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Customers Love The Way I Jiggle – SQL Server Consulting

September 18, 2012 by John Sansom 1 Comment

It’s one of the most enjoyable things about being a SQL Server consultant. I’m not talking about my suspect dance moves here. I’m actually talking about a very powerful problem solving technique. Customers don’t hire SQL Server consultants to work on easy problems. They’ve got those covered already. My customers are some of the smartest […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Consulting, Problem Solving

How To Simply Say You’re a DBA

September 3, 2012 by John Sansom 14 Comments

Have you ever looked back on a conversation where someone asked you “what do you do?” and felt disappointed with your reply? Same here. So how do you explain to someone, who is not familiar with your field, what it is exactly that you do? Just last week my girlfriend and I were out to dinner to […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career, Database Administrator, Job Description

Where the Magic Happens

August 7, 2012 by John Sansom 2 Comments

Being a Database Administrator is only one of many careers where you can work with SQL Server and so I was thrilled when Consultant Nick Haslam(Blog|Twitter) offered to share his own unique story with us as part of the What’s it Like to be DBA post series. I was really pleased to be asked to […]

Filed Under: Professional Development Tagged With: Becoming a DBA, Guest Post

The Hollywood DBA

July 18, 2012 by John Sansom 2 Comments

I’m delighted to welcome a fellow Brit to the blog to share their story in today’s guest post. Many of you will have read and enjoyed their work before, being a prolific blogger of awesome content over on Simple-Talk. A renowned personality in the UK SQL community, he is  the founder and leader of the PASS SQL […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Becoming a DBA, Guest Post

Lunch is for Wimps

July 3, 2012 by John Sansom 3 Comments

DBAs on Wall Street

A real life DBA tale from the trenches with some awesome advice. That’s what one reader chose to share with the community in response to my post What’s it Like to Be a DBA. I found their story compelling and their message really resonated with me, so much so that I wanted to share it with you […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Becoming a DBA, Guest Post

Guest Post – DBAvolution

June 27, 2012 by mfal 2 Comments

DBAvolution

One of my favourite things about the SQL community is the exquisite diversity of talent of it’s members. Today for the “What’s it Like To Be a DBA” post series, we’re privileged to have with us a gentleman that not only flexes his technical muscles regularly on his blog but who also encourages us to get the grey matter really […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Becoming a DBA, Guest Post

Get Your Ass to PASS!

June 20, 2012 by John Sansom 7 Comments

This year there are to be no excuses, and I mean it. You know what I’m talking about. There’s always some reason why you can’t go to the PASS Summit, why you can’t make it this time around. Maybe the timing is just not quite right, you can’t get the time off work, maybe there’s […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career, Community, Events, SQLPass

Guest Post – The Last Starfighter

June 13, 2012 by John Sansom 7 Comments

Today I am delighted to be able to share with you a guest post from one of my all time favourite bloggers in the SQL community. Their high quality, unique and creative content regularly making the cut for a place in the SFTW post roundup. I’ve been an avid reader of theirs for a number […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Becoming a DBA, Guest Post

What’s it Like to Be a DBA?

June 10, 2012 by John Sansom 7 Comments

Absolutely fantastic of course! You regular readers know that the Becoming a DBA area of the blog is one of the most visited and talked about, with the professional development posts often proving popular. All the comments, questions and emails you guys send tells me that there’s a lot of interest in the community about […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Database Administrator, Guest Post

Where Have all the DBAs and DB DEVs Gone?

April 17, 2012 by John Sansom 6 Comments

Last week the SQL community and in particular the blogosphere, was buzzing with interest noise following the Microsoft Learning site publishing details of significant changes to SQL Server Certifications. Here We Go Again You know the drill. It’s the usual dance we go through every 5 years or so, where the Microsoft marketing machine spins […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career, Database Administrator, Database Developer

How To Live Blog an Event

April 11, 2012 by John Sansom 1 Comment

As the euphoria of SQLBits X sadly begins to fade, I wanted to take a moment to share with you my experience of Live Blogging the keynote of Europe’s largest SQL Server conference. To be honest this was not something that I had planned to do but when I received an email from Chris Webb […]

Filed Under: Blogging, Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: SQLBits

Help Design The New Blog Logo

March 14, 2012 by John Sansom 6 Comments

Regular readers will no doubt have noticed the new look and feel to the blog. It has been a long overdue update and one that I hope will give more focus to what’s important, i.e. content by making posts more accessible, easier to locate and interactive for you to enjoy. That’s all fine and dandy […]

Filed Under: Blogging

What SQL2012 Feature Are You Excited About the Most?

March 13, 2012 by John Sansom 4 Comments

SQL Server 2012

Last week the internet went crazy with the news of super cool new stuff for techies to play with. If you’re having trouble viewing this post click here to see it in all it’s intended glory. I’m currently experimenting with some snazzy blog authoring widgets that may not port nicely to RSS/Email. We had the Apple Fanboys getting all […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQL Server Community, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: SQL Server 2012, Twitter

How To Write an Interview Winning CV

February 21, 2012 by John Sansom 25 Comments

Writing a CV that rocks is not an art. It just requires some planning and an understanding of what you want your CV to achieve for you. Of course therein also lies the problem because of lot folks are not exactly sure what they want their CV to do for them. This is why you […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: CV, Database Administrator, Job Interview, Resume

Your Road to Becoming a DBA: Getting Organised

February 13, 2012 by John Sansom 6 Comments

Getting Organised

Knowing precisely how to start on your next adventure is tricky. With so many options and decisions in front of you, identifying what is the best way to move forward for you is vital.

In this third instalment I’m going to be talking about everything else that I wanted to cover in reply to the readers email, which is kind of ironic really because the first point I want to make next is about being organised.

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Becoming a DBA, CV Witting, DBA Books, Goal Setting, Organisation, Planning

Why Every DBA is a Clown

February 6, 2012 by John Sansom 4 Comments

It’s late, really late and you’ve got a mountain of work to get through to meet the deadline. To add to it, you also have numerous other urgent items and they’re all high priority of course. You feel panicked because you cannot possibly get it all done, you know that you are going to fail. […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Database Administrator, mememonday, Multi-Tasking, Time Management

Your Road to Becoming a DBA: Acquiring Experience is Key

February 1, 2012 by John Sansom 23 Comments

Knowing precisely how to start on your next adventure is tricky. With so many options and decisions in front of you, identifying what is the best way to move forward for you is vital. This post is part two of the series Your Road to Becoming a DBA, where I talk about how you can […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career Progression, Database Administrator, Getting Experience

Your Road to Becoming a DBA: Laying a Strong Foundation

January 31, 2012 by John Sansom 19 Comments

Knowing precisely how to start on your next adventure is tricky. With so many options and decisions in front of you, identifying what is the best way to move forward for you is vital. Last week I received an email from a reader who was looking for some advice on how to start their own […]

Filed Under: Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Becoming a DBA, Career Progression, Database Administrator

Start 2012 with Your Best of 2011

January 3, 2012 by John Sansom 2 Comments

The first week following on from the Christmas break is a very hectic one for us Data Professionals. Your customers are keen to get straight back to business immediately and get the year off to the best possible start, meaning your skills and services will be in high demand. To help ensure you get your […]

Filed Under: Blogging, Professional Development, SQL Server Community, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication

Why Did You Start Blogging?

December 15, 2011 by John Sansom 8 Comments

That’s easy, because Brent Ozar (Blog|Twitter) challenged me to…… It all started back in the good ole days. A time when there was a Blogging revolution brewing within the SQL community. Tired of the dry and dull technical content that was being shared at the time, a few brave bloggers were daring to do things […]

Filed Under: Blogging, Professional Development, SQLServerCentral Syndication, SQLServerPedia Syndication

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