The Death of Email Questions

One of my policies is not to answer questions from people about SQL Server in email. That includes emails to me, the webmaster, or in private messages. It’s not that I want to be a jerk, but I have a couple reasons.

1. I’m busy, and if you need custom help, you ought to pay for consulting. One on one answering is time consuming, and it leads, or has for me, to a regular amount of “you’re my expert now” follow ups.
2. It’s inefficient. I rarely have people ask questions that are unique. If you have the question, likely others have it as well. Let them see your issue, and more importantly, the answer.

I have a standard signature that I paste into email questions, either directly to me, via Private Message on the site, or the webmaster inbox. It directs people to the forums politely, letting them know email isn’t the appropriate place.

Not everyone feels this way, and I know some people on the site will take questions in email, or direct a people to email for more detailed follow up. I get that, and if you want to do it, that’s fine. However it’s not something I think is widespread, and I think fewer and fewer people use email.

Why?

I think some of it is the overload of email, especially SPAM, that makes people shy away from more. However I think that both me and the MVP program in the Microsoft space are partially to blame as well. The MVP program looks at contributions from people to the community, and a lot of the awardees depend on regularly answering questions in forums like SQLServerCentral and MSDN to prove they are helping the community. That means that every question they answer in email is one less point they get to the community at large.

Why me? I have been giving a presentation on branding over the last year, encouraging people to build a bit of a brand for themselves. I don’t address this, but reading between the lines, if you want to build a brand for prospective employers to see, you don’t want your work to be private, as in private email conversations.

Is it a problem? After all, I don’t answer things in email. I’m not sure. For me it is, since I can’t handle a large volume of questions in email, and I’m trying to continue to promote and build my community. In doing that, I push people to the community and public asking (and answering) of questions.

However there’s a drawback. Not everyone wants to post publically. There are people that don’t want to post something since they think they’re showcasing their ignorance. Or they’re private people. Or they just don’t trust advice they get from some anonymous person on the web. I have friends that IM or email me directly with SQL questions. They want “the Steve Jones answer", which might not necessarily be the best thing.

I get that, and I try to push them to post, saying I’ll answer in a forum. Or that they aren’t stupid for posting.

I don’t know how things will evolve. The advent of social networking, with real time questions and answers on Twitter, semi-private networks like Linked In and Facebook, means that there’s a push to be more social and more open online. That’s not for everyone, and I worry that those people who are more private as losing out.

Not because they don’t participate, but because less people are willing to help them.

Taking Advantage

I read SQLBatman's post about his first week as an MVP, and it really resonated well with me. I think that he really hit it when he said that he wasn't going to sit around, he was going to go look for information and take things back from the opportunity he had.

That's really what separates many people in their careers. Sure some people are smarter, some learn quicker, or just "get" how things work in their profession. But most of the really successful people take advantage of their opportunities. 

They work at things.

They don't get more chances, they look for the ones that are out there and take advantage of them.

Authoring an Article

If you are comfortable blogging and writing for yourself, and you have a thick enough skin to consider putting your work forward, the next step I'd recommend is writing an article. If you aren't blogging, I'd recommend that you start there, get comfortable with writing and expressing yourself and get practice. Writing is a skill like anything else and practice makes it better.

Many online publishers are constantly looking for content and often entertain short pieces from new authors. In the technical world, there is no shortage of sites that cater to your particular specialty. In other fields, there are likely just as many choices.

In trying to structure an article, the first thing to keep in mind is that when you move away from a blog-type structure to an article is that now you are definitely trying to teach your readers something. The premise in writing your article must be that you are conveying information, teaching a subject at some level.

I have more detailed post coming with specific advice for technical articles in the next few weeks.

Building a Resume

There are plenty of web sites, books, and other reference material for writing a resume. If you're not comfortable writing one, I urge you to research a little, get some ideas, even ask your boss or HR people at your current employer for some advice on things to do and not do).

Many of you many be uncomfortable with talking to your boss or HR person, but you don't have to be looking for a job. Or you could be, but asking for advice on your career should be something you can do. Tell them you're just performing your quarterly update, and you want another set of eyes.

You should also have your spouse or a friend review your resume (I usually have my wife look at mine), but you also want advice from someone that hires for your position.

My basic advice on a resume for the modern world is two-fold:

1. Build a 1-2 page resume.

2. Supplement your resume with online materials that help define your brand.

For the first one, use the advice you get, keep it to 2 pages, and then link to supplemental material. Have a page that contains your speaking engagements. Have one for your published work, maybe another for the other areas in which you've built your brand.

Use the online links to provide more information or details and keep your resume from getting too cluttered.

Tweet Your Job Away

A great example of how to “Tweet” poorly. This guy got fired before he started work.

Twitter is a series of hallway conversations. I think that’s a great description, and I’ll write more about that at some point. However just like those hallways, you need to be aware that you don’t necessarily know who’s listening. Putting it in writing means it could be overheard by anyone, and send on.

In case you’re interested, here’s the tweet that got him fired.

Touch Your Resume

One of the pieces of advice that I give in my talk "The Modern Resume" is that you should review, and likely touch, your resume once a quarter. It was a habit I got into when I worked in the corporate world after having a startup company that I worked for fail.

That experienced bothered me, I didn't like the instability near the end of that company's life, and so I decided that I didn't want to get caught in that situation again. When I went to JD Edwards, there was a feeling of instability at times before they were purchased by Peoplesoft, and it seemed I was reviewing my resume on a regular basis then.

My simple advice:

• Set a calendar reminder for every 3 months to review your resume.
• When it remind you, open your resume and spend a few minutes looking it over. Think about what you've done over the last quarter and see if there is something you should add. Things to consider
  • Position/responsibility change
  • Certifications/degrees earned
  • Training taken
  • Volunteering you've done.
  • Articles/books/speaking engagements
• Look for things to remove if you've added something.
• Close it and mail a copy to yourself at home or another location (we want resume DR as well).

These simple steps should take you 5 minutes a quarter, and it's worth it for managing your career.

And if you have nothing to add, think about that as well. Perhaps you should be looking to grow your career a little and undertake something worth adding to your resume.

SQL Saturday #14 - Pensacola

I committed today to attend SQL Saturday #14 in Pensacola on June 6, 2009. I'll be giving The Modern Resume - Building Your Brand talk down there and taking a couple days to enjoy the gulf coast with my daughter. I've never been to this section of Floriday, so it will be an interesting trip for me.

You can register on the SQL Saturday site.