In my 24 Hours of PASS session, 500-Level Guide to Career Internals (video), I got a few great questions that we didn’t have the time to answer during the live webcast. Let’s talk through ’em now. Q: Does speaking at SQL Sat, etc. and learning presentation skills help with blog writing skills?…
To me, success means: Doing challenging work that I love While surrounded by people I admire Working for a company that I respect Getting a fair trade between the hours I put in, and the reward The ability to make that tradeoff choice myself Success doesn’t have to mean starting…
I really like building free stuff to make Microsoft SQL Server data professionals’ jobs easier and more enjoyable, and I’ve been picking up speed: 2011 – sp_Blitz®, easy free SQL Server health check script 2013 – DBAreactions.com, DBA life in animated GIF form 2015 – SQLServerUpdates.com, easy free way to find…
I hate networking. Even just typing the word makes me cringe because it makes me think walking up to a complete stranger and striking up a conversation. I hate approaching strangers. Ever since the time with the van and the candy, I… I’d rather not talk about it. Networking is a time…
Wanna be a freelance consultant? Wanna do the same thing you’re doing today as an employee, but on your own, getting your own clients directly? There’s an easy way to tell if you’ll be good at it: start doing it today in your full time role. Here’s how. Step 1:…
I’ve watched the BringATrailer.com auctions since they launched, and every week I’ve had to bite my fingers to keep from bidding. They curate a phenomenal list of cars, and at any given time, there’s at least one or two cars that I’d love to own. The comments are half the…
One of my training class attendees had an interesting observation: “All this week, when questions have come up about niche topics, you’ve been able to immediately give the name of one person who specializes in that topic. For example, when columnstore indexes came up, you immediately referred us to Niko…
Working IN your business means being a revenue-producing, product-fulfilling member of the team. Working ON your business means designing, planning, refining your business, but not directly producing revenue. Independent consultants typically work IN their business. When you’re a lone independent consultant or contractor, it’s easy to fall into the trap…
Over the last several years, I’ve been steadily amping up my teaching skills: 2010 – teaching day-long pre-cons alone 2013 – teaching 2-day in-person classes with others 2014 – teaching week-long classes with others 2016 – teaching week-long classes by myself Now – teaching 4-day classes online Here’s some of the things I’ve…
The Song Exploder podcast has a different artist on every episode, telling the story of how they constructed one of their songs. The artist starts with the idea of the song, explains their writing process, and explains the choices around the beats and instruments. Episodes jump all over the music business,…