#SQLRally Women in Technology Panel of WIN AND AWESOMENESS

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Jen McCown

Best. Luncheon. EVAR.

I just finished up moderating this year’s Women in Technology panel here at SQLRally, and it was fantastic.  SQLSentry sponsored (thanks!), and our panelists were SQL notables Erin Welker (@sqlbigirl), Jen Stirrup (@jenstirrup), and Wes Brown (@SQLServerIO)*.

The topic was absolutely brilliant: Negotiation. The abstract:

Whether you are searching for a new job or simply needing to relocate your desk, you need the right tools to make your request effective. Come hear how our Women in Technology (WIT) panel of experts have tackled these issues, and learn how you can give yourself the best opportunity to negotiate for what you want.

 Man, did they deliver. Among the points discussed…

When negotiating, presentation is key

  • You can be too polite. You can polite yourself right out of big raises.  (Ask. What’s the worst that can happen?)
  • We universally undervalue ourselves.  IT folk are reclusive and accommodating.
  • On dealing with resume gaps: Don’t be apologetic. You “took a sabbatical” (whether you did so to raise kids, or whatever, it’s still a great way to phrase it.)

Arm yourself with help and information

  • Get coaching from those who’ve done negotiations.
  • How do you know what rate to ask? How do you know how to value yourself?  Maybe we just need to be better educated. Answer: the internet!

Have goals

  • “Money is the means to the end, not the end.”
  • On balancing salary against intangibles and “rate per hour” (higher salary may mean more hours). “It depends.” And, ask! Ask about work environment, especially if you know people on the inside.
  • Write down what you want, and use that as a reference when you’re fielding offers.
  • Ask why the last person left, how many people have gone in the last year.
  • Website recommendation: www.GlassDoor.com – People anonymously review places of employment. Cool!

Protect yourself!

  • Business is business; businesses watch out for themselves, not you!
  • Know and use basic negotiating tactics.
  • GET IT IN WRITING.

Final thoughts and notes

We have a few more notes that came out of the question and answer period:

  • Salary.com and payscale.com
  • Don’t negotiate from a point of weakness
  • Careful about contracts, especially IP
  • Consider having a lawyer review your contract
  • Review your state laws

 And finally, my own thoughts:

  • Wes was an excellent choice. He has a ton of solid career advice.
  • So was Erin. She’s an experienced SQL professional, and one of my favorite people to speak to about career issues.
  • And so was Jen. I particularly was pleased that she was able to pull up statistics specific to what we were speaking on!**

 A final thanks to everyone, and see you next time. Happy days!
Jen McCown
MidnightDBA.com/Jen

* Alphabetized by first name, so there.
** And no, that wasn’t scripted…none of the session was.

Thanks to @SQLBalls and @SQLChicken for the pix!

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Posted in News, sql server, SQLPASS, SQLRally, sqlserverpedia-syndication, SSC, WIT | Tagged | 2 Comments

Hire Me

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Jen McCown

I find myself in the unique position of job hunting and not having to hide it*.  I haven’t been in this situation in the last three years, so what shall I do?

Blog about it, of course! 

What do you want out of a new job?

I’m glad you asked!

There are two things I want to do at this point in my career: solve problems, and work for an awesome company**.  (Let’s assume “make good money” is understood.)  If I can do both of those things, I’ll be extremely happy.  I suspect it will take some thorough searching to find the fabled Awesome Company That Needs Me, so I’m looking at both contract positions (by definition, they have problems to solve) as well as full time.

Pro tip: Once you’re midlevel or above, regardless of your IT speciality, have an idea of what you really want out of a position. It’s usually not enough to say “tons of money” and be done with it. A truly crap job (for example), with boring work, won’t pay enough to make up for the discontent. 

How will you go about job hunting?

First, I’ll blog about it. (Check!)  I rely heavily on my people on the Internet – you, dear reader, are part of my cherished Hivemind – for information on other things, so why not about job opportunities?

Next, I’ll follow my own advice.  More study (I never actually stop), more practice, interview readiness, and all that jazz**.

And of course I’ll start keeping eyes out for good opportunities, via email, forums, job sites, recruiters, and the like.

Pro tip: Pay attention to the job hunting process. Think about it, get someone qualified to review your resume, prepare yourself technically, prepare for interviews, keep track of recruiters and applications.

Tell me again why you’re blogging about this?

Listen…job hunting tends to be a furtive, secretive process. We don’t talk about it much lest our current employer get wind of it, and lest we appear disloyal or fickle. But there’s a LOT of value in sharing the process with one another and comparing notes.

Pro tip: Only, of course, if the position you’re leaving doesn’t mind.  (Thanks for being cool, soon-to-be-ex company! It’s been a good run!)

Happy days,
Jen McCown
http://www.MidnightDBA.com/Jen

* I’ve said before that jobs are like relationships, as in going-steady or been-married type relationships. This job that’s coming to an end is the rare amicable split: “You know, I’ve been thinking, and we’re really not right for each other.” “I agree.  I’ll start moving my stuff out. No hard feelings?” “Nope, and you can keep the BSG season 2 DVDs.” *hug*

** Yes, I have certainly considered going the solo consultant route. I hear it’s very rewarding. But with a family, limited tolerance for travel, and a number of important side projects, I’ve ruled it out for now.

*** We talk extensively about “all that jazz” in several recorded sessions, the webshow, and most notably in the DBA Roadmap – 5+ hours of career advice for $99!  Visit the site for a free sample track.  (Yes, I worked a self-serving commercial into my self-serving blog post. It’s called “value adding”.)

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Picking Technical Conference Sessions (#SQLRally Edition)

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Jen McCown

Conferences are awesome. They are full of people and sessions. Almost…TOO many sessions. How on Earth do you get in the “right” ones?

I can see this problem from both sides of the fence. On the one hand, it can be very difficult to understand what content a session may have, just by reading the abstract and title.  On the other hand, it’s very frustrating as a speaker to put together a 200 level session, and get 20 comment cards back that only say “not enough advanced material”.

So! Here is your handy dandy guide to choosing sessions at conferences! We’ll go from general to specific: track, level, title, abstract/keywords, and speaker.

Track

Let’s take the SQLRally regular sessions as the example, since that’s what’s happening this week. We have the following tracks to consider:

  • Top Picks – Clearly, the most popular of the voted-in sessions.
  • DBA – Administration related topics.
  • Dev/PD (Professional Development) - This is a bit of a mixed bag. Look for both T-SQL and career related sessions.
  • BI (Busineses Intelligence) – Here you’ll find your reporting an analysis services sessions.

Tracks are very general, and a great place to start narrowing down your choices. (I’m not a big BI guy personally, but I do like the occasional reporting or 100/200 level SSAS course.)

Level

The session level is easily overlooked, but it is key for setting your expectations.  These definitions were yanked handily from Paul Randal’s SQL Connections Fall 2012 call for abstracts (consider submitting an abstract!):

Level Number Level Name Example
100 Beginner what does ‘corruption’ mean?
200 Intermediate what do I do when corruption is detected?
300 Advanced how do I do take advantage of partial database availability and online piecemeal restore?
400 Master how can I fix broken system tables using the DAC and server single-user mode?
500 SQL Server Internals how does the read-ahead in DBCC CHECKDB differ from regular adaptive range-scan read-ahead?

So, as an example: If you attend a 200 level class, you’re not going to get in-depth knowledge. You may learn something very useful, of course, even at your very advanced level, good sir.  This class is geared toward people who are only partially familiar with the subject matter!

Title

Titles are really supposed to give you a good clue to the session underneath, though occasionally you get a few that are a bit too cutesy for their own good.

At the very least, you should get the subject: sequence objects. Backups. Reporting Services. Compression. Constraints. TempDB. Troubleshooting. You dig?

Download: SQLRally Session Title Word Cloud

Abstract and keywords

Once you’ve narrowed the contenders down to a few, look over the abstracts.  At a minimum, you’ll get a better idea of the session content.  Some abstracts tell you outright: “You will learn ___ in this session.” (Sean’s 100 level Understanding Backups abstract says “I will take you through basic backup syntax and fully explain how things work the way they do and why.” Very specific!)

Sometimes, you can get the tone of the session from the tone of the abstract, too. (My own Unraveling Tangled Code session abstract is supposed to make you smile, and be intrigued. Much like the session itself.)

Keywords like “demo” and “example” tell you that you’re going to see some usable code or GUI work. “Troubleshoot” and “avoid mistakes” means you’ll get some real world problem avoidance advice.  “In-depth”, “detail”, “internals”, and “advanced” = time to dig deep.

You get the idea.

Speaker

Of course, you may have your favorite speakers, or that one speaker you’ve been meaning to see for some time. This can be a tiebreaker, or sometimes the entire session-picking criteria.  (I have a few favorite speakers, but I always pay mighty big attention if Joe Celko is speaking; you’ll see me in his Advanced DDL Constraints session this week!)

In short…

  • Consider the track – Are you more interested in DBA sessions, or BI?
  • Pay attention to the level – Session level is key for setting your expectations. 
  • Titles are only clues – Session titles should at least communicate the subject.
  • Abstracts communiate session content – The abstract tells you the content. As a bonus, the tone of the abstract will often be the tone of the session.
  • Speakers – Sometimes a known speaker will convince you to go (or, to stay away!), regardless of content.

Finally, GIVE FEEDBACK. Speakers want both positive and negative feedback, as long as it’s constructive.  (“You rock!” and “You suck!” are what we call “minimally constructive comments” in our kinder moments. :)

Happy days,
Jen McCown
MidnightDBA.com/Jen

Check out DBARoadmap.com – The best career advice you’ve never heard!

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