Community.

In the SQL Server community, we are basically one big #sqlfamily.  This is a story of how the family helped one individual and one of the main reasons I am involved, to begin with.

Meet Jerad.

In happenstance, both our children attend the same school.  He happened to recognize me at a meeting at the school one evening.  Well, he thought that I was the DBA with a Bat (my Twitter persona) and it turns out he was right.  Of course, I didn’t have my bat at the time, so there is that.

At that meeting, he took a chance.  He reached out and said “Hey, aren’t you the DBA with a Bat guy?  Hi, I’m Jerad.”  Turns out, he recognized me from the Louisville SQL Server/Power BI User Group.

Of course, after that, we got to chatting as most nerds do.  This lead to a couple of lunches.  Our chats eventually lead to Jerad telling me he wanted to really move into IT and away from the business side.  Turns out, at the time, Jerad was a business analyst for a large organization here in Louisville, Kentucky.  He had skills in SQL Server as he wrote a number of ETL processes along with reporting and data analysis.  He attended user groups when he could.

That’s all it took.

Over the course of the following weeks, I introduced Jerad to Mallory, a local recruiter for TEKSystems.  Mallory and her employer are both highly engaged with our local SQL Server presence.  They quite often sponsor user group meetings as well as our annual SQL Saturday events.  I knew that Mallory could help him get into a role that better suited his long-term goals for his career.

I also trusted Mallory.  I knew that if I sent Jerad to her, she would take care of him as best as possible.

She didn’t disappoint.  Over the course of a couple of weeks, Jerad accepted a new position with a smaller organization here in town, moving his career down the path that he wanted.

Could have Jerad done this on his own? Absolutely.

Did I get the job for Jerad? Not even close.  He is the one that did the work with the interview process and eventually getting hired.   I just opened the right doors for him.  He deserves all of the credit here.

The point of this?  Get involved in your local community.  Regardless of the discipline of choice, get involved.  There isn’t a local presence? Start one. Need help with that?  Ask me.  I’ll help if I can.  Even if it isn’t SQL Server related.

Here’s a question to ask yourself: What opportunities are you missing by not being involved?

Get out there.  Go to your local user group.  Attend meetings.  Talk to people.

If nothing else, meet someone and say “Hi, I’m [insert_name_here]”.

After all, that’s what Jerad did.  Look at where he is at now.

My final question.

What are you waiting for?

PS – If you want to talk to Jerad about his experience, follow him on Twitter.  He’s good people.  Mallory too.

© 2018, John Morehouse. All rights reserved.