platforms Your responses will be totally…

What Questions Would You Ask on a Salary Survey?

Last Updated February 14, 2017

104

Let’s run an anonymous database-industry-wide salary survey that you could actually use when talking to managers. Here’s the questions I’ve thought of so far – not unlimited, but just trying to strike a balance between questions that would actually give you some value, versus not so many questions that people won’t bother filling it out:…

Screenshot Interview Question: “What would you do if you saw this?”

Last Updated February 14, 2017

Interviewing

In this week’s episode of our screenshot interview series, you’re applying for a database professional position who will be on call. You’re not necessarily the DBA, but you’re a member of the team on rotation. While you’re on call, you get an email from the help desk asking if there’s a problem on the production data…

What’s the Greatest Compliment You Ever Received?

Last Updated February 14, 2017

Doug Lane

It takes as little as one word. One word from a co-worker, blog commenter, or Stack Overflow user can make you feel like a champ. (Or a chump, depending on the word.) (Let’s focus on feeling like a champ.) What’s the greatest compliment you ever received about your professional work? Did someone compliment your tenacity, your calm under…

30,000 Comments

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Blogging, SQL Server

It feels kinda arbitrary, but it’s a champagne moment: Thanks to everybody who’s ever stopped by, left a comment, and taken part in the discussions. (An extra-special thanks to folks who even addressed us by the right names, and didn’t call everybody else here Brent, hahaha.) I started this thing over a decade ago, but you,…

First Day Deal Breakers

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Erik Darling

Starting a new job can be scary If you’re not already established in your field, don’t know the company all that well, or taking on a role with a higher level of responsibility, it’s totally okay if you start drinking in the parking lot. Just kidding! Start drinking at home, that gives you more time…

Preparation, Is It In You?

Last Updated May 26, 2016

Richie Rump

Writing and Presenting

Backups aren’t just for databases. Are you ready for the BitLocker of Doom? Back in 2012, I started on a journey of sharing my technical knowledge by giving technical presentations. Now this might scare the living jeepers out of most people, but I found it exciting and fulfilling. Since then, I try to speak at…

SQL Interview Question: “Tell me what you see in this screenshot.”

Last Updated May 28, 2016

You’re a data professional working with (or at least applying to work with) a company using the StackOverflow database (I’m using the March 2016 version today). Your users are complaining that this stored procedure is slow: usp_GetPostsByOwnerUserId They didn’t give you parameter 26837 – I’m just giving you that so you can see an execution plan.…

SQL Interview Question: “Talk me through this screenshot.”

Last Updated May 20, 2016

After writing about “For Technical Interviews, Don’t Ask Questions, Show Screenshots”, lots of folks asked what kinds of screenshots I’d show. Here’s this week’s example. I show each screenshot on a projector (or shared desktop) to the candidate and say: What’s this screen from? What does the screen mean? If it was a server you inherited from…

What I Look For When I’m Hiring Database Professionals

Last Updated April 7, 2016

Matan, Guy, and I recording the podcast On today’s episode of the SQL Server Radio podcast, I talk with Guy Glantser and Matan Yungman about what we look for when we’re hiring. In the broadest sense, don’t think junior or senior: I’m hiring someone for what they already know, or I’m hiring someone for their…

SQL Interview Question: “Talk me through this query.”

Last Updated April 24, 2016

Last month’s post “For Technical Interviews, Don’t Ask Questions, Show Screenshots” was a surprise hit, and lots of folks asked for more details about the types of screenshots I’d show. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share a few more. Normally I’d show this query as a screenshot, but for easier copy/pasting into comments, I’m…

For Technical Interviews, Don’t Ask Questions. Show Screenshots.

Last Updated February 14, 2017

When you’re hiring a DBA, sysadmin, or developer, you’re not paying them to answer Trivial Pursuit questions all day long. You’re hiring them to look at a screen, connect a few dots, and interpret what’s happening. So for a position, I build a PowerPoint deck with a bunch of screenshots from the actual environment they’ll be…

How to Get Your Very First Full Time DBA Job

Last Updated February 12, 2017