Steve Jones and Grant Fritchey have emerged from their hide-out in the Cheyenne Mountains to hunt for their next DBA Team adventure. There’s one difference this time: for their special Christmas episode, they’re looking for the worst day in the life of anyone who works with SQL Server databases. The best worst day. A day when someone nearly (or did) lose their job, their reputation, perhaps even their sanity. And It could be you. Fame as well as fortune awaits …

Steve and Grant aren’t looking for car chases, explosions and armies of evil goons dressed in crumpled black suits and dark glasses. They’ll be adding those themselves to spice up the story. Instead they want you to think of your worst day ever and then tell them about it by 23 September.

Along with a mystery guest, they’ll be judging the entries and will choose the top five, any of which could be the Christmas special episode in their latest series, ‘The 5 worst days in a DBA’s life’. The public will then be given the chance to vote on their favorite best worst day.

And then? Then the real fun starts. Steve and Grant will return to their nuclear bunker to add a little artistic license, a few villains, and probably a car chase to the story. Don’t worry: if you’re the winner, you’ll be in there too, maybe with the addition of a cowboy hat.

 The Christmas special story will then appear at the beginning of December to entertain developers and DBAs everywhere over the festive season.

Let’s talk fame and fortune

The fame bit is easy. If your real-life story is the best worst day out there, you’ll be named and pictured alongside Steve and Grant. Earning you kudos and a certain amount of notoriety amongst your peers.

But let’s not forget the prizes. You’ll also be presented with a ticket to attend SQL Cruise 2015 and a Red Gate SQL DBA Bundle.

The former will give you the opportunity to learn more, increase your value to your company, network with your peers and get top-tier training from leaders in the SQL Community, while enjoying once-in-a-lifetime scenery and experiences.

The latter will give you seven essential tools that support your core SQL Server database administration tasks. From backup and recovery to performance monitoring through to storage and capacity planning, you’ll be doing it smarter, faster, and more efficiently.

There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain

The Best Worst Day competition is open to anyone who works with SQL Server databases, and you have until 23 September to tell Steve and Grant your story. If you took part in the Worst Day as a DBA Story competition in April, you’ll be entered automatically and we’ll confirm with you by email.

So what are you waiting for? Steve and Grant are eager to get back to their bunker. Tell them your story soon. The worse it is, the happier they’ll be.