I’d like to start this post first by thanking everyone who sent well wishes, both public and private, about my decision to move on from Quest Software. It was very uplifting and encouraging to hear from you! So, again, the question of “Where am I off to?” The answer is SQL Sentry. I’m joining them as Director of Engineering Services, with a focus on technical sales and marketing, as well as a heavy dose of R&D design work. (Read the press release here). In case you haven’t encountered SQL Sentry before, they’re a small Southern company concentrating on the SQL Server market. In … [Read more...]
The Next Chapter: Inspiring and Motivating
Filed Under: Opinion, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career, Professional Development, Quest Software, SQL Sentry
A Fond Farewell to Quest Software
The week of the 4th of July is a happy week for Americans. Most families get out for a parade, a fireworks display, a picnic in the park, a movie where Will Smith puts the beat down on a bunch of aliens, or an afternoon at the pool or lake. We celebrate the contributions of our service men and women. We honor veterans. We drink a lot of beer. We reflect on the founding of our nation and the meaning of “Independence Day”. My own reflections over the Independence Day holiday took me in a new and rather unexpected direction. After ten-and-a-half immensely rewarding years at Quest Software, … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Challenges, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Goals, Leadership, MVP, Professional Development, Quest Software, Writing
One Week Until Louisville!
Louisville has a special place in my heart because it was my brother's home for more than 15 years. I spent a lot of time on I-65 traveling from my home town of Huntsville, AL to visit my bro in Louisville and New Albany, after he bought a place on the north side of the mighty Ohio River. It's always felt like a home away from home, even long after he moved on. SQL Saturday 122 is just around the corner and I'll be speaking both in a full day, pre-conference seminar plus a couple sessions at the SQL Saturday itself. Leadership Skills for the IT Professional My pre-con is all about … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Conferences, PASS, Presentations, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication
ITPro, Re-architect Your Life
Have you ever found yourself wanting to make a major shift - in skills, in roles, in relationships? One of my good friends, Jimmy May (Blog | Twitter), accomplished a set of major career and lifestyle revisions including relocating to Redmond, taking on a huge new level of job responsibility as part of the Microsoft SQL Customer Advisory Team, and achieving the noted accreditation of Microsoft Certified Master. Jimmy and I were chatting about undertaking major life changes like these and, as is often the case, his thoughts were too good not to share. Be sure to explore these excellent … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Conferences, On-Line Resources, Presentations, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career, Goals, Leadership, Management, Plays Well With Others, Professional Development
Starting this week: Dublin, Maidenhead, and London
This might be most most overcommitted four-week period of time ever in my life. I'm tired just thinking about it! Not only am I traveling internationally and speaking over the next few weeks, I'm also helping on two book projects, learning some new applications from Quest Software, and helping on a small Transact-SQL refactoring project. Swag on hand? I've got a special printing of 500 video training DVDs for this trip: SQL Server Training on DMVs Performance Monitor and Wait Events Plus, I'll have a few posters, stickers, and other goodies. Come see me! SQL Saturday … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Conferences, Databases, Presentations, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Best Practices, Career, DBA, Developer, Leadership, Professional Development, Quest Software, SQL Server 2012, Training
The Expert’s Conference (TEC) – For AD, SharePoint, Exchange, PowerShell and Other Admins
What is TEC? The Expert's Conference (TEC) is a multi-day event featuring five co-located Microsoft educational conferences at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina April 29-May 2. It's pretty - see! The event includes advanced 400-level training on Microsoft Directory & Identity (including Active Directory), Exchange Server, SharePoint, Virtualization (Microsoft Hyper-V) & Workspace Management, and PowerShell Deep Dives. There are lots of great activities for Quest and Microsoft customers and partners. In addition, there's a Quest Software Day, with User Groups … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Administration, Cloud, Conferences, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post, Virtualization Tagged With: Active Directory, PowerShell, Virtualization
Why Do IT Pros Make Awful Managers?
I'm being a little bit incendiary with that title. Many IT pros grow into very good managers. But it almost never comes naturally. It takes hard work and many hard won lessons before most of us ever achieve a degree of skill and comfort with managing other people. Thinking about moving into management? Help is here! I've been spending the past several years turning the lessons I've learned as a manager into a set of courses for IT professionals who want to make the leap in to management. I'll be presenting some of these lessons as full-day seminars. I hope you can join me! Details … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Challenges, Opinion, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career, Leadership, Management
IT Horror Stories – Managers Run Amuck!
It seems like managers, so often, either go way overboard or go into hybernation and do way to little. This month, I had the pleasure and horror to hear two stories of managers run amuck with power. The first is from a friend and IT professional I'll call Tony. Tony said this: I worked for a firm as an IT manager when it was going through a relocation project. We migrated from a shoddy IT infrastructure in a shoddy, unsecured server area (which had water pipes running around the back of the servers to the coffee machine with rodents visibly running around) to a shiny new office with a … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Ethics, IT Horror Stories, Opinion, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Humor, IT Horror Stories
Information Hoarder No More!
I hate to admit it, but I'm a hoarder. Yes, like those insane people on the A&E TV show. Only my hoarding is all virtual. For example, take the image above. That's just a tiny part of my Google Reader home page. That's a tiny part of my Google Reader home page AFTER reading most of the day on a recent Sunday. I still had thousands of entries to go after hours of reading. On top of that, I subscribe to some technical e-newsletters. I'm a member of quite a few LinkedIn discussion groups, each of which produce daily and weekly newsletters. (I only subscribe to the weekly versions). … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Challenges, Opinion, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Career, Plays Well With Others, Productivity
Women in Technology: A Quick Observation and a Quick Straw Poll
A bit of background: Those aren't grand daughters of the Clampetts in the picture at right. Those are my three daughters and three stepdaughters, all of whom I want to inherit the world - as little or as much as they want to take hold of. (I already talked a bit about this in a post on my personal, family blog. Be warned, it's all boring family photos and such). Enabling them to have all of the choices and opportunities that are open to my son is a big motivating factor in my life. So many years ago, when several PASS volunteers wanted to start doing more to build a community of support … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Challenges, Conferences, Ethics, Opinion, PASS, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post, Trends Tagged With: WIT
