Featured Article(s)
What is your Price?
When I first started working as a small business owner, I was not sure how to price my services. I had a lot of learning to do. Cheaper is not always better.
Managing Your Skills with SQL Server
This discussion has almost (almost) turned into a "how in the world am I supposed to keep up with more stuff when I keep getting handed more and more to do in the normal course of the day" discussion. To that end, Ralph wrote in with some observations:
"This has reached the point of "After all, what are doing between midnight and 2 AM . . . SLEEPING!?!?!?!"
In order to deploy database changes, DBA’s tend to get to work weekends (more specifically, Sundays and, even more specifically, Sunday afternoon and evening). Of course, that does NOT mean that they get comp time during the week because, after all, stuff happens during the week, also. Oh, and, by the way, because stuff happens during the week, that "sometimes you may have to work other than normal hours" clause in the job description comes into play during the week as well . . . so, the hours are, shall we say, just a little bit longer each weekday. Then there is the simple fact that some of us would kind of like to do something other than IT some time during the week (whether it is reading for fun, bowling, playing darts, woodworking, or playing a musical instrument).
So, since companies no longer seem to really want to provide funding, much less time during the week, for training, (if they ever did want to 😉 that means that we get to a) fund our own learning b) on our own time and c) at the cost of time with family and friends or time in pursuit of just a little bit of leisure. Oh, yeah, and does that get any additional pay? Probably not unless one changes companies and in this economy? Well, I’ll answer with the same answer I heard when I last requested training (which was denied), ‘You should be happy that you have a job, much less asking for additional training!‘"
All true. This started with my talking about skills going forward – how do you tune them, where you should think about going, things to look into – that type of thing.
We’re all more than busy with the normal course of things. But if you approach it methodically, carefully and in very small bites, it is possible to start new learning. It will take longer than stopping everything and paying attention to the new things, sure. But if you can think about very small slices that you can execute on (perhaps in as little as 5-30 minutes), these types of things and efforts will add up over time.
So, my question to you – if you’re faced with this and having some success – what are you doing? How do you approach forcing the need to find time to stay up on skills?
SQL Server Show
[Watch] On the show today, Donald Farmer, Jeremy Lowell and Ben Hoelting. Tips, industry direction and insight, how-to information and a lot more in these great interviews.
Take a look at the show – I guarantee you it’s unlike any you’ll see anywhere else. 😉 I’d also love to have your feedback – what segments would you like to see in the future (take a look at the archives for other non-interview episodes) – we’re looking at book reviews, user group information, continuing tech tips and even remote guests and experts. What else would you like to see? Drop me an email and let me know.
Also Available:
[Watch] SelectViews #126 – We had some more amazing people in the office this week and we have some great interviews. Watch the interviews with Chris Shaw, Daniel Galant, Rachel Appel and Rebecca Isserman – great information sharing!
[Watch] Adam Levithan, Vishal Shukla, Sarah Barela and Shannon Callaway.
[Watch] Eric Johnson, Josh Jones, Craig Utley, Erik Veerman.
Featured White Paper(s)
Scale Out SQL Server and Eliminate Outages with Database Virtualization
This technical white paper illustrates how you can leverage active-active database clustering technology to deliver scale-out… (read more)