Change Your Path, Maintain Your Goal

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Something interesting happened to me last week; I was hired.

I have been job searching for a few weeks, having recently completed my formal academic studies in database administration and I was becoming a little discouraged at the choices I apparently had when it came to entry level work in my desired field.  Honestly I was thinking I might have to go back to a help-desk position at a large corporation in order to get some experience under my belt.  I figured I could work some repetitive job for a year or two while getting much more experience and maybe even certified in database technologies, like I had planned from the beginning.  Although, I have taken a position as a technical support associate, it is a little different in a few big ways.

The entire company interviewed me, to begin with.  That consisted of two-and-a-half hours and four guys to chat with.  I was caught off guard, being asked to write a couple simple CREATE scripts on the white board in T-SQL.  I have to say I fared pretty well, and apparently met the needs of the firm.  I am working now, for a software developement company, building a custom application for web analytics.  Yes, I know what a lot of you are thinking, there are so many other analytics options out there.  But, its a great business model, its not cloud hosted (which is great for government firms), and I am on board with the outlook.

What surprises me is the responsibility I was given.  You might think, like I did, that a technical support position is pretty basic, but this one is not.  I am being tasked with building the support pages, the help articles, managing the web-based help-desk system, creating and managing our end-users profiles, and general, overall technical assistance with anything that comes up.  I do not have a schedule; “my job is to just do my job” as my boss explained, one day.  The tasks are created by me, or suggested by the other guys in the office, or something that the boss would really like to see on the support pages (which is normally what I focus on first).

There are so many things to talk/write about at this new job, but I really want to wrap back around to the point.  As the tag-line of my blog clarifies, I am set on becoming a guru with databases, eventually.  This new job is not really even close to the line of work a data guy might be doing.

Moral of the story?

I have changed my immediate path, taken a fork in the road, but I have not forgotten my original goal.  This path can lead to the same destination eventually.  I am taking responsibility to learn on my own, and get certified in database technologies, to become more likely to get a data related career started.

An Important Step: Not The First

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Lately I’ve been receiving quite a bit of assistance and elbowing to get started from a great person, Marlon Ribunal [twitter/blog]. Marlon and I have been communicating about getting this blog started and what the truly important things are, the things that matter the most and the rest is just extra fluff. So here I am. And plan on continuing for a long time. Let me explain:

I could blog about career hunting, resume tweaking, or networking; which I consider myself an amatuer in all of those. But I am not going to, in fact you can find a plethora of other places to read about that. I am participating in those activities right now, and doing it for a great reason, my desire to change, to succeed, to evolve. I have been an amateur tech-geek for ages (at least in my perspective) and I have finally realized I have reached the tipping point, where I can realistically make it my occupation, now. I can finally begin a career with which I am personally gratified that I am doing what I planned on, doing what I worked towards and built a solid foundation for.

I have now completed a bachelor degree in I.T. focusing on Database Administration. It gives me a great understanding of database development, system and software development, and administration. Although we all know that hands on, in the trenches experience is what real employers look for. Hence the reason why I also own several SQL Server books, and a Microsoft certification study guide by Mike Hotek [twitter]. I have not reached the point of taking the exam yet, but I can sense it happening in the near future. I also have bought, on a pro’s recommendation, SQL Server Developer Edition and am playing around with it on my home PC. This is truly the best way to learn SQL Server, getting into it even in a lab environment and putting in the practice that will make you great. In fact a couple experts I follow on the interwebz, Kendra Little [twitter/blog] and Thomas LaRock [twitter/blog] have written about this very thing. By the way, there are a few more people that have influenced me an extraordinary amount and taught me more than I thought I would know, but I’ll save you the link-fest. Brent Ozar! [twitter/blog] Okay, I’m done.

Long story short, I’ll be blogging about my career change, the progress I have been making, the setbacks I experience, the “aha moments” I have, and the trials and tribulations of getting into data management/administration/development… To be continued.

-Marc