Instead of working, I blog.

One thing I see from time to time is when someone leaves a gig they’ve been at for a long time, their workmates get upset.  It’s like they’re personally offended that the guy is choosing to work somewhere else.  Look, I know it’s easy to build relationships with people you work with and it’s easy to bond with people you spend so much time with.  Hell, you might even say that you’ve been in battle together.  What you have to realize though is that people have to do what’s good for them.  I can almost promise you that the guy’s not leaving to spite you.  He’s probably just tired of one thing or another.  Maybe he’s not getting paid what he thinks he should.  Maybe the new job is just closer to home.  Maybe the new job allows more training or flexibility.  Whatever the reason, it’s almost certain it’s not to piss you off.

I know what it’s like because I went through that many years ago.  I got a couple guys I worked with that I got along with great and we all worked very well together.  Coming to work wasn’t a chore at all.  Then the first cool dude left.  I was crushed.  How could he do that to me?  After all we’ve meant to each other!!  Then the next one left, and then the next.  Finally I was all alone.  I want along this way until I went to my next job and found a couple guys I really liked (you know what I’m talking about, huh).  Then I left that gig because I got something better and I labored over whether to leave those guys or not.  Finally I decided that taking care of my family was more important.  Then I got it.  Those other guys weren’t leaving ME, they were just moving on to a better gig. 

So really guys, if someone you work with leaves for another gig, wish him well.  He’s only doing what’s best for him.  And if you really are a friend, that’s how you’ll look at it.

The DBAs in my area have finally started using their connections through the user group in a way that will actually do them some good.  When they get an offer from a company they put the word out to the user group to get any info on that company that may do them some good in making their decision.  They typically ask what the company’s like to work for, what the bosses are like, what kind of vacation they get, if bonuses happen on a regular basis, if they expect you to work lots of overtime, what their work from home policy is like, etc. 

Personally, this is an excellent use of resources and I think companies have had it too good too long.  They way many of them just dump employees for silly, pathetic reasons because they know that it’s too much effort and cost to get a lawyer and sue so most people will just go get another job and forget about it.  Unreasonable demands on time and project guidelines are another favorite trick of companies when dealing with DBAs.  And they like to hold your head to the fire and then hold it against you when you get burned.  So maybe a little bad reputation will help to straighten them out. 

It’s always one of the hardest parts about starting a new job isn’t it… not knowing what you’re really in for?  So it’s really nice when you can ask someone who worked there before and get the full scoop before you take the plunge.  So I’d like to encourage all of you to keep it up and start working with the members of your user group to make sure that companies who don’t value their DBAs get found out.  So they’ll either change their ways or not get any quality DBAs.

Watch my free SQL Server Tutorials at:
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www.ITBookworm.com

Blog Author of:
Database Underground – http://www.infoworld.com/blogs/sean-mccown

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We’ve all had companies that didn’t listen to us.  They hire you with the intention of having you make things better and improving their processes.  Then when you come on and start making suggestions, they don’t want to implement any of them.  The reasons can be political, selfish, or just laziness, but the fact remains you’re not doing what you were told you would be.  And the company doesn’t seem to mind.

So what do you do now?  The company doesn’t seem to mind if things run the way they always have been so why should you?  It’s definitely easier to care about the quality of your job when the company does.  But why would any company choose to do things poorly especially when they’ve got to such great lengths to hire someone to fix them?  The answer is I just don’t know.  I’ve seen it too many times under too many companies and it confounds me every time.  I think a lot of time it’s an issue with a boss having too much faith in a guy who’s telling him you don’t know what you’re doing.  And even when you bring solid numbers to him he still doesn’t see the light.  That’s the one that gets me.  When I come to them with solid benchmark results and they still refuse to change the process because there’s a guy they’ve worked with longer who’s lying to them about how it’ll really behave in prod.

OK, so now what to do… well, you’ve really only got a couple choices.  You can quit or you can make your peace with it.  If you’re just not getting anything you need out of the gig then maybe it’s time to move on.  But if you’re getting something else out of it like a good schedule, or work from home, etc then it might be worth it to you to stick around.

If you do stick around then you need to make your peace with it.  And that’s the hard part.  Basically you have to stop caring about the systems and how they run.  Consider yourself more of an internal consultant.  They ask you questions and you advise them.  If they don’t take your advice then it’s not your problem.  It’s really as simple as that.  Of course, if you’re on the hook for support and this is gonna cause a bunch of extra work for you then that’s another story.  But you’ve gotta weigh that against everything else and make a decision.  If they’re really not gonna listen to anything you say then they really don’t understand DBs now do they?  Part of that is education, right?  You have to educate them about how to work with data.  Remember, this data explosion we’re in the middle of is still relatively new and many companies don’t have any idea how to work with it yet.  They have to be taught.  Now if only you can find a way to open them up to listening.

Just remember… numbers don’t lie.  If you keep showing them numbers eventually they may listen.  Of course, for some of these things you could always just do it yourself and say sorry later.  I’d never personally do anything like that(cough-cough), but I know some guys who have.

Watch my free SQL Server Tutorials at:
http://MidnightDBA.ITBookworm.com

Read my book reviews at:
www.ITBookworm.com

Blog Author of:
Database Underground – http://www.infoworld.com/blogs/sean-mccown

Follow my Twitter:

http://twitter.com/MidnightDBA

You’ve been on a couple interviews and you’re finally getting offers coming in.  But a mistake that gets made quite often is that someone takes the first gig that makes them an offer because they can’t afford to turn it down.  That’s an evil in our society that we have to be forced to something we don’t want just to make a living.  If more companies considered retention in their plans we would be more stable as a workforce and you wouldn’t be forced to make decisions you don’t want to make.  Of course, if companies gave even a single thought to retention a lot of us wouldn’t find ourselves out of a job to begin with.

But leaving that behind, let me just advise you against taking the first job you come across.  If you have a family to support I certainly understand it and you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.  But if you’ve got more than one offer coming in, there’s no reason why the other guys can’t wait a day or 2 for your answer.  Most companies take forever to get you through the process and then expect you to make your decision on the spot.  Try not to fall into that trap if you can help it.  It’s not going to kill them if you take an extra day or 2 to consider all your offers.  Some recruiters like to put pressure on you by getting offended at your audacity for considering a different offer, but that’s just childish and don’t fall for it.  Their only concern is their own paycheck and it has nothing to do with you.  You gotta do what you gotta do.  Take the gig you want not the one the losing recruiter wants you to take. 

Recruiters will play games with you to get you to take gigs too.  I recently witnessed a recruiter telling someone they had to accept the company’s offer right now or it would be rescinded.  Whatever dude.  So if something like that happens to you you have 3 choices.  You can capitulate in which case you get what’s coming to you.  You can also tell them up front that if the deal’s only good right this second that you pass.  That usually changes their tune and fast.  Or you can accept the offer and then entertain other opportunities as they come up.  That may leave you accepting the offer and then rescinding it a few days later, but that’s the cost of doing business.  And if they ask what happened and why you’re backing out, just tell them that you don’t like being blackmailed so you took it to appease them but did your own thing.  Then if at all possible, make sure the company finds out how the recruiters who are representing them are doing business.  You’ll probably find that they knew nothing about the threat and would be pretty upset to hear about it.  I’ve personally ratted out a couple recruiters for similar behavior.  Seriously, don’t let them bully you.

I don’t really like the idea of having to accept a gig and then turn it down a couple days later, but if the recruiter is going to be a child about it then you have to play the game.  My job is to get the best deal for me and my family.  So I’m going to make sure that happens.

So unless you’re about to lose your house, don’t marry the first guy who holds your hand.  There may be better out there.  Personally I don’t like shortterm gigs if I can help it.  I like to get somewhere and stay there.  So when I accept a gig it’s because I think it’s something I want to do for more than 3yrs.  That’s the goal anyway.

Watch my free SQL Server Tutorials at:
http://MidnightDBA.ITBookworm.com

Read my book reviews at:
www.ITBookworm.com

Blog Author of:
Database Underground – http://www.infoworld.com/blogs/sean-mccown

Follow my Twitter:

http://twitter.com/MidnightDBA

As you know our other DBA just left and he just started his new job. I was IMing him today and asked him how it was going. He said, the last DBA was an idiot. It's funny, cause I can't count the number of times I've said that. I don't thing I've ever started a job where the guy before me knew what he was doing.

The question is though, am I really all that good or do I just have an inflated ego? I'd probably have to say it's a bit of both really. I've seen a lot of DBAs who just don't know the simplest things about SQL. I've talked about this several times in both my blogs so I'm not going to harp on it too much right now, but it holds more true every year I'm in this industry.

There's a difference between just doing things differently than the other guy, and his systems actually being neglected. Not performing backups or index maint. is bad DBAing. It's not just a different way of doing things. I remember talking to a guy who was a very high DBA at a company we all know last year. I was at PASS come to think of it. And he sat there proudly and told me that they NEVER change their sa passwords on any of their systems. I would love to tell you his reasoning, but I just couldn't get into something like that. But to be proud that you never change your sa password is just assinine. You know what they say dude, if you look around the room and you can't find the asshole, it's you. The same goes with idiots.

It's hard to measure skill though. Everyone has such different experiences. Things I've come to know well may be completely foreign to a different DBA who's far better than I at something else. So does it make him an idiot because he doesn't know what I know? Yeah, sometimes. The basics should be covered. Every DBA should know what it is to backup a system and do maint. and basic security. And so often it's these basics that aren't covered.

So now it comes down to simplicity. What makes a really good DBA? I've had several talks with guys all over IT about this same topic, and in almost every session, we've pretty much concluded that you only have to try a little bit to be better than the average guy. The average guy does very very little to further his knowledge or to get really good at his job. Most people just skate by. So if you try just a little bit you can rise above the crowd. That's what I think anyway.