February 12, 2015 at 8:06 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Closer to the Heart
February 13, 2015 at 12:29 am
...data? That's what you DBAs do right? I am just an interloper!!! 😛
I would like to work for a software development tools company in order to attempt to improve things. I know that these companies do try (whilst turning a profit, of course) but I think that there are more radical opportunities. This is because they view the development process as being performed by people with the technical skill levels that these software development tools companies hire although it is well known that they demand the "cream of the crop".
A lot of people don't have the same time, education or abilities as the top 5% and I think this viewpoint is missing.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
February 13, 2015 at 1:36 am
I'd like to work on the data and databases feeding the handicapping system for sailing. Clubs return race times for all the different types of boats and these are analysed to produce recommended handicaps for each type.
As the official handicap list is issued around March 1st we're about to get sailing forums full of "why has my handicap changed?" and "X is a handicap bandit boat" 🙂
February 13, 2015 at 1:50 am
I've also worked as a DBA across a range of industries - Local Government, software vendor, charity, manufacturing, finance - and my experience tallies with yours, as far as the job is concerned the industry sector doesn't make huge amount of difference (certainly nothing like as much difference as individual company culture).
I think the kind of data that would make me more likely to want to get involved on the report writing side as an excuse to examine the data in detail would be social type data - the kind of thing a polling organization or the census department of government would have access to. To be more UK specific, having access to the Office of National Statistics databases would be very interesting.
February 13, 2015 at 2:11 am
Working for Pandora would be interesting. Seeing how their music genome software works and what sort of database(s) are involved with that. The most interesting data I have worked with has been marketing data. Seeing how census information is tied to marketing data to tell what potential consumers might buy for different clients in different demographics and such. That sort of data works really well in BI dashboards and often has some interesting insights.
February 13, 2015 at 3:07 am
RP1966 (2/13/2015)
...industry sector doesn't make huge amount of difference (certainly nothing like as much difference as individual company culture)...
Definitely agree with that.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
February 13, 2015 at 5:58 am
Steve, you read my mind. I work in healthcare right now and if I had the chance to work for an NFL team or any sports team that I think would be some very interesting data to examine and see how they use it from day to day.
February 13, 2015 at 6:17 am
Hi Steve,
I already work there.
Recently, I joined a group called Acupera based in San Francisco, but working out of the Cary, NC office. Acupera works in Healthcare in a new space I find fascinating. Rather than focusing on the encounters like most EMR systems, this one uses patent pending technology where we have allowed Physicians to write medical workflows for at risk patients. This way, care providers can see tasks of what they should do for patients, not just read stats and reports.
My interest is to work on some of the hardest problems worth solving and I would like to do that while working with winners. So far, they give me that, with harder problems yet on the horizon.
John
February 13, 2015 at 6:44 am
I have worked in several industries mostlt as a developer but sometimes in a dual role developer/DBA situation (accidental DBA). I have been in the environmental lab industry, supply chain, internet research, asset maintenance & reliability and briefly touched other industries while contracting.
I have always found the work I did in the environmental laboratory industry to be the most interesting. I spent time developing and managing LIMS functionality, integrating with instrumentation and building calculation algorithms with languages that made it challenging. There is so much data in this field coming from instrumentation or manual entry and being reported in numerous different ways that things never got boring.
If I had an opportunity I would strongly consider working for MLB or the New York Yankees. The issue is the commute to NYC from western New Haven county in Connecticut. I did it briefly for the job in internet research, but just did not like it. I would definitely consider sucking it up for a job with one those two organizations but once reality sets in, who knows. A strong third choice would be ESPN in Bristol.
February 13, 2015 at 6:44 am
I have had the opportunity to work for a professional sports team in the Philadelphia area. It was a great time and it is a shining star on my resume. When I initially arrived, we were behind the technology curve by a few years. There was a single developer and they did not have a DBA (this should have worried me more than it did). Over the course of seven seasons, we grew our technology base, built new systems and increased our IT staffing. Analysts were brought in to aid in scouting and contract negotiations. For this sports team, there is a committee that governs the technology that can be used during games. That committee is now embracing more technology and that is changing IT landscape there.
February 13, 2015 at 6:56 am
I actually applied for a DBA position with a company in a field that I would really love to be a part of. Even got a call back, although it was a "we appreciate your interest, but we're going in a different direction and no longer have a need for that position" call.
The field? Space, the final frontier...
The company? SpaceX out in Hawthorne, CA.
I'd love to work for (ideally down at the Cape, rather than someplace boring like Washington DC) NASA. That's the sort of thing I really geek out on. Pushing the boundaries of knowledge. Yes, I'm a starry-eyed space nut, I admit it.
February 13, 2015 at 7:59 am
I used to work for McGraw Hill School Systems (long-since bought out). I loved knowing that my efforts ultimately were affecting kids' lives. Now I work for a financial services company and it definitely doesn't bring the same rewards to my soul (but the company & culture are great, which is why I stay).
February 13, 2015 at 7:59 am
Being a cycling nut I had a dream, and still hold to it: work with a bike/accessory manufacturer or distributor, doing deep analysis of market potential -- adding in surveys, census, info from interest groups, streams from blogs & discussion groups -- layer that on top of sales info, see what new markets and product possibilities pop up.
Then best of all, getting to play with whatever new lines come out of that.
My dream took a hit after interviewing with the only place in town like that & finding pay as way under market, next known opportunity is in another state. But I can still dream...maybe someday...
February 13, 2015 at 8:08 am
Supercolliders like CERN. I found a technical presentation on the Internet a few years ago on how they were addressing their data challenges: capturing vast amounts of burst-type data by using filtering strategies and commodity hardware as I recall (this was around 2002 I think). I wonder if it has changed much? I also imagine it would be a great experience. It's pretty depressing how they aren't any big projects that capture people imaginations. My grandparents generation had the Manhattan Project, my parents the Apollo Program and me? I don't know what I get. Somebody want to tell me? Uninspired and questionable leadership?
February 13, 2015 at 8:26 am
I worked in manufacturing for a while and I really enjoyed that industry.
I was doing app dev and DB dev. I loved every chance to get onto the factory floor (even though it was always loud, usually hot, typically smelled funny, and I had to attempt to keep very long hair contained in a network of hair nets) because I couldn't get enough of watching those machines work. I don't know how else to explain it, but I just love watching the machines.
While some of my work was collecting, selecting and transforming data from the machines on the floor (serial ports! what else?) to the corporate database for reporting, I had several projects in which my database and app code actually made things move on the floor. I'm still excited that I was involved with robot forklifts! My code was deployed in actual factories making actual stuff. It felt so much more real than other things I've done. There wasn't just a web site or a report system or whatever that we really hoped people would use (it didn't always happen).
There was a ton of travel with manufacturing and computer technology was years behind. IT support in the "engineering domain" of the factory floor was non-existent, which was good and bad. Good: nobody to tell you how to do your work. Bad: no IT support when you really need it. In a nutshell, that's how I ended up at an Office Max buying a retail copy of Office 2007 during the installation of a pallet building system.
I'm currently in the financial industry, which I do enjoy for the complex rules (I get bored if work isn't intellectually challenging and FINRA keeps helping me out) and the hard facts. The data is well-defined (in theory) and not subject to some management committee's interpretation of what it means today (again, in theory).
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