Apologies

I've let this blog go a bit as life has kept me busy and I apologize for the lack of content. I'll try to start adding in some new pieces on a more consistent basis.

This is certainly one of the things I warn about in my presentation, which I've actually given a number of times in 2018. My last post was nearly a year ago, and I have to own that I let this go.

The fall is always a challenge for me, as it's a busy conference season. September and October last year saw a bit of travel for me, and I burned out a bit. November had me start coaching youth volleyball and that ate of must of my time outside of work. Between those items, I dropped the ball here.

That's my fault and a poor showing for this blog. Again, I apologize, and I'll try to do better moving forward.

Getting Started Blogging

It’s a new year, and the perfect time for you to start blogging about your SQL Server work. I think blogging is a great way to showcase your knowledge, and over time, this can become as important to your potential employers and clients as your resume or CV.

This post won’t look at what to write, but rather, how to get started. I’ve divided this up for people that might have written some technical articles and those that haven’t. If you have, feel free to skip the next section.

Starting From Scratch

If you’ve never really written a blog or technical piece, I recommend do this:

1. Create a folder on a shared drive
2. Open Word (or another WYSIWYG) editor
3. Begin Writing
4. Save the post you’ve worked on as 1_SomeTopic.
5. Repeat, incrementing the number so you get files such as 2_OtherTopic, 3_ReallyInteresting, etc.

That’s it. Just begin writing. Don’t worry about publishing, don’t worry about anything else. Just get in the habit of putting some thoughts down on paper that talk about the work you do.

When you get 10 posts, you are ready to move on.

I would recommend you calculate the average time it takes for you to produce a post. This would be the rate at which I’d look to schedule my posts.

Choosing a Platform

The next step when you are comfortable with your writing is to choose a place to publish your work. There are lots of choices, and a good comparison of sites is listed in this article.

I like Wordpress.com myself. This site uses Blogspot (for now), but I will likely move it to Wordpress. Blogspot works, but it’s basic and the scheduling and editing tools are more of a pain than those at Wordpress.

I also recommend OpenLiveWriter to write with. I can easily draft posts in a WYSIWYG way, keep the drafts private (and on a OneDrive folder) and then publish to my platform at will. I find this easier than trying to work online. The project looks slightly abandoned for now, but it is stable and useful on the Windows platform.

Scheduling

How often should you blog? I think this is a hard question, but I’d blog at the pace that works for me. If you are a new writer, you should have written 10 pieces and tracked the time to produce those. For most people, this is between 2 and 4 weeks for a piece. Some might do 1 a week, but whatever is possible in your busy life is the pace I’d stick with.

My goal is to blog 3 times a week. Sometimes I can do more, but I don’t usually try to do more. It’s better to schedule out posts and ensure I can maintain some level of consistency than I get my posts out right away. Most of the time I have a couple of posts scheduled a few weeks out because I’m not producing news. I’m showcasing knowledge.

My advice is to schedule less frequently than you think you should. It’s easier to add in most posts later than try to maintain some pace that causes you stress.

This should be fun.

Post Reviews

No matter what topics you choose or the frequency of your posts, it is important that you do a good job in producing them. That doesn’t mean you need 3 peer reviews and a copy edit, but you should take the time to get some feedback from others on your work.

If you aren’t an experienced writer, or you worry about the impression your writing makes, then ask a friend, spouse, co-worker, etc. to review a few posts and help you with your grammar, spelling, and the way you communicate the concepts.

Communication is a skill, and you will get better if you work at it. However, the best way I have found to do this quickly is to get feedback from others.

Take the Challenge

Challenge yourself and start blogging today. Even as little as 15 minutes a week can really help you showcase your knowledge, and give you an edge for your next interview.

How Often Should You Blog

I had someone ask me this question recently, and here’s the answer:
When I talk to people about building their brand and showcasing their talents, I suggest blogging as the best way to display their skills. However after they ask about finding topics, the next question is invariably about how often to blog. My answer? As often as is comfortable for you.
What I suggest to most people is that they set aside time for writing and then use Word, Notepad, or any editor to draft posts. Write ten posts on whatever topics you like, and see how long it takes to complete them. Get feedback from friends, re-read them a day or so later, and count them finished when you’d be comfortable to publish them. Then schedule the ten posts based on your pace of writing. Perhaps 10 posts takes you a month, maybe it takes you ten months, but whatever time required is your pace. It may change over time, but blog at whatever rate fits in your life.

2016 Resolution Month: Write Better

Writing is an area that I constantly struggle to improve in my career.

Writing is an area where I constantly struggle to improve as I work on my career.

Writing is an area in which I constantly struggle to improve as I work on my career.

Improving my writing is an area where I constantly struggle.

What’s funny, is that I rewrote that sentence above quite a few more times, but this was all I could remember.

Writing is a communication skill. It’s an important one, as most of us regularly communicate with others through the written word. Emails, reports, and more are all written forms of communication.

I sometimes look back at my writing for a decade ago and I’m stunned, embarassed, and sad. In many cases, my ability to communicate was poor. However I take solace in the fact that I have improved in that time.

There are any number of articles providing advice for better writing. Most of them are similar, and boil down to simple things that do improve your skills. As in the one I’ve linked above, practice is key. Writing is a skill like many others, and the more you actively practice, the more you will improve.

I’ll put more posts together on this topic in the future, but for now, make it a point to look over some of these links as you write your next blog, email, or even social networking post. Take a minute to try and change one thing in your writing.

• 10 Simple Ways to Become a Better Writer
• Improving Grammar
• 4 Quick and East Ways to Make Your Business Writing Better
• Tips on Grammar, Punctuation, and Style
• Grammar Exercises

Focus, Focus, Focus

I'm a wordy writer. In fact, often I start a piece and easily find myself with 2 (printed) pages of written text in ten minutes. I tend to over describe, overwrite, and try to completely cover a topic.

Then I edit the piece and often remove half the words. Or, what I find happening more and more as I practice, is I break the piece into a few posts.

The key to writing a good post is to focus. Focus on a specific topic and write about just that item. Don't get distracted by ancillary details. If you think your readers need to know more about a related item, that's a separate post.

What I recommend is that you write a sentence that describes what you are teaching. Keep that at the top, and as you write, refer back to this sentence. Your details and discussion should support this topic. If they don't, start a new post with a quick sketch of the related item, and then go back to writing about items that support your topics.

A few examples.

If you are writing about scheduling a job in SQL Server Agent, don't get caught up in the job details, or the security for a job (proxies) or the categories of the job. Those are separate posts. Just show me how to detail with an Agent schedule.

If you're writing about how to wire an electrical outlet, don't give me details about finding the fuse box, or which gauge wire to use, or the benefits of two v three prong outlets. Those are separate posts.

If you're want to talk about cooking shrimp scampi, don't get caught up in how to make the best pasta, or choose shrimp and devein it, or how to chop garlic. Those are separate posts.

Keep your focus. You'll find blogging easier, quicker, and also you will build better communication skills that teach you to focus tightly on the concept you are explaining.

The New Blogger Challenge for November

I was at a conference last week and ran into Ed Leighton-Dick. Ed started a #SQLNewBlogger challenge back in April and I participated, promoting the event and getting a few people to blog that month. Since then I've tried to keep pushing and managed to get 3-4 people to keep going.

Ed has kicked off a new challenge for November, and I think it's great. I'm issuing my own here for people that might not be SQL professionals, but work in another industry.

Use November to showcase your knowledge and write one post a week. Take some aspect of your job, something small and focused and spend a few minutes describing how you solved a problem or what you learned. Imagine this is a short answer to an interview questions.

I won't ask you to publish it, but keep it around. Make a folder somewhere and store your post. This will be something you review before you go to your next interview, so take it seriously.

Write one a week and keep them ready to give your career a boost when you need it.

My Apologies for the Neglect

I haven't posted much here over the last few months. Life has been a bit distracting and busy, but that's not a great excuse. I apologize for that.

I haven't been sitting still, however. I have been working on my career in a few ways. My job changed slightly this year, with a greater focus on software development over administration. I've been a bit of a technical journalist for the last decade and more of my efforts have gone towards managing databases, but the last few years I've been moving more towards building them, and this year I've had quite a bit of focus on development.

As a result, I've spent the last six or so months doing more learning and teaching on the software development side of things. I've been reading books, practicing some techniques and in general trying to improve my skills in these areas. I've been teaching a bit more as well, which is something I enjoy.

I have collected a few links, but I've managed to avoid blogging too much with a busy schedule at home.

However I'm making an effort to change things and add more posts, hopefully one a week going forward.

Get Started Promoting Yourself

Start a new blog, write about your career and what you're doing. It's a great way to showcase your knowledge. You never know when someone will read it and want to hire you.

There was a challenge in April for SQL Server professionals. Not as many people participated as I'd have liked, but there were some. Quite a few experienced bloggers wrote posts as well to try and inspire people.

I'd urge you to give this a try and write a bit about what you do. Don't worry about hits, visits, etc. The purpose of this blog is to help you stand out at some point when you need a job. Secondarily, it teaches you to communicate better.

Get started today.

The Blogger Challenge

A friend of mine, Ed Leighton-Dick, challenged himself to blog this April, and extended the challenge to others. I think this is a great idea, and I'd urge you to take this on, no matter what your industry.

However I'll modify it.

If you haven't blogged before and you want to try this, do this in Word (or Notepad or somewhere else). I don't necessarily want you to publish these out for the world to see. Instead, I want you to send a weekly post, completed, to a friend. It can be a spouse, co-worker, college roommate, just someone else that can give you feedback.

Bonus points for sending it to two people.

Why Private?

A blog can really help showcase your knowledge and give your career a boost. Employers can learn about you, and if you're a good fit for their opening, they are more likely to call you. They can perform due diligence.

If you're good.

Being good at your job is hard. Being good at your job and good at communication is a step up, and writing can be a difficult way to showcase your skills. I get pieces all the time from professionals that know their jobs. They just don't express it well.

If you wish to give blogging a try, do it privately, but get feedback. Commit, make an effort, but do so in a controlled fashion.

Try

Take the challenge, and publish. Publicly or not, give it a try. Get feedback and comments, and learn. Even if you put your post out for the world to see, send a link to friends and ask for feedback.

You won't regret it.

I used to work in xxx and now want to work in IT

This could apply to any industry, but specifically I think this works well in IT.

I got a question from someone that asked me this: "… I was thinking if you could give some advice in how to get a solid cv/knowledge in IT. I've just completed/gained my [xx cert] and now studying the following modules: YY, ZZ. My problem it's that I always worked in [other industry] and now looking to move into IT."

The short version of what I'd recommend is that you need to start showing some knowledge. Here's what I wrote:

My advice would be to start blogging about things you're studying. Show that you are learning things, how you think about them, how you'd solve problems I used to answer questions on forums (like here: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/). My answers and thoughts actually got me a few interviews.

I'd tackled some topics that you are learning about, and write about what you've learned. Be sure you communicate well (get someone to review and see if your grammar is good, logic, flow, etc.) and then post it. Use this as part of your resume that you send to employers.

The more you write about, the more you show about your knowledge. Plus you show some motivation.

Showcase Your Knowledge

I wrote a piece I called Challenge Yourself, and while it’s mostly aimed at technical people, I think it can apply to other professions.
I thought of it recently with my son. He’s in his last year of college and taking a GIS class. Part of the class is lots of lab work, creating maps from public data sets, which are the kind of data most of us deal with: a mess of numbers.
He often finds data that is incorrectly entered, formatted poorly, etc. He’s come to me for help with SQL and Python expressions that can help him transform and select data that I appropriate for his maps. A few times he’s had to write a mini-report on how he manipulates the data, but not always.
However as I was helping him, it occurred to me that if I were interviewing him for a GIS job next year, someone that has no experience, I’d want to get some confidence that they know how to work with ArcMap or other tools. A resume or a grade in a class doesn’t mean much. I have no idea of this involved anything complex, or just simple data loads.
If he had a blog, or a series of documents that explained how he built maps and manipulated data, then I’d feel better. I could talk about those tasks and skills in an interview, and use his documentation to drive conversation, as well as determine if he really knew how to work with the tools or not.
I’m sure other students could benefit from some effort to showcase their knowledge.Even professionals in positions could do this, showing that they are improving their knowledge, or even demonstrating the depth to which they know a subject.
Start a blog, or at least document your work.

Free Images for your Blog

If you’re blogging, and you should try it, you might try spicing up some of your posts with images. I ran across this post with a number of sources for images.

Here are places they recommend:

• Dreamstime
• Free Digital Photos
• Free Images
• Free Range Stock
• Free Photos Bank
• ImageFree
• IM Free
• Morguefile
• Pixabay
• Public Domain Pictures
• Stockvault
• Rgbstock

There are more, so check out the post.

Note that most of these places let you use photos for non commercial use. That means if you’re consulting or selling services, you can’t use them. However if this is your private blog about your career, check them out.

Where to Blog

I'm going to assume for this blog that you have a few posts to publish. If you don't, then perhaps you should start by writing your first post. After that, get a few posts ready, then get a blog set up.

Options

There are a lot of ways to blog. If you're inclined, you can certainly setup your own site and code your blog, but I wouldn't recommend that. You won't keep up with the coding, and unless your intent is to showcase your code writing skills, you shouldn't spend time on this.

Instead visit one of these places and sign up for a free blog:

• Wordpress - Very popular and I use them for one of my blogs
• Blogger - Also popular, hosting this blog (for now).
• TypePad - Not as popular, but a nice platform for sure.
• Tumblr - Not for me, but some people like it

There are other sites I'm sure, but I'd suggest you just pick one of these. Sign up and then link your Live Writer to it.

Custom Domains

You can choose to get a custom domain if you want for your blog. A custom domain would mean that instead of voiceofthedba.wordpress.com, which is one of my blogs, I could use www.voiceofthedba.com. If you click on both links, they go to the same places.

Domains are available from GoDaddy, eNom, NameCheap, and more. You need to pay for one and then point the domain to your blog. It's an easy thing to do, but a little work. I'm not going to cover it here, but you can Google, check your blog host for instructions, or just buy the service from the blog host.

I might suggest if you want to just keep things simple that you build a short URL for your blog using something like Bit.ly. They'll let you build one like: http://bit.ly/voiceofthedba. Search for providers.

Promote

The last thing I'd make sure you do is have your pieces sent out to various social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. so that someone that might have an interest in hiring you can find them easily. Most of the blogging platforms have plugins to do this for you, so search the help sections for your blog provider.

Writing Your First Blog

How do you write your first blog piece? Here's a few simple steps to get you started.

Set Aside a Time

This can be ad hoc, but I'd rather you set aside 15 minutes at least once a week. Make yourself an appointment. At lunch, at night, weekends, whatever. Just pick a time when you can spend 15 minutes writing.

Use a computer, or a pad of paper, but just give your blog 15 real minutes.

Get LiveWriter

If you're on Windows, use Live Writer. If you're not, a text editor works fine.

Pick a Topic

People always struggle here. I get it; it's hard to choose something. I've written about it before, but here's what I suggest to start..

What did you do in your career today?

You had to do something? Maybe you built something with code. Maybe you helped a customer. Maybe you pushed paper around in meetings and updating status.

No matter what it was, take a minute and think about what you did and what you think about it? Was it worthwhile? Did you use some skill you have? Did you make things move forward?

Write a sentence or two that describes what you think of the item you picked.

Just Do It

Whether it was positive or negative, you can stop and evaluate what you did and write about it. Put your thoughts on paper.

Focus on your topic sentence and then start writing. The main thing is to periodically look back at your topic and make sure you're writing about it. If you're not, move the irrelevant or related items to a new draft post.

Rinse and Repeat

Whether you get this done or not, leave it. Go back to it when you can, perhaps the next 15 minute session next week. Taking it slow means it's more sustainable. If you go faster and do more this week, don't be afraid to drop back to your 15 minutes if you get busy.

Review what you wrote and see if you can improve the spelling and grammar. Do a little self editing and see if your thoughts makes sense

Get an Editor

When you think your piece is good, use someone else as an editor and get their opinion. Pick your spouse or partner, a friend, a colleague, just get someone else to read it. Even if they don't understand the meaning of jargon or technical items, the piece needs to flow and make sense.

Make sure you buy them a coffee or beverage. You'll use them again.

If they think it shows something about your career, it's ready.

Save This Piece

I wouldn't recommend you publish this right away. Write 5 or 10 of these, and once you have them, you'll know how quickly you produce pieces about your career.

At that point, I'd schedule them if you want to publicly blog and use a schedule that allows you to keep going for a bit.

If you want them to remain private, then compile them in a folder, and zip them up. Also be sure you make a copy occasionally. Keep a copy of these handy in case you ever want to showcase your knowledge for a recruiter, client, interviewer, or anyone else.

Blog for you

In my talk, I give that advice that your blog is for you, it’s a chronicle of your career, and it’s really written for the person that is considering hiring you, not for everyone else.

Matt Mullenweg agrees. He’s one of the founding developers of Wordpress, and his post was picked up on Twitter by John Batalle and a few others. He says you should:

• write for yourself
• write for a single person who you have in mind as the perfect person to read what you write

That second, single person, is the HR person, the hiring manager, the person that might offer you a job.

The first one, that’s you. Your present self, that’s solve a problem and is explaining it (showing your communication skills), and your future self, who might come back to this later and learn from it, or revisit the

However in both cases, you want to do a good job. Proofread your work. Get opinions from friends. Make sure that you are proud of what you write.

Blog for your interview

There are any number of reasons to blog about things. Perhaps you want to become famous and well known, perhaps you want to help others, perhaps you just want to unload your knowledge. All of those are valid, and good, reasons to blog. However I have one more: blog for your interview.

Most of us don’t want to be famous, or even well known. Most of us just want to have a successful career and want to be sure we can get a job if you need one. Blog for those reasons.

I could encourage you to write about your career, but not to teach others. Write about your career to show the person that might consider offering you a job what you know. Write your posts that show that you have knowledge and

• can solve a problem
• have knowledge on a topic

As I mention in the talk, If I am interviewing you, or considering it, I don’t care if everyone else in the world knows how to backup a database. I care if *you* know how to do it. Your blogging on the topic, on simple topics, lets me know what you understand and how you solve problems.

This doesn’t mean going through Books Online and re-writing all sections. However it does mean that as you perform tasks, even simple ones, write about them. Tell me why you did something, why you chose those options for backup, what the implications are. This tells me what you know, and what you don’t.

Learning to Write Better

Recently I ran across a blog post from Brian Kelley, a colleague in the SQL Server world. He noted that one of the things that makes him a better professional in his business is being able to communicate well.

I agree, and it’s one of those things I mention in my branding presentation, but don’t emphasize. Whether you blog, speak, or communicate in any way, poor communication skills stand out. Great communication skills just flow, and let people understand your message easily.

I have a few ideas for you to improve your skills.

• 15 Grammar Goofs (from Brian’s post)
• Improve your writing skills
• Improving your spelling
• Proofreading

Bookmark these links and then periodically take a few minutes and learn to improve your skills.

One other resource I’ll recommend as a place I ask questions or learn from the pros is English.stackexchange.com. I suspect there are exchanges for other languages as well (like Spanish).

Starting to Blog

How do you start blogging? Here’s some advice:

Open Word, Google Docs, Live Writer, or some tool where you can save your notes. Evernote actually works great and is cross platform.

Mark the date and start writing about something you did this week. It can be a new solution or a description of the way you've done something for years. Take 15 minutes at a time, a couple times a week. Get a page written that explains a solution or technique.

Repeat this 9 times. When you get done, you'll have some idea on how you can produce information on what you do. Schedule these out on a blog and keep going.

As you write, get feedback from your friends on the writing, the topic, the clarity and completeness of the explanation.

Start chronicling your technical work and you might be surprised who follows along.

Care a little about your blog

I ran across this post: how to blog about code and give zero fucks (warning, foul language). It essentially is a plea to blog more, to not worry about what you write, but just share more about how to develop and program.

Overall I agree with the post, and like some of the passion that the author shows. However I’d disagree with part of his advice. He talks about ignoring quality control, and not worrying about capitalization, commas, grammar, etc.

The way you blog, even if you are writing casually, will reflect lots of your communication style. If you can’t explain things well, succinctly, and can’t write complete sentences (Assuming you are blogging in English), that’s an issue.

Grammar isn’t hard. Spelling is more so, and it’s easy to make mistakes, but writing complete sentences that are understandable is important. You don’t have to write formally, or get an editor to clean up everything, but have someone read your work periodically and give you feedback. Correct errors people point out and learn from them.

Over time, writing in a cleaner, clearer style will become an ingrained habit.

Showcase Your Knowledge

While working on another piece, I ran across this post: Seven Things I Learned About Data Visualizations. It's a short list, with details, of how this particular subject taught the writer a few things. It looks at a variety of other pieces, in different subjects, and interprets these items with relation to data visualizations. In addition to being an interesting read, it's a great career piece for the author.

If I were looking for someone that could help me produce data visualizations, this piece would mean much more to me than a dozen questions in an interview. I would have a much better understanding of how this author looks at the subject, and I'd have a frame of reference and some topics to discuss in person.

This article allows me to complete quite a bit of due diligence for someone before I would even meet them.

This is a great example of how you could produce some work on a blog that showcases your knowledge, but more importantly, showcases your thoughts.  This is the type of work that gives an employer confidence that you understand a particular subject.

This gives you a brand in this subject area.