500-Level Guide to Career Internals. Brent Ozar, Brent Ozar Unlimited Moderated By: Yusuf Kothari

Transcription

1 500-Level Guide to Career Internals Brent Ozar, Brent Ozar Unlimited Moderated By: Yusuf Kothari

2 Thank You microsoft.com idera.com attunity.com Empower users with new insights through familiar tools while balancing the need for IT to monitor and manage user created content. Deliver access to all data types across structured and unstructured sources. IDERA s award-winning SQL Server database solutions and multi-platform database, application and cloud monitoring tools ensure your business never slows down. Attunity, a leader in data integration and management software, helps move, transform and analyze data efficiently in SQL Server/Azure environments. 2

3 JOIN PASS PASS is a not-for-profit organization which offers year-round learning opportunities to data professionals Membership is free, join today at Access to online training and content Join Local Chapters and Virtual Chapters Enjoy discounted event rates Get advance notice of member exclusives

4 Save on PASS Summit 2016 Registration! The world s largest gathering of SQL Server & BI professionals Learn from the world s top data experts, in over 190 technical sessions More than 4000 attendees from all over the world Meet the Microsoft engineering team! Save $200 right now using discount code 24HOP200! $2,195 until September 18,

5 Brent Ozar 97-99: sysadmin & programmer 99-05: developer, DBA, architect 05-08: DBA for $7b company 08-10: expert for Quest Software 10-now: consultant, small business owner: BrentOzar BrentOzar

6 What career success means to me Doing challenging work I love Being surrounded by people I admire Working for a company that I respect A fair trade between hours I put in, and the reward The ability to make that tradeoff choice myself (Success doesn't have to be working for yourself, or being a consultant, or working four hours per week. It CAN be those, but it doesn't have to be.)

7 What job hunting success means to me Not having to job hunt at all People bringing fun opportunities that are perfect for the next step in an awesome career

8 Why I had to hack my career

9 Q: In order to meet new people, I: 1. Read stuff online, getting to know the authors 2. Talk with others in forums, Twitter, Facebook 3. Go to in-person events and hoping others introduce themselves to me 4. Go to in-person events and breaking the ice by introducing myself to other folks

10 Q: My personal network is: 1. Ethernet or WiFi 2. A few folks that I've worked with in the past 3. Dozens of people I've met online (but not IRL) in the database community 4. Hundreds of people that I stay in touch with and meet up with regularly to keep growing

11 Q: To get ready for my next job, I: 1. Uh, wait, is this about the office supplies I stole? 2. Tune into webcasts every few months that cover topics I'm already working with 3. Every month, I learn about new things outside of my comfort zone 4. As I learn and grow each month, keep my resume and LinkedIn up to date with what I'm doing

12 Q: For my career growth, I set aside: 1. None hours per week 3. 1 day per week 4. 2 days per week

13 Q: I give back to the community by: 1. I don't. 2. Being a good attendee by filling out feedback forms and leaving constructive blog post comments 3. By doing things online like blogging 4. By doing things in person like volunteering, presenting, and organizing a user group

14 Now add up your points.

15 5-7 points: First, think about who's responsible for your career.

16 20-25 points: You don't need this session.

17 The rest of you need this session. I certainly did.

18 2004 Brent s job hunt

19 I make SQL Server go faster.

20 I measure stuff for a living.

21 but I didn t measure my career.

22 big irrelevant data

23 metric: rainfall

24 Foundations of Career Internals

25 The basic rules 1. Managing a career is just like managing a server: pick a metric or two to watch, and work on them. 2. You can do this with the skills you have: installing software, following checklists, and writing s. 3. It's all been done before: just follow what works from other industries. 4. You are the only one who can do this for you.

26 1. Measuring Your Career

27 How do you measure these? Doing challenging work I love Being surrounded by people I admire Working for a company that I respect A fair trade between hours I put in, and the reward The ability to make that tradeoff choice myself

28 Measuring these is easier Not having to job hunt at all People bringing fun opportunities that are perfect for the next step in an awesome career The starter metric: how many people know you?

29 Yes, this sounds vain.

30 How many people know your work? How many want to follow your work? # of blog subscribers # of subscribers # of social media followers (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) # of YouTube channel subscribers (But no, not Instagram selfie subscribers, not in the SQL Server industry anyway)

31 2. Moving That Metric

32 Old-school networking sucks It requires being in a certain place at a certain time, and you don't have that free time It's not Web Scale: unless you get an auditorium, it's only a few people at a time, and it can't go viral You don't have people skills

33 Networking 2.0: passive networking 1. Write a good article or script, and give it away free (we ll talk about the plumbing/hosting details soon) 2. Other people who find it interesting will pass it on to their network, doing your networking for you 3. Profit!

34 Pick your topic carefully You ll be known for what you write about. What do you love doing today? What would you love to do more of? What seems idiotically easy to you today? That's the stuff you build and write about.

35 It's all been done, and it doesn't matter Digital images courtesy of the Getty s Open Content Program.

36 Painters and bloggers The subject isn t the point: your style is. You don t have to paint a lot, either. Pop quiz: who are your favorite bloggers to read? The ones where you ll likely read the whole post?

37 Your brand is how you write about it How would these people cover the same topic: Paul Randal: SQLskills.com Klaus Aschenbrenner: SQLPassion.at Kendra Little: LittleKendra.com Pinal Dave: SQLAuthority.com Books Online

38 Make your content easy to share Free, free, free, free Don't hide it behind a paywall or registration wall Put easy-to-use share buttons on your blog

39 Make yourself easy to follow Start a blog with WordPress.org Set up Mailchimp.com so readers can subscribe Get Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn accounts Use BufferApp.com to cross-post We ll cover the mechanics of these at Summit

40 The basic rules 1. Managing a career is just like managing a server: pick a few metrics to watch, and work on them. 2. You can do this with the skills you have: installing software, following checklists, and writing s. 3. It's all been done before: just follow what works from other industries. 4. You are the only one who can do this for you.

41 3. It s All Been Done

42 Resources for why: books and training TheWhuffieFactor Tara Hunt DoubleYourFreelancing.com Brennan Dunn The Referral Engine John Jantsch TheLeanStartup.com Eric Ries Purple Cow Seth Godin

43 Resources for how How to install and configure a WordPress blog: BrentOzar.com/go/blog My favorite themes: ThemeForest.net (click WordPress, then filter by responsive, sort by number of buyers) The process: On Writing Steven King

44 The basic rules 1. Managing a career is just like managing a server: pick a few metrics to watch, and work on them. 2. You can do this with the skills you have: installing software, following checklists, and writing s. 3. It's all been done before: just follow what works from other industries. 4. You are the only one who can do this for you.

45 4. Doing It For Yourself

46 Shoot yourself today.

47 Typical setup timeline Day 1: buy domain, configure Gmail hosting, DNS Day 2: install & configure WordPress Day 3: the visuals: pick theme, profile photo, install Day 4: social tools (Twitter, FB, LI, Buffer, Mailchimp) Day 5: write the skeleton pages: about-me, contact Day 6: write titles & outlines of your first 5 posts Days 7-12: writing each of the first 5 posts

48 What 12 days of spare time looks like Done 1 day per weekend: 3 months Done 2 days per weeekend: 1.5 months This isn t the finish line: this is the first phase Nothing about this is easy: you need time for you and your loved ones too

49 Remember why we re doing it Doing challenging work I love Being surrounded by people I admire Working for a company that I respect A fair trade between hours I put in, and the reward The ability to make that tradeoff choice myself (Success doesn't have to be working for yourself, or being a consultant, or working four hours per week. It CAN be those, but it doesn't have to be.)

50 Trust me, the work is worth the reward.

51