I’m excited to announce that I’m joining the evangelist team at Redgate. Starting next Monday, I’ll be working with Steve Jones, Grant Fritchey, and Kathi Kellenberger — plus the whole Redgate team.
Why take on a “real job”?
The last time I had a manager and a normal paycheck was back in the spring of 2011. Since then, I’ve had company co-founders, or I’ve been doing my own thing, solo.
When you go out on your own, it can be uncomfortable being your own boss at first: you have no-one to blame but yourself when things go wrong, or if you end up working weekends. But after a while, you get pretty comfortable with it, like anything else. If you keep at it, you’ll likely end up thinking, “I couldn’t ever go back.”
But after 7 years, I started asking myself: is this really the best way for me to work? Or is it just what I’m used to right now? After all, I’ve had great managers in the past, and I know that a great manager can be challenging, supportive, and very valuable.
I also had a feeling: I missed being part of a team that makes software that changes how people work. Back when I first started out working with data, I worked for a software company with about 150 employees, and I got to be part of the transition from waterfall development to releasing code multiple times per day. Eventually, I worked for Microsoft. I loved the feeling of being part of a team that shipped software. And increasingly, I’ve missed that.
When I found out that Redgate was hiring an evangelist, I asked myself: is this something you’d love to do for ten years or more? The more I learned about the job, the team, and the company, the more I realized that the answer was 100% “YES!”
Why ten years?
I’ve learned a lot about myself at this point in my career. I very much enjoy working and learning. I know some folks would spend their whole life on a sailboat, playing video games, or gardening, if they could, but I’m not that person.
I’m not saying that I’ll never retire, but at this particular time and place, I am really looking forward to the next decade or two of work: right now is such an interesting time to work with data! So much is changing with artificial intelligence, cloud technologies, and even international policies: I’m incredibly excited to see what we can do with building software and managing data over this time period. I think Redgate will be an amazing place to be part of these changes.
Why Redgate? Values matter
I remember being young, and not paying much attention to a company’s values statement (if they even had one). That has really changed for me.
When I visited Redgate headquarters in Cambridge to interview for the position, I was curious if people would embody the company’s values. Here’s a quick overview if you don’t feel like clicking through:
- We’re reasonable
- We’re ingeniously simple
- Transparency helps us continually improve
- We do our best work in teams
- When our customers succeed, so do we
- Don’t be an asshole
I saw those values in play all around the office on my visit. And I also had a lot of fun working through the interview process — which is something I don’t remember from past interviews in my life, particularly.
I took this job because I want to live those values, and I think Redgate is a great place to do it.
Why Redgate? Technology matters, too
I’ve been a fan of Redgate’s tools since I first fell in love with SQL Prompt, years ago (ctrl+k ctrl+y for format, fave shortcut forever). And the SQL Compare tools saved the day many times from the point I was a young DBA.
But it’s not the individual software pieces that drew me. Instead, it’s Redgate’s focus in recent years on improving the entire devops experience with SQL Server. Not only was that a brilliant move, but they’ve been working towards that vision very consistently, developing products to make development and deployment faster and safer.
I’m really impressed by that vision and consistency, and I’m so excited to join in.
What about SQL Workbooks?
SQLWorkbooks.com is doing great — and it’s going to keep on going. The 50+ hours of online content I’ve created there aren’t going anywhere, and monthly SQLChallenges will continue. Change is a good thing, too: wouldn’t it be fun to have guest instructors for some SQLChallenges? 
I’m so excited about what’s coming – I can’t wait to start learning, contributing, and creating content with Redgate. Great things are coming soon.