Clearly from the lack of current content and very inconsistent updates, my vision for this blog has been a bit cloudy as of late. For about the past year (or two), I have really struggled to find both the motivation and time to write anything that would be useful or interesting for others to read. Thus, I have written nothing. In the past 3+ years I have written about my health, reams of stuff about running, swimming, and other fitness pursuits (which I am still pursuing, but not writing about), and various family updates and pictures. These are all very interesting topics to me but, most likely, not useful nor interesting to anyone else. And while these topics kept me writing and improving, they were not really focused on any one area nor were they helping me professionally.
The Turning Point
Recently I read a great blog post by Brent Ozar titled, “Rock Stars, Normal People, and You” which really hit home with me. For those of you who don’t know (if there are any readers left out there), Brent Ozar is a Microsoft SQL Server MCM and MVP, DBA, author, and seemly (only because I haven’t met him) all around great guy. The post was a rewind of where Brent had been, what was wrong with where he was, and what he did to make things better and improve his professional life. A considerable part of the post revolves around his career path, various missteps, and what eventually led him to a successful fit with a company and career, but the undertone of the post – and the part that had the most impact on me – revolved more around his personal accountability for his career. In a nutshell, his theme was if you want a successful, fulfilling career you have to go get it. You have to make it happen. It’s not going to fall in to your lap. No one is going to hand you the perfect job. Most importantly, you need to start now – right now – find something you are passionate about, work hard at it, and success will come your way. The Rock Stars of today were once the Normal People sitting in the next cube over.
I’m not entirely sure why this particular post had such an impact on me. Most likely because it was saying loud and clear what I have been avoiding to say for some time – I am solely responsible for my career and only I can make it either wildly successful or a dismal failure. I can be happy, passionate, and driven about what I do or I can be a mediocre clock puncher, looking forward to the end of the day.
I’m Going to be a Rock Star (Some Day)
The good news is that I am personally at a great point in my career and I am looking to move things to the next level. While Brent’s post spoke to me, it has really been over the past couple of months that I came to the realization that the career path I was headed down was not for me, not where my passion was, and not what I saw myself doing long term. You see, I started my career on the tech side of IT – doing the work, learning the technology, interacting with my peers – and I loved it. Loved it so much in fact that I thought the best thing for me was to step in to management and help run the teams that build stuff. Seems like the next step, right? And, in fact, this was good for a while and I did well. I was successful. I started a brand new team, positively impacted IT processes, and generally made things some better. However, while I was continuing to be successful as a supervisor – I was failing to figure out how to take things to the next level, how to go from doing a good job and getting things done to being instrumental and a true leader within the organization.
So What to Do?
After some personal reflection and a few very candid, yet positive, discussions with my manager I came to the realization that my passion is not in managing – my interests and passions lie in doing and building and finding creative solutions to tough technical problems. All the stuff I have been tasking my team to do is really the stuff I want to do myself. Coincidently, the team I have been managing has been looking for a senior level developer. With my manager’s approval, as of April 12th I am no longer the Supervisor of the Business Intelligence team; I am now a Sr. Systems Developer in Business Intelligence. Finally, I work for a company I believe in (www.capella.edu), I have manager that seems to have faith in me and my skills, and I really believe that I have a lot to offer – both to my company and the SQL Server community as a whole. I have a wealth of knowledge and experience in business intelligence and I have a hunger to learn more and become better at what I do. Oh yeah, and I know how lucky I am.
Next Steps
I feel like I have a world of possibilities ahead of me and that’s great, but I also realize that I need to focus and have a plan. I also know enough to know that I have a lot to learn. With that, I have a few things in mind…
- Network – leverage the great local SQL Server community to help expand my knowledge and have resources to call on when I need help.
- Learn – read, read, and read more.
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Challenge Myself – I need to take on the tough tasks, work through them, and grow from the challenge
- Write – pass along the things I learn to others. I need to remember that even though I don’t know everything, there are others out there that know even less than me and may benefit from what I have to say.
I know this isn’t really a detailed plan, but it’s a start. I’ll add more detail as I figure it out…
