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...]
A Fond Farewell to Quest Software
Filed Under: Challenges, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Goals, Leadership, MVP, Professional Development, Quest Software, Writing
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 Year that was – 2011
Looking back on 2011, I'm surprised by two occurances. First, I got a lot of work done, despite myself. My biggest obstacles to high-performance are all self-derived; procrastination, disorganization, and plain ol' laziness. Second, I'm surprised I survived my personal travails. I've had my fill of frowns this year, from wayward children to caring for sick loved ones to self-inflicted injuries in 2011. I'm glad to be closing the door on a few of those chapters and look forward to better times in 2012. Here's a run-down on my professional activities over the course of 2011: Articles: … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Conferences, Interviews, Presentations, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post Tagged With: Career, Professional Development
Here, There, and Everywhere; Speaking in Fall 2011, Part 1
The last quarter of the year is usually my busiest due to the fantastic PASS Summit and SQLBits events. The fall looks a little different ... BECAUSE IT WILL BE EVEN BUSIER! Here's a rundown of where I'll be this fall through mid-October: BASTA! SQLCON.NET September 26 to 29; Mainz, Germany This big developer and admin conference runs from September 26 to 29 in Mainz, Germany. I'll be delivering at least one session and hobnobbing with Quest customers, friends, and in a very weird twist, my oldest daughter Emily, who will be in the Rhineland at the exact same time on a … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Conferences, Databases, PASS, Presentations, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post Tagged With: Career, Professional Development, SQLPASS, SQLSaturday, Training
SQL People Interview
Many thanks to Microsoft SQL Server MVP Andy Leonard (blog | twitter) for conducting a series of interviews of prominent SQL Server types, including me. The interview found here. ~~~ Enjoy! -Kev Twitter at kekline More content at http://KevinEKline.com … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Databases, Interviews, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career, DBA, Developer, MVP, Professional Development, Writing
Free Webcast Series: Patterns and Practices in Database Administration
SSWUG.ORG’s virtual webcasts will prepare the “Accidental DBA” for patterns and practices they will experience in their role as a database administrator. I will provide easy-to-understand insights and realistic examples for professionals who have not had any formal DBA training. By the end of our four-part series, you should have the information needed to get up to speed on database planning, administration and performance tuning basics. Session Descriptions In the first session, you will see what is needed to fulfill the role of a (Database Administrator) DBA by learning more about what … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Administration, Challenges, Databases, Presentations, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career, DBA, Management, Performance, Professional Development, SQL Server 2008 R2, Training
Leadership, Management, and SQLRally
Transparency - A Great Leadership Quality I've always appreciated how Andy Warren (blog| twitter) operates in the most transparent manner, especially as it relates to his role as a director for the Professional Association for SQL Server. For example, Andy's latest blog post about prepping for the SQLRally, to kick off in less than 30 days, is insightful and gives you a good idea of the sort of work a strong director for PASS needs to put in. I also enjoy how Andy more or less thinks out loud and offers you the chance to provide your input. In that latest blog post, he was mulling different … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Conferences, Governance, Interviews, PASS, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Strategies, Video Tagged With: Career, Goals, Plays Well With Others, Professional Development, SQLPASS, Training
Funny Things You’ll Hear at the “Leadership for IT Professionals” at the 2011 SQLRally
The 2011 PASS SQLRally is just about one month away and it's high time I highlighted some of the important things you'll be hearing about in my precon seminar Leadership and Team Management Skills for the IT Professional. Just to set the context, many of us IT people got to our lofty career positions because of our keen use of technology. It takes a lot of smarts to get where we've gotten, but they are a very specific set of smarts that can't always be used in every business setting. And, since so many of us have topped out in our potential salary as long as we stay in the trenches and the … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Conferences, PASS, Presentations, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Best Practices, Humor, Management, Plays Well With Others, Professional Development, SQLPASS, Training
Innovation and Invention: Whose Method Is Best?
There are a lot of reasons why I love The Economist magazine and pay over $100 per year for a subscription. First of all, it summarizes all of its news articles, big and small, in the first 4-5 pages of the magazine. Don't have time to read the entire issue? No problem, how does 20 minutes work for you? Second, it reports news from around the world as if the rest of the world actually matters, whereas every American news magazine I read looks at the rest of the world as an afterthought. You probably know me well enough to know that I travel internationally at least a couple times each … [Read more...]
Filed Under: On-Line Resources, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Creativity, Innovation, Professional Development
