I have been active on the Internet for 15 years, and during that time I have left a long trail behind me. If you Google my name, there are over 5,000 hits. If you check my name in Live Search, there are over 8,000 hits. If you wanted to, you could trace much of my online activity over the years with simple searches. And if you were really clever, you could visit the Wayback Machine and find all about me on archived web pages that don’t currently exist on the Internet. My life is an open book.

Do you know what? More and more employers are using Internet search to find out all about you before they hire you. So if a prospective employer enters your name into a search engine, what will they find?

Will they find information that strongly points to your professionalism, providing a strong indication that you are they type of person they can trust once they hire you? Or will they find information that will strongly discourage them from hiring you?

According to a recent Careerbuilder.Com survey, 22% of hiring managers say that they actively use the Internet to research prospective job candidates. Based on my experience, I think that number is low. I think it is closer to 40-50%. In fact, I talked to a hiring manager just this past week, and he does regular searches on job applicants. And what was even more interesting was just that same day he had decided not to hire someone because of posts he read on an applicant’s Facebook page.

So what does this mean to your career? It means that if you aren’t careful how you portray yourself on the Internet, your career could be negatively impacted.

If you are serious about being a professional DBA, and want to continue to pursue this profession as a career, I suggest the following:

–Conduct your own Internet searches (using several search engines) on your name to see what pops up. If you have a common name, then you may have to add additional search criteria to ensure that the search hits you get back are directly related to you. Another way to help restrict your searches is to use quote marks around your full name. For example, in my case, I would search on “Brad McGehee” (including the quote marks as you see here).

–Check out all of the web pages where you are mentioned and evaluate the content. Does it reflect you in a positive light, or negatively? In other words, if a hiring manager saw these same web pages, is there any content that could portray you in anything less than a positive way? While those photos of you partying with your buddies on Flickr might seem funny to you, they won’t impress most hiring managers. Or if you participate in unfriendly flame wars in forums or newsgroups, the same applies.

–If you find content that is negative, you have three major options:

1. In many cases, you are probably the source of the negative content (such as Facebook, MySpace, or Flickr pages), and because of this, you have control over the content and can clean it up.
2. Second, if you don’t have control over the content (for example, a friend has posted a photo of you drinking at a party), and you know the person who controls the content, ask them to remove it.
3. Third, if you can’t get the negative content removed, one option is to “remake” yourself on the Internet and hope that the negative content goes away. By this, I mean you want the negative content to sink so low in Internet search results that nobody will ever be able to find it. How do you do this? Start by creating new content, such as joining a professional social networking group, such as Plaxo or LinkedIn (assuming you haven’t done so already), contributing to professional forums (and using a signature tag so people can find the posts), writing a professional blog, writing articles for professional websites, and so on. In other words, add so much positive content to the Internet that it overwhelms any negative content that you don’t control.

In my next blog posting, I will offer some specific dos and don’ts when it comes to “acting professional” on the Internet.

PS: Ah, you maybe thinking, nobody can find out about my Internet antics because I use an “alias,” so nobody can find out who I really am. Forget that. Unless you are an expert at hiding your identify, using an “alias” doesn’t offer much protection. In fact, for the fun of it, I checked out the “aliases” of some of my acquaintances, and it wasn’t very difficult for me to find out who they really were. Or, you may tell me, “only my friends have access to my personal content, because I don’t make my profile on social networking sites public.” While this may help, remember that anything you put on the Internet is not protected. It is very easy for one of your friends to copy your “amusing” photo and publish on a non-protected web page. So don’t assume that the “superficial privacy” offered by most social network sites will be as effective as you might think. Once something is published on the Internet, privacy goes out the door.

In the past, I have suggested that less than professional content, that you or others post on the Internet about yourself, could have a negative effect on your career as a DBA. In this post, I offer suggestions on how to project a professional image on the Internet.

• • Do separate your professional life and personal life from one another on the Internet. For example, if you have a blog, don’t include both professional and personal posts. Instead, create two separate blogs. If you want to share personal content with friends and family, only do so on websites that offer some degree of security, and only allow friends and family to access it. But keep in mind that there is no such thing as absolute security and privacy on the Internet, so still don’t include content that you wouldn’t want your mother or a potential employer to ever see.
  • Do use your full name whenever you post professional content (forums, newsgroups, blogs, articles, etc.) on the Internet. You want people to be able to easily find you, and the best way to do this is to use your full name as your “personal brand.”
  • Don’t use a “cute, clever, or funny” alias (user name) to refer to yourself professionally. “SQLSanta,” or similar aliases, no matter how amusing, do not make a good impression.
  • Don’t post pictures or videos of yourself (or others) that depict anything that could be construed as anything less than professional.
  • Do post professionally-taken portraits so that others can see what you look like.
  • Don’t share links to URLs that include potentially offensive content.
  • Do create profiles at professional social networking websites, such as Plaxo.com, LinkedIn.com, SQLPass.org, Google Profiles, and similar websites, and keep them up-to-date. You want people to know about your knowledge and experience, and to be able to easily find you. You don’t want to miss out on a potentially lucrative job opportunity.
  • Do keep an updated resume on a job website, website, or professional blog if you are looking for a job.
  • Don’t keep a resume on a job website, website, or professional blog if you aren’t looking for a new job (otherwise you might be).
  • Don’t embellish the truth when completing professional profiles, biographies, or when creating resumes. The truth will always catch up with you.
  • Do help others by participating in professional forums, newsgroups, blogs, and other websites where you have the opportunity share your knowledge.
  • Do keep all forum or newsgroup postings professional, culturally sensitive, considerate, and helpful.
  • Don’t engage in forum or newsgroup flame wars.
  • Don’t use “adult” language anytime, anywhere.
  • Don’t disparage others. If you don’t like someone, ignore them instead.
  • Don’t write anything on the Internet that you don’t want your current employer to see. For example, don’t criticize or ridicule them, or share confidential information about your organization.
  • Do assume that anything you post on the Internet will be seen by everyone, and for a long time to come. Once you post content on the Internet, you loose control over it.

Yes, this list may be very conservative, but so are many hiring managers. If you want to maximize your future career opportunities, you want to project your best possible image.

If you have any suggestions for additions to this list, please offer them.

In this post, we examine the various ingredients that will help you establish a successful career as a DBA, and then contribute to your long-term career success.

• Formal Education – you don’t need a degree in database administration, but a solid computer technology background will help
• Getting Experience – getting experience as a new DBA can be tough, but it can be done
• Technical skills – sound knowledge of SQL Server is not enough on its own, the DBA needs to understand the underlying operating system and hardware, as well as the productivity tools that are available to them
• Soft Skills – the DBA needs to supplement sound technical skills with excellent teamwork, time management, writing skills, and more.

Where Does Formal Education Fit In?

I frequently get asked whether or not you need a formal degree to become a DBA. While having a formal degree is not mandatory for becoming a successful DBA, it is a great start. Let’s start this discussion talking about higher education opportunities.

Very few universities offer an Associates, Bachelors, or Masters degree in database administration. Those that do tend to be on-line schools, or technical schools, not the typical university most students attend. I believe the reason for the lack of database administration degrees in most schools is twofold. First, the market for database administrators is smaller than most other educational markets. Second, very few people come out of high (secondary) school wanting to become a database administrator. In a perfect world, a degree in database administration would be an ideal platform from which to embark on a DBA career. The reality is that there are few of these educational opportunities available.

Therefore, the most common approach people take to prepare for a career as a database administrator (either through foresight or dumb luck) is to get a degree in Computer Science or Management Information Systems, which includes database-specific courses. In fact, when many people attend a university to attain one of these degrees, they are not even aware that the career of DBA even exists, and first discover databases when taking database theory classes as part of their degree program. Such a degree provides a rounded education in computer technology and provides a great foundation for becoming a DBA.

The truth is that most people don’t go to college to become a database administrator, or even work in the technology field, so they get Bachelors degrees in other subjects, ranging anywhere from English to Business, or from Art to Math. It is not until after they enter the workforce that they realize they are interested in computer technology, or becoming a database professional.

Many people wind up as database administrators through a set of often-random circumstances. Many DBAs don’t have degrees in computer technology, and I am one of them. I have a Bachelors degree in both Economics and Business Administration, and a Masters Degree in Business Administration.

When I was getting my Bachelor degrees, personal computers were just becoming available. In fact, the original IBM PC became available about six months after I graduated. I bought one of the first IBM PCs and became captivated with the possibilities it offered. Shortly thereafter, I had the opportunity to become a computer salesperson and trainer (an odd combination indeed) at a newly opened computer store, one of the first computer stores opened in the United States. I got the job because I owned an IBM PC, which was a rare tool for most people to own at that time, and because I had taught some BASIC programming classes at a local community college.

From that first computer-related job, I began writing about computer technology, and have had a wide range of computer-related jobs over the years, ranging from application development, software support, network administration, full-time trainer, and finally database administrator. Virtually all of my computer training was self-taught, especially in the early days when computer instructors were rare. Later, I did take some week-long training classes, but most of my training was, and still is, self-taught.

While a bachelors degree in a non-computer technology field may not be as ideal a foundation as having a degree in a computer technology, it can still provide a rounded education that people can leverage to reach whatever goals that interest them. My degrees in Economics and Business Administration actually helped my computer career a lot. As I had a good understanding of accounting and how businesses worked, I was much better equipped to work in the real world than most newly minted programmers just coming out of college who had little or no experience in how businesses operated.

Now, let’s talk a little about what employers expect when it comes to formal education. Whether we agree or not, a Bachelors degree is becoming the minimum educational credential for most any type of professional job. Many companies won’t even consider someone for a job unless they have at least four years of higher education. It’s a fine line though: a two-year degree is generally not considered an adequate substitute for a four-year degree, but a Masters degree can often make a person seem to be over-educated for most jobs (unless the job specifically requires a Masters degree as the minimum educational requirement). This makes the standard four-year Bachelors degree the best route for most people. I only got my Master’s degree because I wanted to be able to teach at the college level, and this requires a Master’s degree at the very minimum.

If you look at job-wanted ads for database professionals, you will find that most employers want someone who has a four-year computer technology degree, or equivalent. In other words, they prefer someone who has a computer technology education, but they are willing to accept someone with any four-year degree if they meet the other skills and experience required by the position.

So, in order to have the best job opportunities open to you, as a DBA, you should have a four-year degree. A computer technology-related degree is preferred, but not essential. If you are starting out in your career, and want to become a database professional, the more closely aligned your education is to computer technology, the easier it will be to find related jobs.

How about those people who don’t have a four-year degree? Is it possible for them to become database professionals? Yes, but it is tougher. I know DBAs who have not attended a university, or perhaps attended for a while, but never attained a degree. These people often start with companies in a low-level computer technology job, such as working the help desk. Then, through self-study, on-the-job training, and experience, they eventually move into the DBA role.

Most of these individuals stay with a single company as they develop their skills. Once they have developed a lot of experience as a DBA, they can move to other companies, who are willing to waive the four-year degree minimum requirement in return for the hands-on experience that they offer. Of course, some companies won’t waive this requirement, and so certain job opportunities will remain closed to non-degree candidates.

Up until this point, we have been considering formal university training at the beginning of one’s career. What if you already have an IT career, but want to switch to become a database professional? For example, maybe you are a developer who wants to stop writing code and focus on database administration. How does formal education fit into this scenario? If you already have a computer technology-related degree, you are in good shape. All you need to is gain specific database-related skills and experience. If you have a non-technology-related degree, and you have lots of technology experience (say you have been a network administrator for three years or more), you are also in good shape for making the transition, if you attain the necessary DBA skills.

If you don’t have a technology-related degree, or technology-related work experience, then changing careers to become a database professional is more problematic. In this regard, it is as if you are starting from scratch. You might want to consider going back to school (part- or full-time) to get a degree in computer technology or database administration (where available). If you already have a degree, getting a second degree should be much faster.

While a good and relevant formal education is an excellent first step to becoming a successful DBA, it is just a start. Universities generally only cover database theory, not specific database skills. Because of this, you will need additional technical skills to pursue a DBA career. In the next section, we learn what those skills are, and how to attain them.

Getting Experience

In almost every job ad you see for a DBA, experience is required. So how do you get your first job as a DBA if you don’t have any experience as a DBA, and how can you get experience as a DBA if you can’t get a job as a DBA in the first place? Most new job seekers face this same dilemma, especially if they are looking for professional-caliber jobs. So what do you do?

One option is to apply for DBA jobs that don’t require experience. If you have training as a DBA, and have a degree or certification to verify your credentials, then some companies will hire you. DBAs are in such great demand now that some companies hire DBAs without experience. If the company is large, they may even offer a training program to get you started out right.

While getting hired without experience is great if you can find such a job, most DBA jobs require experience as a DBA. The fact is that most people who become new DBAs are promoted to that position from another position within the company they currently work for. In other words, they have been working for a company for some time in some computer-related position, have a good track record, and have expressed an interest in becoming a DBA. Oftentimes, if a company cannot find an experienced DBA to fill a position, they will recruit from within, and train the person for the job. That is what I did, along with many of the DBAs I know.

However, what if you are working for a company that doesn’t have a DBA position open? Or maybe the company is too small to need a full-time DBA. What do you do then? One option would be to identify any DBA-type work done within your current company and volunteer to do it as part of your regular job. This will start getting you hands-on DBA experience, even if it is only on a part-time basis. If your current job does not afford you the opportunity to gain any DBA experience, you may have to consider changing jobs, and finding a company where DBA opportunities exist. It is either this option, or trying to find a job that will hire a DBA without experience.

What if you can’t change jobs right now, and don’t have any opportunities to get any practical DBA experience? At this point, you are running out of options. You might contact non-profit organizations and volunteer your services, or you might attend a local SQL Server user’s group and ask the members for their suggestions on how you can get experience in your local area.

However you gain your DBA experience, you will find that it is the most important asset you can have.

Mastering DBA Technical Skills

Even if you were to graduate from a university with a Masters degree in database administration, you won’t be prepared for the day-to-day work as a DBA. Learning the practical side of being a DBA takes additional technical knowledge and a lot of practical experience. In this section, we take a broad look at the specific kinds of technical skills you need to become a DBA, along with suggestions on how to attain them.

Obtaining Specialized Database Skills

As we discussed earlier in the book, it is virtually impossible for anyone to know everything there is to know about databases. Because of this, I suggested that you specialize in an area that interests you. This might be DBA System Administration, DBA Database Designer, DBA Development, DBA Business Intelligence, among others.

The key to becoming a DBA is to select a specialty, and then master all the technical information related to it. For example, if you want to become a DBA System Administrator, you need to learn about how the database engine works, how to perform routine maintenance tasks, how to performance tune, how to troubleshoot problems, and so on. Pick whatever DBA specialty interests you, and make it a point to master it, inside and out. If you don’t know what specialty to pick, I recommend you start as a DBA System Administrator. As you begin to master these skills, you will also be learning about the other specialties, and you can always change specialties when the option arises.

Understanding Hardware

Not only are most DBAs expert in their chosen SQL Server specialty, they are also very knowledgeable about the physical computer hardware on which SQL Server runs. Getting the best performance and scalability out of SQL Server requires DBAs to know how to select the optimum hardware for their SQL Server. In addition, hardware skills are necessary for knowing how to best configure the hardware, along with how to diagnose and troubleshoot hardware-related problems. DBAs usually don’t depend on others to figure out problems with their servers.

Knowing the Operating System

Another critical component the DBA needs to understand is the operating system. It is fully intertwined with SQL Server and the physical hardware, and can’t be separated. The DBA needs to know how to install it, configure it, manage it, and troubleshoot it. Many problems that are associated with SQL Server are operating-system related, and the DBA needs to understand its intricacies in order to resolve them.

Mastering Tools

Whatever database specialty you choose, you will have both built-in and third-party tools available to help you do your job and be more productive. In my experience, many DBAs don’t take the time to learn how to master the tools available to them. This means they end up being less proficient and productive at their work.

Not only do most DBAs master all the tools included with SQL Server, they also learn about related third-party tools that can help him become more productive. This means they often are downloading new tools, and trying them out, seeing if they help them do a better job.

Adopting SQL Server Best Practices

In addition to the raw technical knowledge that a DBA requires, in order to know how to perform specific tasks with SQL Server, there is an additional layer of knowledge DBAs must know, and that is SQL Server Best Practices. As a DBA, you are often many faced with many different ways to perform the same task. Some of the options are better than others, especially if you factor in the requirements of a specific situation. Best Practices refers to the best way to perform a specific task, given the circumstances you are facing. For example, there are different ways to back up and restore databases. The best way to do this often depends on the situation.

Unfortunately, most SQL Server Best Practices have not been codified anywhere. Instead, you have to search them out from books, articles, and websites. In other cases, you have to learn them by trial and error. Many DBAs often develop their own set of Best Practices and use them in their day to day work, helping not only to bring consistency to their work, but also to help perform their job better and more efficiently.

How to Obtain DBA Technical Skills

As you can see, DBAs need to have a wide variety of technical skills. So how does the DBA attain them? It really comes down to time, both time for learning and time for gaining experience. As mentioned earlier, these are many technical skills required that you won’t generally learn from a university. Instead, they are skills that are acquired in many different ways. Most DBAs master technical skills by using one or more of the methods detailed below.

Most DBAs will probably use all of these training methods at one time or another. You may find that some are better suited to you than others. It really doesn’t make much difference which option you choose, as long as you take the time to learn. Mastering the technical skills to become a DBA is your responsibility. In other words, you have to design your own education program. Nobody is going to do it for you. You need to decide what you need to know to meet the educational needs of your DBA specialty, and decide how you are going to acquire those skills.

Formal Classroom Training

Formal classroom training is offered by corporate training companies, and some colleges and universities (usually non-credit), and is one of the fastest ways to master multiple technical skills, including SQL Server, hardware, and the operating system. Many of these classes are called certification classes because the assumption is that once you take the class then you should be ready to take the related certification test, assuming you want to become certified. While these can be expensive, they are an effective way to learn a lot of information very quickly, especially if the subject matter is new to you.

Seminars and Workshops

These are training sessions that last one day, or less, and focus on a very specific topic. Generally speaking, these are best for people who already have some background in the subject matter and are looking for more in-depth knowledge of a particular subject.

Conferences

Conferences encompass many different learning formats, including formal classroom training, half-day and one-day workshops, short (60-90 minute) seminars, hands-on training labs, and general sessions. They even offer opportunities to ask database experts specific questions about any topic you want to learn more about, on a one-on-one basis. If you are a new DBA, conferences can be a little overwhelming, but educational. In many cases, you will see experienced DBAs attending conferences not only to learn something new, but to network and make new connections.

On-Line Training

Learning over the Internet is becoming more and more common, but the cost and the quality of the learning varies substantially. In some cases, you can take free lessons that range from average to exceptional in quality, and in other cases you can pay a lot of money for mediocre to exceptional training. If you are paying a lot of money for on-line training, be sure you carefully check out the company first before you send them your money.

Self-Study Booking Learning

One of the most popular ways to master SQL Server technical skills is to read books. There are books on virtually every topic and at most every learning level. Books allow you to choose when you learn, but on the other hand, you have to be disciplined enough to take book learning seriously if you want to get the most out of your time.

Magazines and other Publications

There are few technical magazines or publications that focus on SQL Server, or databases for that matter. Of those that are available, they are most useful for keeping up with SQL Server news and third-party products, but they are not always the best way to learn new skills.

Websites, Blogs, News, RSS Feeds

By contrast, there are many different websites and blogs devoted to SQL Server. Unfortunately, the quality of the content varies widely, and much of it can be out of date. This means that you may have to spend a little extra time searching for SQL Server-related websites and articles that cover the specific material you want to master. Many DBAs consider this type of learning as “just-in-time” learning. In other words, if you need to learn a specific skill or task very quickly, then the Internet is often the quickest way to find the content and to learn it.

On the Job Training Opportunities

If you work for a larger organization, they may offer on-the-job learning opportunities, including formal instruction and mentoring. If you have these options available, you will want to take advantage of them.

Mastering DBA Soft Skills

If you want to become a successful DBA, not only do you need exceptional technical skills, you also need to master many soft skills. Yes, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that if you are a technical wiz, you don’t need soft skills. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Following is a description of the numerous types of soft skills that the DBAs should master.

People Skills

While this phrase may be overused, it is overused with much justification. While DBAs may find themselves working alone more than other professionals do, they still need to work with others. This includes talking with end-users, developers, IT professional, and managers. If you don’t get along well with others, you will severely reduce your chances of becoming a successful DBA, or even of having a long career as a DBA.

If you don’t naturally have people skills, learning them can be difficult, but you do have some options available to you. You might consider reading books on people skills, taking classes or seminars, or even individual counseling. While people skills may be hard to learn, learning them will pay off for your entire life.

Teamwork Skills

I consider teamwork skills a little different from people skills, although there is a lot of overlap. People skills are about getting along well with others. Teamwork skills are learning how to work well with others. Many times, you find yourself in a team of people that you did not pick, and would not pick if you had a choice. Teamwork skills are learning how to work effectively in a team, even if you don’t like each other!

As a part of a team, you might be the leader (also requiring leadership and project management skills), or you may be a contributor, who is assigned a task that needs to be completed. Whatever role you fall in, you need to participate and work together as a team to accomplish the task successfully and on schedule.

If you have difficulty with teamwork skills then, first, be sure you have good people skills. Once you have accomplished this, then focus on building teamwork skills. There are many books and seminars available on building and managing teams. In fact, your organization might even offer one in-house. If so, jump at the first opportunity at taking it.

Personal Time Management Skills

Most successful DBAs have more work than they have time to accomplish it. To get everything done, the DBA needs to be effective at managing his of her time. It is very easy to just sit back and have work come to you, pile up, with much of it never getting done. Instead, you must be proactive when managing your time. Keep a schedule and assign priorities to tasks so you can ensure that what has to get done gets done, on time, and successfully. Don’t be afraid to say no to new tasks if you don’t have the time to do them right.

If you have trouble managing your own time, start small by using a schedule, making appointments for yourself to ensure work gets done. Using Microsoft Outlook, or a similar tool, is a great way to track tasks, appointments, meetings, and other things you need to accomplish. If this doesn’t work for you, there are many books and seminars available on personal time management.

Project Management

If you want to be a successful DBA, you will find yourself managing many projects, from the smallest that take a single day and just yourself to complete, to those that make take a year and many people to complete. Project Management is like personal time management, but on a much larger scale. Depending on the complexity of the project, you may spend all of your time managing it instead of actually producing any work yourself.

Project management is a skill set most people don’t naturally have. It has to be learned through training and experience. It is much more than just learning how to use Microsoft Project and creating nice-looking PERT charts. It involves managing people and other resources over time to accomplish a specific goal. While you can buy books about project management, the best way to learn it is by taking formal classes or seminars on it. Once you have learned the basics, then it is usually trial by fire when you begin your first project. Hopefully, it will be a small project that will give you the experience you need before tackling large projects.

Leadership Skills

Leadership is a hard concept to define. Essentially, it is the ability to define an objective, to clearly communicate what the objective is and why it is important to others, and then to get other people to help you reach that objective.

When many people think about leadership, they think about politicians or corporate CEOs. While they need to have good leadership skills, so does the successful DBA. In many cases, the ability to be able to clearly define goals, communicate them to others, and then get others to work toward the common goal, is a valuable skill. Leadership can come into play in meetings, teams, or large projects. You don’t have to be a manager to be a leader.

Most people don’t consider themselves leadership material. However, in many cases that person is doing themselves an injustice. Everyone has the ability to define goals, communicate them, and get other people to help attain them. Essentially, it is a matter of planning and execution, sprinkled with a lot of people skills. While you can take leadership classes, the best way to learn leadership skills is to take on the responsibilities of a leader, and get hands-on experience.

Writing Skills

As much as you might dislike writing, it is a very important skill to learn. Virtually every day, you will find yourself communicating with others in writing, whether it be an e-mail, some documentation, or a formal report. Unfortunately, writing is a skill that is poorly taught by most schools, including universities. If you realize you don’t have the skills to be a good writer (grammar, punctuation, style), then you need to take it upon yourself to learn these. This is not easy, especially if your previous schooling has been weak. Your best option is to take formal writing classes to master these skills. While you can read books and take short seminars on writing, it is hard to learn how to write well unless you get regular feedback.

Once you have learned writing basics, the next step is to develop your skill by practicing. The more you write, the better you will become. Many DBAs who want to become better writers get experience by writing articles for websites and magazines. As a beginner, you may not get paid much, or not at all. Nevertheless, and more importantly, you will get the experience and feedback that will help make you a better writer, a better communicator, and a better DBA.

Speaking Skills

We all have heard that public speaking is the most feared of all human activities. I am not sure that I fully agree with this statement, but public speaking does not come naturally to many people. Learning public speaking skills is important for the successful DBA because you will find yourself doing it, whether you plan to or not. For example, you may have to present at a meeting, teach an in-house seminar, or even find yourself talking at a user’s group meeting. What most people don’t realize about speaking is that you have to plan it, you just can’t wing it.

Like writing, I feel that the best way to learn public speaking is by taking formal training classes and/or seminars. You might also want to join a speaking club, such as Toastmasters International. Once you have the fundamentals down, then you need to practice and practice. Start practicing at work. Then practice at presenting at organizations you belong to, and so on. Start small and work yourself up to speaking to larger and larger groups, and from short sessions to longer sessions.

Knowledge of Legal Responsibilities

As DBAs, we often find ourselves involved in fulfilling legal responsibilities, such as maintaining data privacy, or archiving data for legally defined periods of time. In order to carry out the legal responsibilities of the job, you have to know what your responsibilities are. Simply claiming to be ignorant of the law won’t work. In fact, it is possible to go to jail for failing to meet your legal obligations.

The difficulty is in finding out what those legal responsibilities are, as they vary from industry to industry, state to state, and country to country. Because you are not an attorney, and because your manager is not an attorney, it is important that you ask the upper management of your organization to specifically define what your legal responsibilities are.

Starting Honing Your Skills Today (and don’t stop)

As we have learned in this article, becoming a successful DBA is more than just knowing a lot about SQL Server. It includes knowing about hardware, the operating system, best practices, leadership, time management, communication skills, and much more. This may seem like a lot of material to master. And it is. Nobody can be expected to master all of this in a short time period. Instead, it is accomplished over time.

If you find that you come up short in some of these critical knowledge areas, start today by picking out one or two of them and start working on them, and work on them every day until you master them. Only through perseverance and hard work will you become a successful DBA.

Being a DBA is not a static career. It changes all the time. While the soft skills you need may not change over time, your technical skills will have to be constantly refreshed as hardware, the operating system, and SQL Server evolves over time.

The successful DBA is lifelong learner, and makes learning a regular part of his or her regular activities. Some DBAs make it a point to read books, magazines, or web-based content on a daily basis, while others prefer to attend formal training or conferences. It doesn’t matter how you continue your learning, as long as you keep it up on a regular basis.

In this blog entry, I’d like discuss and explore the characteristics that define an Exceptional DBA. Few DBAs will have all these characteristics, but the best DBAs will have most of them.

Enjoys Technology

If you are reading this blog entry, then I think I can reasonably assume that you already enjoy technology, a key trait of all Exceptional DBAs and IT professionals. The only reason I mention this obvious point is that I occasionally run into DBAs who actually don’t appear to enjoy working with technology. For example, at conferences I often sit at breakfast or lunch tables with attendees who I don’t know. I ask them about their job and why they are attending the conference. It is always a shock to hear somebody tell me that the only reason they are at the conference is because their boss made them attend. The only advice I can really offer these people is this: find yourself a new career.

Enjoys Challenge

A challenge is an ambiguous concept. That which presents a challenge to one person may be a slam-dunk to another. For example, writing a Transact-SQL script might be a daunting task to some DBAs, but for others, it is something they can almost do in their sleep.

Every DBA faces a different set of challenges in their daily work, and it is not necessarily the ability to respond immediately to a given technical challenge (for example, by dashing off a SQL script) that sets apart the Exceptional DBA. It is more their attitude toward challenges that makes the distinction.

Exceptional DBAs look at challenges as opportunities to learn something new; to do something different. They aren’t afraid of challenges, they look forward to them. In many ways, challenges are just a part of the normal routine of being a DBA.

Enjoys Problem Solving

Every day, DBAs solve problems. They may be as simple as determining why a backup failed, or as complex as creating a disaster recovery plan for a bank. The Exceptional DBA regards problems as a new challenge (see previous trait); a puzzle to solve. This is why they come to work, because each day is different and challenging. If they don’t have new problems to solve, they get bored. In other words, the Exceptional DBA enjoys the process of problem solving.

While Exceptional DBAs enjoy problem solving, they also realize the following important points:

1. Not every problem can be solved.
2. Some problems can be solved after time spent troubleshooting, but can wait.
3. Some problems can be solved after time spent troubleshooting, but need to be fixed now.

When cases of type 3 arise, the Exceptional DBA has no issue with asking for help. The Exceptional DBA is comfortable with the idea that they don’t know all the answers and that, if time is a problem, calling in help sooner rather than later is the best approach to take. This could mean posting a question on a forum, or calling Microsoft SQL Server Product Support, or whichever other route is open to them in order to find the answer the need, quickly.

Good with Details

For a DBA, the job is all about details. First, and foremost, the Exceptional DBA must have the detailed, in-depth technical skills they need to perform their daily work. There is no such thing as an “almost perfect” backup or a “fairly good” transaction. In most cases, something either works or it doesn’t, and the Exceptional DBA must be intimately familiar with the many and detailed steps required to perform their work.

Second, Exceptional DBAs must be very thorough and meticulous as they perform their work. For example, if a DBA want to set up security on his or her servers, to prevent any possibility of unauthorized access, they must carefully sort through the many possible ways security could be broached, and protect against each one.

Third, Exceptional DBAs need to be exhaustive and comprehensive when performing their work. For example, when creating a disaster recovery plan for an organization, the DBA must consider every possible disaster, determine how it might affect his or her servers, and develop a plan to minimize the consequences of the disaster occurring.

I am not sure that I would list “enjoying details” as a required characteristic of being an Exceptional DBA, but dealing effectively with details is critical.

Embraces Change

As ironic as it sounds, one of the only constants in the career of the Exceptional DBA, is change. While DBAs many not see change every day, changes big and small occur frequently, often with little or no warning. For example:

• A new SQL Server instance needs to be installed and configured.
• Another SQL Server needs its hardware upgraded.
• Patches have to be added to all SQL Server instances on a monthly basis.
• Your current manager quits and you have to “break in” a new one.
• A new ERP system is to be implemented in the company by the end of the year.
• Your company goes out of business and you lose your job.

Sometimes it can be fun, and other times disheartening, but the Exceptional DBA regards change as inevitable. Instead of fighting it, they embrace it, and do the best they can with what is given to them.

Enjoys Learning

If you don’t love to learn, there is no way you can keep up with the constant changes in database and related technology. While some general skills, such as problem solving, only have to be learned once; other skills, such as technology-specific skills, have to be relearned over and over again as technology changes and evolves over time. The only way to keep up is to become a lifelong learner. You need to take as much time as you can find to not only keep your current skills up to date, but also to add to your repertoire.

The Exceptional DBA realizes the need for constant learning and includes it as part of his or her schedule. For example, scheduling in time for learning a new SQL Server skill, reading a professional publication, checking out the latest SQL Server blogs, attending classes or user group meetings, or even attending national conferences, are all ways the Exceptional DBA can keep up.

For the Exceptional DBA, learning is a part of his or her lifestyle and job, not just something that has to be “squeezed in” only when necessary.

Accepts Responsibility

The Exceptional DBA accepts responsibility not only for their assigned tasks, but also for their actions. For example, if the DBA is responsible for safeguarding the data integrity of an organization, then the DBA will take all prudent steps required to see that the data is protected.

If that same DBA makes a mistake that causes some data corruption, then he should immediately stand up and admit to the mistake, and not try to minimize his involvement. Besides taking responsibility for their actions, the Exceptional DBA will also offer solutions to prevent the problem from happening again.

Maintains Professionalism

Professionalism on the job covers many different areas, but it really comes done to a single idea: respect for others and the organization you work for. Another way to look at professionalism is via the old adage: treat others as you would like them to treat you.

Trustworthy

As a DBA, you are often privy to many company secrets. You have access to data that could damage individuals, or your organization, should it be made public. This knowledge carries with it a heavy responsibility. From the organization’s point-of-view, it is your responsibility to protect it, insuring that only those who need access to the data have it. If the data is lawful then this is an easy responsibility to uphold. You just don’t share it with any person who is not authorized to know about it.

On the other hand, you are bound by legal responsibilities outside of your organization. Although rare, you may, on occasion, discover data about unlawful activities. This may require you to investigate the best options you have available, such as contacting an attorney, asking advice from a trusted friend, or even quitting your job if aren’t comfortable with the situation. You are not required to be a hero in these occasions, but you are expected to meet your legal obligations as a citizen.

Another aspect of being trustworthy is being honest. Just as you should be honest in your personal life, you also need to be honest in your work life. Yes, there can be justification for the occasional white lie (your boss’s new outfit really looks cool), but when it comes to substantial issues, honestly is the only option. If you are asked how long it will take for a particular project to be completed, offer your honest advice. Don’t tell the person what you think he wants to hear. If you are asked to do something you don’t want to do, don’t say you will, then not do it.

The Exceptional DBA needs to develop a reputation beyond reproach.

Dependable

Being dependable is much like being trustworthy. It is a sign of who you are and how you interact with others. Some examples include:

• You do what you say you are going to do. If something prevents you from doing what you said you would do, then you let the people involved know about it as soon as possible.
• You do what you are expected to do. If it is your responsibility, for example, to write a budget every fiscal year, then you perform that task as expected, and turn in the budget on time.
• You are punctual. You show up to work on time, and you show up to meetings on time.

Of course, not only do you do the tasks agreed to, and expected of you, but you do them well, and you complete your projects on time. The Exceptional DBA needs to have a least “four nines” dependability level, just as you expect your SQL Servers to have “four nines” up time, or more.

Can Work Well Independently or in a Team

As a DBA, you will often have the opportunity to work by yourself, and as part of a larger team. You need to be able to do both well if you want to be an Exceptional DBA.

The Exceptional DBA will encounter many times when he or she works alone. This could include writing scripts, monitoring server performance, troubleshooting problems, or writing documentation. The Exceptional DBA is able to work quietly, alone, without the need to constantly interact with others.

Conversely, the Exceptional DBA will often work as part of a team. This might be a team of production DBAs who oversee a large SQL Server farm, or maybe the production DBA is part of a development team, creating an in-house application. In these cases, there will need to be a lot of communication by everyone on the team in order for everything to run smoothly.

I would like to make a personal observation here. Many DBAs I know are…how can I say this politely… “independent” types. By being independent, I mean that they think they are smarter than most everyone else at their organization, and that only they know the best way to manage SQL Server, or to write SQL Server-based applications. While it is great to be a smart DBA, being a smart DBA does not make you an Exceptional DBA. By being independent, many DBAs sabotage their careers because they are not good team players.

Manages Time Well

The study of economics is all about learning how to find a balance between people who have unlimited needs and wants, and a physical world with only limited resources. The same can be said about the work of the DBA. Most organizations have a seemingly insatiable desire to assign DBAs (and all IT staff, for that matter) a huge amount of work. On the other hand, the DBA only has a limited amount of time, and physical resources, in which to produce the work. The result can be a state of constant conflict between the DBA and the rest of the organization.

This situation is further complicated by the many warring factions within an organization, each one feeling that their needs are more important than the needs of other factions. For example, one project may need the use of two DBAs for six months, and another project may need a DBA for three months. If the organization only has two full time DBAs for all production and development work, this presents a problem. Technically speaking, it is up to the DBA’s manager to find the right balance. However, in the real world, this often is not the case, and DBAs often ends up with more work that they can realistically accomplish.

There is no easy way to resolve this problem. Having a very understanding manager will help a lot, but the only real choice for the DBA is to be as efficient as he or she can be, making the most of the available time and resources.

The Exceptional DBA realizes that he or she can only offer a finite amount of work in a given amount of time. To maximize the work-to-time ratio, the Exceptional DBA carefully manages time, focusing on what is important and ignoring what is unimportant. He or she also looks for every possible way to extend their capacity to work, by making full use of productivity tools.

Can Communicate Effectively, Both Orally and Verbally

Whether you like it or not, DBAs must be effective communicators. Unfortunately, the art of good communication is not taught in most schools, and many DBAs find themselves in uncomfortable positions because of their lack of communication skills. Here are some examples of where good communications skills are needed by the DBA:

• Making a PowerPoint presentation at a group meeting.
• Convincing your manager that a SQL Server needs more RAM.
• Writing hardware specifications for a new SQL Server.
• As a DBA consultant, making a sales presentation to a potential client.
• Writing a proposal to purchase a third-party tool to administer your SQL Servers.
• Documenting SQL Server development best practices for use by developers.
• Writing a disaster recovery document.
• Creating and writing a budget proposal.
• Teaching an in-house class to other DBAs or developers.
• Speaking at a conference or user’s group meeting.
• Sharing information in a public forum.
• Writing a SQL Server or personal blog.
• Writing articles for SQL Server community website and publications.
• Writing a resume.

While a typical DBA may not participate in all of the activities above, the Exceptional DBA often participates in all of them, and more. Becoming an effective communicator is one of the secrets of becoming an Exceptional DBA. After all, if you can’t communicate how good you are to others, how can you ever be recognized as an Exceptional DBA?

Listens Well

An important part of becoming a good communicator is being a good listener. Many people confuse “hearing” with “listening.” To listen well means not only to hear what the person is saying, but also to understand what the person is saying, and why they are saying it.

The Exceptional DBA knows that what people say is not always what they really mean. By asking follow-up questions, or at least by repeating what the other person said to verify that they heard the person correctly, the DBA can better understand what the person needs, and take appropriate action. Keep in mind that not everyone is a good communicator, and that you may often have to help others communicate with you.

Realistic

I have seen this over and over again in my career. A new DBA starts with a company, all gung-ho about making his or her mark. He offers lots of ideas and advice, but nobody really listens, and he eventually becomes discouraged. Either he ends up quitting and finding different work, or staying and ending up like Wally, the cynical engineer in the Dilbert comic strip.

In another case, I know of a DBA who expected everybody to do things his way. When this did not work out for him, he blamed the organization and his co-workers. As far as he was concerned, everyone else was the root cause of his problems and he became a complainer and whiner, and nobody wanted to work with him.

DBAs must have realistic expectations about their job, and they must come to grips with the reality that no job will meet all of their expectations. Not even self-employment will necessarily meet 100% of one’s expectations. Every job has its good and bad points. The Exceptional DBA understands this and accepts it. When things don’t work out as planned, the Exceptional DBA learns from the situation and moves on. I don’t mean moving to another job, but moving on with their job and life, and not letting small problems become big problems.

Of course, there will be cases when a job is so bad that you have no choice but to leave, but this is rare, assuming you had realistic expectations in the first place. If you find that you are bouncing from one job to another, you may want to reevaluate your job expectations, and try to make them a little more realistic.

Flexible

Being flexible in your approach to your job is also being realistic about your job. In other words, the job of the DBA changes over time, and you have to be flexible and be willing to change as the job changes.

Flexibility is important on a day-to-day basis, as well as when dealing with the “bigger” changes. For example, when you came to work today, you had planned on writing some needed documentation, but instead you find out that you needed to help a developer tune a poorly-performing query. Or maybe you had planned on installing a new SQL Server, but a blocking problem started that you needed to investigate right away, because users are complaining about not getting their work done. In other words, the Exceptional DBA realizes that things change, and that he or she has to adapt to the situation at hand.

Patient

It takes a half hour for the new service pack to install. It takes six minutes to reboot the server. The query takes 16 minutes to run before it finishes. It takes an hour to explain to a new developer the organization’s best practices for writing stored procedures. The backup takes four hours to complete.

The DBA is often faced with one request after another, often in a rapid-fire sort of way. On the other hand, many DBA’s tasks take time, lots of time, wasted time. Sometimes the waiting can be used to perform other tasks, and other times it can’t. However you look at it, DBAs end up spending a lot of time waiting for something to happen before they can proceed with their next task.

The Exceptional DBA learns to be a patient person, to expect that tasks will take longer than they had hoped. Moreover, they build this into their schedules, as they are realistic and know that waiting is just a part of the job of the DBA. Exceptional DBAs also take this time to relax, to find a little quiet time out of an often-turbulent day.

Enthusiastic

All of the Exceptional DBAs I know have a passion for their jobs as DBAs. The really enjoy their work, and it is a big part of their lives. The reasons they are passionate vary widely. It may be because they enjoy technology, or because they feel they are providing a worthwhile service in the marketplace. It may be that they like to share their knowledge with others, or like to be creative in their work. It may be because they work for a great organization or have great co-workers. Each Exceptional DBA has their own reasons why they enjoy their work, making it hard to describe all of them here.

Not only does enthusiasm help a DBA become an Exceptional DBA, being an Exceptional DBA helps fuel even more enthusiasm. This is a positive feedback loop than can contribute to a very rewarding, lifelong career.

Self-Confident

While self-confidence helps the Exceptional DBA reach his or her goals, self-confidence is also the reward that the Exceptional DBA receives for a job well done. If you are seeking to become an Exceptional DBA, you need to start out with clear, simple goals. Once you have attained these, you can set yourself additional, more difficult goals. If you proceed slowly like this, you will begin to develop more confidence in your abilities. Moreover, the more self-confidence you gain, the easier it will be for you to continue on your path to becoming an Exceptional DBA.

Summary

So what do you think? Do these characteristics accurately describe the Exceptional DBA? Have I left any important characteristics out? Please post your thoughts below.

While you may not think of it this way, the impression you create on other people within your organization significantly affects your success as an IT Professional. In other words, how the people you work with view you as a person can make all the difference between you being an average IT Professional and being a successful IT Professional.

I’ve worked with IT Professionals of wide-ranging ability and attitude. I’ve worked with people who always show up to work on time, don’t mind staying late if they have to, constantly work hard to keep up with the ever-changing world of technology, and always follow through with whatever they promise to do. Conversely, I’ve also worked with IT Professionals who come to work late, create a big scene if they have to stay late, know more about DOS than anyone else in the company, and can’t be depended upon to follow-through with tasks that are assigned to them.

Which of these two types of IT Professionals would you prefer to work with? Which of these IT Professionals has the potential to be a successful IT Professional? In this case, the answer is obvious. Most people, however, fall within these two extremes of behavior, standing out neither as an outstanding IT Professional, nor as an IT Professional you’d cross the building to avoid. In this article, we will explore some of the habits and attitudes that will help you develop a good reputation wherever you work, and move you towards the “outstanding and successful IT Professional” end of the scale.

Developing Your Brand Within Your Own Organization

If you want to succeed as an IT Professional, then you need the help of others. One of the best ways to get this help is to create a positive, personal image (brand, if you will) within your organization. People tend to be drawn to “positive” people and to want to help them. This is, in my opinion, one of the most important things you can learn if you want to be successful in your career.

In other words, if you want to be an outstanding IT Professional, you need to manage your internal brand in such a way as to present yourself in the best possible light. This does not mean faking characteristics in order to manipulate people. It does mean working hard, being honest and realistic about what you can and can’t achieve, and generally adopting habits and attitudes that will help you work well with other people, and make them willing to help you.

So, how do you set about achieving this? The following advice is designed to get you focused on some of the things you can do differently in order to improve your own personal brand within your organization.

Focus on Business Goals

How many times have you heard something like the following, from a co-worker?

“Why did management cut our budget? We don’t even have enough resources now to do our job.”

I have heard similar comments from co-workers at virtually every job I have ever had. When a decision, such as a budget cut, affects you directly, it is natural to accuse upper management of not knowing what they are doing. Of course, if they had any clue about what was going on, they would increase your budget instead of reducing it, right?

In some cases, your assumption may be right. Upper management doesn’t always make the right decisions. On the other hand, if all managers were stupid, then most businesses would fail and the economy would sink. However, this is not the case. Many businesses adapt successfully to changing market conditions, even if it means that difficult and unpopular decisions need to be made along the way. Over the long term, these businesses continue to thrive, producing more profits, adding more jobs, and generally helping the economy.

So what’s my point? My point is that, as an IT Professional, you might not be privy to all the reasons why your organization’s leaders make the decisions they make. For example, maybe the reason they are cutting your budget is to prevent layoffs. Alternatively, it may allow dollars to be freed up that can be invested in a new market that may be more profitable than your organization’s current market. In other words, what you may perceive as a foolish decision may actually be a great decision.

What does this mean to you? As an IT Professional, your focus should be on understanding the true business goals of your organization, and helping it meet them. It is too easy to focus only on what you think the organization should be doing, or on the goals that are most attractive from your own team’s point of view.

If you are facing a budget cut, don’t complain or whine to others. Instead, focus on how you can get the most out of the budget you do have. If you are not clear on your organization’s business goals, or why they have changed, then ask for an explanation. If you can build a very strong case that not cutting the budget is better for the organization than cutting, then by all means make it. Just because you agree to focus your efforts on helping your organization achieve its overall business goals, it doesn’t mean you are a “yes” person.

There are exceptions to this advice of course. If you find you work for a company of foolish managers, then I would suggest you start looking for a new job now, as the odds of the organization surviving long term are not great.

Be a Leader, Take the Initiative

Many organizations are leadership wastelands. Nobody wants to take the lead or make critical decisions. Nobody wants to stand out, be a little different and move out of their comfort zone. People often avoid taking the initiative, either because they are scared of failure, or because it might involve too much work, or because they think that their peers may think of them as some sort of company suck-up. For these reasons, and others, many people actively avoid doing anything other than what they are told to do.

I admit that I have painted a pretty terrible picture. How would any organization ever grow and succeed if everyone felt this way? Fortunately, the picture is not quite as bleak as I’ve suggested and, in fact, should be seen as an opportunity for the you to excel, by taking the initiative, and being a leader.

You don’t have to become a manager to be a leader. You can be a leader in many different ways. Consider the following examples:

• On starting a new job, you discover that all the disaster recovery-planning documents are out of date. You immediately volunteer to get them in shape.
• No formal complaint has been made, but several users have been grumbling about the slow performance of a particular application. You take the initiative to investigate further so that the problem can be identified and corrected, before it becomes a serious issue.
• Your company is thinking about purchasing some new management software that could make your team more productive. You volunteer to evaluate the software and write up a recommendation.
• Your boss mentions a new project that is coming down the pipe, and asks for ideas on how to implement it. Rather than leave it to others, you make time to do some thinking, and research, and at the next meeting you offer your advice and suggestions.

A key element of good leadership is not waiting until you are asked. If you identify an area where you can help your organization, or help others in your organization, then take the initiative and do it. All too often, people see opportunities to help out, but don’t do so because they figure someone else will eventually fulfill the need, so why should they.

Volunteer for Hard or Undesirable Tasks

Whenever I start a new job, I take some time to figure out what jobs or tasks are critical to the success of the organization and, make sure I’m prepared for them. At the same time, however, I also identify those tasks that nobody else seems to want to do, and volunteer to do them myself.

I’ve found that this philosophy can provide many benefits. The most obvious is that your manager and co-workers get to see right away that you are a team player and that you don’t mind getting your hands dirty, and working hard. If you perform your work well, then people quickly learn that you can be depended upon.

Volunteering for the less popular jobs is also a good way to learn the inner workings of an organization. The more you know about how an organization works, the more you can contribute to it, and the more beneficial you become to the organization.

A less obvious benefit is that if you master undesirable tasks, along with the critical ones, then you often become the only one who can perform these tasks. This can make you invaluable to your organization, and can pay off in the long run. For example, you will unlikely be the first to leave during a lay off, and it can mean bigger raises each year.

Have a “Get It Done” Attitude

As an IT Professional, you will be faced with many problems that need to be resolved. Never avoid problems and hope they will go away; they won’t. The successful IT Professional regards problems as challenges that need to be resolved now, not later. Likewise, they will never complain about a task assigned to him or her, or try to get out of it. The outstanding IT Professional simply gets the task done as quickly and as effectively as possible.

Don’t Spread Blame

In most organizations, many IT projects don’t get completed successfully, and on time. The causes of this can be many:

• Management had the wrong expectations for the project
• Not enough resources were provided
• The time line was unrealistic
• The team was not properly trained
• The project leader was incompetent

Who knows for sure? In many cases, it is probably some combination of actions or inactions that contributed toward the failure. When situations like this arise, many people start blaming others. Not only does blame not contribute to making the project a success, it can also seed long-lasting bad feeling among many different people in the company. The outstanding IT Professional realizes that spreading blame never helps, and does his or her best to make the project a success.

Accept Responsibility

There is no such thing as a perfect person. Everyone makes mistakes. The difference between average IT Professionals and successful IT Professionals is that successful IT Professionals accept that he or she is not always right, and sometimes makes mistakes. When you make a mistake, don’t try to cover it up or blame others. Acknowledge it immediately and do whatever it takes to resolve it.

Help Others Be Successful

One maxim for success, both as an IT Professional, and in life generally, is this: “If you want people to help you get what you want, then you have to help other people get what they want.” I am not talking about bribing people, or even trading favors. The successful IT Professional likes to share his or her knowledge and experience, and one of the best ways to do this is to help others. When help is offered, it should done willingly, with no implication that it is a “favor,” and no expectation of a return.

If you follow the policy of helping others when they need it, you will often find out that you will get many unexpected rewards. You never know who your next manager might be, and it might be the person you helped last week.

Avoid Office Politics

Many people allow themselves to be drawn inexorably in to the mystery and intrigue of office politics. Unfortunately, it is also a great way to make enemies and cause unnecessary division within an organization.

The outstanding IT Professional keeps his or her ears open but, other than that, doesn’t participate in the office politics game. Sharing misinformation, rumors, or even false facts, is a recipe for disaster.

Downplay the Geek Factor

Let’s face it, many IT Professionals are geeks. Some take pride in their geekiness, constantly reminding others of their geek status. Other geeks don’t even admit they are geeks, but unknowingly spread their geekiness wherever they go. And then there are the geeks who know they are geeks, but try to avoid demonstrating the worse examples of geekiness. In other words, they try to fit in with non-geeks.

Geekiness doesn’t really affect how one performs the technical side of one’s job, but it can have negative consequences for the “people side” of the job. Unfortunately, geeks have been stereotyped with mostly negative characteristics, such as not being people-persons, not being able to talk in a language non-geeks can understand, and for boasting about their technical knowledge.

This perception of geeks may or may not be well-founded, but it exists regardless. Whether we accept this fact or not, most people like people who are like themselves. If you are the only geek in an organization of non-geeks, it can be a rough ride.

Use Correct E-Mail Etiquette

In our high-speed, high-tech world, we are becoming more and more reliant on e-mail to communicate with others. This may not necessarily be a bad thing, but there are special considerations to using e-mail communication that don’t necessarily apply to verbal, or more-formal written communications. For example:

• It is almost impossible to stop an email after you hit send, though most of us have probably wished we could at one time or another. For example, you are a little upset with your manager, or a co-worker, and you dash off a less than polite e-mail. After clicking the send button, you realize that perhaps you did not take the proper amount of time to carefully consider what you wrote, and its implications. Unfortunately, getting the e-mail back may not be possible. One collogue I work with has step up a rule in Outlook that keeps all outgoing e-mails in his outbox for five minutes before it is actually sent, just in case he has a change of heart after pressing send. If you have a tendency to firing off hasty e-mails, perhaps you should consider adding such a rule to your mail client.
• Once an e-mail has been sent, you lose control of its content. It can be forwarded to anyone, and sent anywhere. You probably don’t want your honest assessment of a junior team member shared with others in your organization. Be careful of what you send, and to who.
• If you are not careful, when selecting the “Send To” address for an e-mail, you might end up sending the wrong e-mail to the wrong person. I know one person who was looking for a new job, and sent a cover letter and resume to his current boss by mistake.
• Many people get in the habit of using e-mail for non-business purposes, such as sending jokes or photos to co-workers. This has gotten many people into unexpected trouble.

The successful IT Professional is aware of the advantages of disadvantages of using e-mail to communicate. An Internet search on “e-mail etiquette” will provide many suggestions for improving your e-mail communications.

Participate in Meetings

Whether we like it or not, we all get many invitations to meetings. In some cases, it will be as a participant, other times as a presenter, and other times as the meeting chairperson. Whichever role you play, take it seriously. As a participant, the successful IT Professional listens carefully, asks questions, and provides careful feedback. As a presenter, the successful IT Professional doesn’t wing the presentation, instead preparing for it and, if appropriate, practicing it before hand. As the meeting chairperson, the successful IT Professional only calls meetings that are beneficial for all attendees, starts the meeting on time, ends the meeting on time, uses an agenda to guide the course of the meeting, and takes notes to document any important decisions made in the meeting.

Make Presentations

Many IT professionals are called upon to make presentations. They may be for company meetings, for training sessions, user groups meetings, or even speaking at industry conferences. Before making a presentation, the outstanding IT Professional determines who the audience is, determines what the audience would like to learn from the presentation, outlines and develops the presentation, and practices the presentation before giving it to the audience.

Take Advantage of Learning Opportunities

Many organizations offer a wealth of training opportunities to their employees, covering both technical and soft skills training. This training may be conducted on-site by company trainers, or by contract trainers; it may involve attending a training center, it might be Internet-based, or it might include attending a conference. Successful IT Professionals take advantage of all the training opportunities that are available. There is no such thing as an over-trained person.

Be Internationally/Culturally Sensitive

The IT community is made up of many different people who come from many different countries and cultures. While there may be a few IT Professionals who “don’t fully embrace diversity,” most do. IT Professionals, no matter where they work, come from many different places, each bringing their unique knowledge and experience to the profession. This often requires cultural sensitivity and “bending over backward” to fully understand someone with a different upbringing than your own. While cultural differences may occasionally be the causes for differences of opinions, they are more often a great way to learn more about each other and the world.

You Can’t Be All Things to All People

There is no such thing as a perfect person, so there is no such thing as a perfect IT Professional. No matter who you are, or what you are, there will always be someone who doesn’t like you. This is a fact of life. All we can do is to do the best we can with what we have been given.

Although we are not perfect, we can still go a long way to getting along well with others by managing our own brand within our organization. If you haven’t already done so, take some time to figure out how your co-workers perceive you. You may discover that you get along well with everyone, or you may discover that you display some characteristics that some people perceive as less than ideal.

If you are not perceived the way you would like, then consider trying one or more of the suggestion in this article to help change how other’s perceive you. It might take time, but making the effort to manage your own brand, and taking the necessary time to allow changes to take effect, can be very rewarding to your career. It can make all the difference between being an average IT Professional, and an outstanding and successful IT Professional.

In previous blog entries, I have talked about the importance of managing your online brand. One important part of this is participation in social networking websites. If you are not yet familiar with the term, social networking refers to websites that are designed to make it easy for people to share information about themselves, and at the same time, connect with others who have similar interests.

Social network websites come in many different forms to meet the diverse needs of their members. According to Wikipedia, the 10 most popular social networking websites are:

• MySpace
• Facebook
• Windows Live Spaces
• Habbo
• hi5
• Orkut
• Friendster
• Flixster
• Classmates.com
• Bebo

While you may be familiar with some of these social networking websites, many of them may be new to you. This is because many of these top 10 sites are popular in countries other than the United States.

While social network websites can be fun and bring people with similar interests together, what role do they play for DBAs? While this list is not all inclusive, some of the benefits for DBAs joining social networking websites include:

• Finding and connecting with DBAs locally who you didn’t know exist. This may be a way to find out how many DBAs are in your local area so that you can get together and perhaps start a local user’s group.
• Connect with DBAs throughout the world who share common interests. For example, if you are into SSIS packages, perhaps you might want to find other DBAs who find SSIS packages as fascinating as you do.
• To keep up with your DBA friends, no matter where they are.
• To make it easy for people to find and connect with you. This can be very important if you are a consultant or are looking for a new job.
• To promote yourself and manage your online brand. Many social network websites are in effect mini-websites you can share with others who you are and what you know.

As you might imagine, some social networking websites are more applicable to DBAs than others, especially if you want to use them for self-promotion or for business-related relationships. In a recent poll on SQLServerCentral.com, DBAs were asked what social networking websites they belong to. The top 6 results included:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Del.icio.us
• Plaxo

As you can see, there is not a lot of overlap between the list of the top 10 most popular social networking websites on the Internet and the top 6 used by DBAs who visit SQLServerCentral.com. I think this is because most DBAs, who do participate in social network websites, choose those that are more business-oriented, not the ones that are more social-orientated.

Personally, there are three social networking websites that I use extensively, all of which happen to be in the top 6 list above. They include LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Twitter. I want to share a little about each of these website, and why I use them.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social networking website dedicated to developing professional relationships, and currently has over 25 million members. Basic membership is free, and allows you to create a profile (essentially a resume) that can be shared with the public, and also allows you to link with others who you have some direct relationship with, such as a friend or business acquaintance. LinkinIn can be used to find new clients, service providers, subject matter experts, business opportunities, connect with industry insiders, ask questions, find a new job, find a job candidate for a new position, and much more. In addition, if you use the free Xobni add-in to Microsoft Outlook, Xobni can display information from LinkedIn profiles as part of your contacts list.

I use LinkedIn because it allows you to identify new contacts from your currently existing contacts. For example, I currently have 213 direct connections in LinkedIn. This are people who I have some sort of direct relationship. But because each of my direct connections have connections of their own, I am one connection away from about 25,000 other people, and two connections away from over 2 million people. So if I want to make a contact with someone who I am not directly connected with, all I have to do is to contact one of my direct connections and ask them if they would introduce me to the person who I want to meet, and so on. This allows me access to a huge number of people with an almost infinite variety of knowledge and interests.

You can see my LinkedIn profile at:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/bradmcgehee

Plaxo

Plaxo started out as a service to help you automatically update your Outlook contacts list. For example, if a contact in my Outlook contacts list is also a Plaxo member, then if they change their contact information, then Plaxo (through an Outlook add-in) automatically update the information in my Outlook contact list. More recently, it has morphed into a business social networking website that offers many other features besides just keeping track of your contact’s address and other contact information. I use Plaxo mainly for its automatic contact update feature, but I also use it for my resume (similar to LinkedIn). It is just another way that people can find me.

You can see my Plaxo profile at:

http://Brad_McGehee.myplaxo.com

Twitter

Twitter is a somewhat odd social networking website. Essentially, it is a mini-blog that allows you to enter short (up to 140 characters) entries about what you are doing. Many people use it like a public diary, sharing their daily activities. Personally, I use it to promote myself, such as when I have blogged, written a new article, or spoken at a users group. As a Twitter member, you have the ability to follow others, and others can follow you. In other words, you develop a network of people who you are interested in and want to follow, and others who want to follow you.

You can see my Twitter feed at:

http://twitter.com/bradmcgehee

Should You Join a Social Networking Website?

Is social networking something you should do as a DBA? If you aren’t interested in promoting yourself or developing online contacts, or if you don’t have enough time to actively engage in social networking, then not participating won’t hurt your DBA career.

On the other hand, if you want to promote yourself and develop new contacts, and you have the time to participate, then do so. It’s a great way to not only stay in contact with your current network of friends, it is a great way to expand that network.

If you decide to participate, the hardest part is deciding which social networking websites best meet your needs. This will depend on you, and your interests. I suggest you check out multiple social networking websites and see what they have to offer. Start with one, and if you enjoy it, then expand and join several others. Each social networking website has its own pros and cons, and the more you join and engage in, the greater your ability to manage your on-line brand.