Data Court

Category: Uncategorized

  • T-SQL Tuesday #197: The Value of Conference Season

    I started attending conferences for the first time circa 2022. I’d been made aware of the data community a couple years earlier by accident, and I finally felt ready to attend my first conference.

    Needless to say, it was daunting. The one thing I knew going in was the importance of talking to everyone, as most people who know me are abundantly aware of. I was in a space where I was unafraid to be unapologetically me. That aside, what I didn’t expect was to find so many like-minded people eager to collaborate and discuss this technology I spend so much of my time with. Steve Hughes put out a call for conferences that made an impact, and I must say it was hard to narrow it down. I have gotten something invaluable out of every single one I have attended.

    Derby City Data Days is the winner.

    My first major session was about SQL Server indexing and the strategies around optimizing them. It’s a topic I’m passionate about from a practical standpoint, one that I’ve seen the impact and importance of first-hand. Working as a lone DBA can make it hard to know the path you’re chasing is correct outside of your little bubble. I was early to a session on a Query Store by Deepthi Goguri and started having a conversation about indexing with Monica Morehouse, someone known for and passionate about performance. It gave me a rush of confidence that has stuck with me hearing someone support many of my findings and offer additional insight to consider.

    That same day, I saw a session by Jeff Foushee on PIVOT/UNPIVOT that actually brought me to tears. There weren’t many in the session to see it, but I’m not afraid to admit it. There was this horrific view in the database of a client I was working with, and for the life of me I could not figure out how to make it less agonizing to manage. It has since been replaced entirely, but that’s neither here nor there. My only real context of pivot was from Excel, and heck if I ever bothered to learn it. I work with databases, not spreadsheets. Little did I know exactly what I was missing out on, how applicable it could be for my development. He explained it so simply by building up from a basic example to something more complex. If you have the opportunity to attend his PIVOT session, please do. That said you should just attend his sessions in general; I can’t imagine that’s the only great one given how simple it was to follow.

    Finally, I made new friends. One lady in particular, Kristyna Ferris, has proven to be one of the sweetest, most genuine, and helpful people I know. Not only did I feel like I’d made a fast friend, but she has continued to show up for me. Most recently we had to get a last-minute speaker for my user group. By last minute I mean night before. I don’t know exactly what told me to reach out to her specifically, but I did to ask her if she had any leads for a speaker with a Databricks session in their back pocket. Sure enough, I got my speaker and a great session, Joshua Higginbotham with effectively zero notice. Seeing her at events is always such a joy. It is impossible to feel anything but warm around her, and the little time I do get to spend with her given our geographic distance is a treat. There need to be more people like her, and I hope to be that person to others as my network grows.

    A final shout out to everyone who has been a part of the organization, planning, and execution of an event in this great community. Your time is much appreciated and does not go unnoticed. Please keep up the great work you do, and remember: Cleveland Data Rocks.

  • T-SQL Tuesday #196: Sight Unseen, One Foot Forward

    A long time ago, my dad made me read a book called “Who Moved My Cheese?” which talks about change and how uncomfortable or frustrating it can be. It’s a phrase I use a lot. “Don’t move my cheese.” “Someone moved your cheese.” I get some odd looks for it, because frankly I was only 5 when this book came out. My generation wasn’t exactly the target audience during its release.

    My cheese has been moved a lot, often times with the majority of the decision coming from outside of my control. Sure, I took a job out of college that meant moving around a lot. Sure, I knew I could be moving at the drop of a hat. What I didn’t foresee was the crazy series of events that landed me in Northeast Ohio of all places with a job I’m probably too excited about, a flourishing career, and a loving family to call my own.

    Every single cross-state move I made from 2014 – 2019 was sign unseen. The rental from a Zillow listing, corporate housing I had no choice in, you name it. I had zero outside of work friends at the destination and little in the way of a how-to guide for the area I would land in. Learning how to adapt and make new friends everywhere is a challenge that I, and a lot of others, still struggle with. One adaptation I would love to set aside is my penchant to slip into a southern-ish accent when I listen to audiobooks read by, or talk to, someone with a drawl. ‘Tis inconvenient and my poor husband is often the recipient. No offense to those of you with an accent, I just feel like an imposter since I only lived in Alabama a few years.

    I digress.

    This month’s invite focuses on the risks we make for our careers. As the primary breadwinner and now a mom, there is so much more to these risks than just a simple change of scenery. Without getting into the whys, 2019 triggered my first major job move. I knew I wanted to be a fulltime DBA, live in the Midwest, have access to maternity leave, and buy a house in a city with a good school district. Well, I got most of those. I cast my net from Tennessee (yes, yes, that’s not the Midwest, but I have family there), up through Ohio and over to Minnesota. As I got job offers, I started to realize where I actually wanted to live. Des Moines? Maybe, but ultimately it didn’t feel right. Minneapolis? Certainly not. Detroit, Chattanooga, Chicago, Cleveland? Cleveland…

    We packed up our home and rented an Airbnb for a couple weeks while we house hunted. Trying to house hunt in March 2020 was less than fun, but we succeeded! I didn’t meet any of my coworkers in person for 9 months and missed out on exploring my new city because everything was shut down. It was a scary thing, packing up and relocating with just a job in hand.

    In three years, I went from more of a system administrator role to my long-coveted DBA position before being unceremoniously thrust into SSIS and Power BI. My skillset exploded, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I learned about the greater data community, started speaking, took a board position with my local user group, started blogging (thanks for being here), and making such great connections I can’t imagine going back to the way things were. It was a calculated risk, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a big step.

    Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.


    p.s. Late to the game, but this topic means a good deal to me.

  • T-SQL Tuesday #193 Ghosts of Jobs Past & Future

    Self

    Family

    Work

    My first job out of college involved relocating an untold number of times to unfamiliar places and meeting an incredible number of people, all for a pretty price. And I did. I moved to half a dozen states, met hundreds of people, nabbed a husband (mine eventually, not someone else’s), and built out more found family than I could have dreamed. After years of flexibility and “for the band” mentality, it was starting to really take a toll. While I did get a lot of great experience and feathers in my cap the last three years I worked there, I still wish I’d left sooner. The hardest part of choosing to move on was “the money is good, and I get paid overtime.” What’s not enticing about picking up some extra project hours to help boost an upcoming vacation? The only thing really holding me back was the gold and the promise of better. I did end up taking a hefty pay cut to leave, but I don’t regret it for a moment.

    I know now what I didn’t then: money really isn’t everything. Take care of yourself so you can take care of your family and be recharged enough to do well at your job.

    And maybe have a Snickers when things get tough.

  • Data Court DBA

    DECLARE @BrightColor varchar(50)
    ,@Profession varchar(50) = 'DBA'
    ,@Topic varchar(50) = 'Data'

    One of my passions is teaching, and I’ve found myself writing so many short form tech tips for my team that I can literally fill a blog. Well, here it is.

    My skillset is very wide, so you’ll see topics about SQL Server Administration, T-SQL, SSIS, Power BI, and maybe some infrastructure administration thrown in. Who knows. My goal is one “ah-ha!” or “I didn’t know that” moment, because everyone can teach something to someone. It’s just about finding the right audience (or the first page of google.)

    I’ve been getting more involved in conferences and user group presenting with a PASS Summit session and soon to be my first SQL Saturday session under my belt. If you see me at any events, flag me down for a hi, a high-five, or a harrowing “so this one time my engineers…” story. Feeling nervous at a conference because you’re new or don’t know anyone? Come on over and I’ll help you fix that. I’ll be the one with the @BrightColor hair.