This months subject for T-SQL Tuesday was Your first technical job. I have to say I really really enjoyed reading everyone’s stories and it in a lot of ways made me feel closer to all of you. Thanks for participating!
And of course, if I forgot someone please let me know so I can get them added!
- Rob Farley (blog|twitter): My first technical job.
After a quick reminder that any personal information can give you hints about that person’s passwords (good reminder), Rob mentions that he has a background in mathematics. Interestingly my son is a math major and a co-worker of mine (also named Ken) is as well. And Rob’s first job was with a professor at his university. - David Alcock (blog|twitter): Your first technical job.
David’s first job was database related. I’m somewhat expecting that to be unusual but I guess we will see as we go along. He also points out that jobs tend to be mixed bags. Some good, some bad. It’s pretty unusual to have a job (or anything else in life really) go all one way or the other. - Kevin Chant (blog|twitter): Two interviews at once.
Kevin’s first job wasn’t actually the one he applied for. I’ve heard of this kind of thing happening before but it’s pretty unusual. Someone at the company actually takes the time to read your resume (or CV) and decides you would be a good fit for this other job and asks you to interview for that. Or in this case interview for both jobs. - Olivier Van Steenlandt (blog|twitter): My first technical job.
This is Olivier’s second entry into T-SQL Tuesday! Thanks for joining us Olivier! And yet another database related job right at the start. I find it interesting that he started with Cloudera, mostly because I remember when Hadoop first came out. (And I now feel very old.) - Deborah Melkin (blog|twitter): My first technical job.
I really enjoyed Deborah’s story. In a weird sort of way it reminded me of my start. Hey, you understand this stuff! Can we make you responsible for this part of it? And how about that part. And all of a sudden you’re in a training class and off you go. - Andy Yun (blog|twitter): My first tech job.
Andy shows how a positive experience can really make a difference. And that your first job isn’t necessarily your first 9-5. His story reminds me of how I used to help my Spanish teacher out with the grades (no I didn’t cheat). She was terrible at math and knew I was really good at it so I did the averages for her. - Kevin Hill (blog|twitter): My first technical job.
First let me say Kevin, you’re both. And starting with Access is really not that unusual IMO. Access, for all we make fun of it a lot is a great tool for processing small amounts of data, or as a front end to a larger database. - Aaron Bertrand (blog|twitter): My First Technical Job.
I got two important things out of Aaron’s story. First, he tends to excel. Second if I ever have a gambling question I’m going to him. - Greg Moore (blog|twitter): T-SQL Tuesday
Greg tells a great story of a college job program where actually got a job related to his classes where he was able to apply what he’d been learning to a real world situation. I love this story, particularly since my son is currently in college. I’ll have suggest he see if they have something similar where he’s going. - Taiob Ali (blog|twitter): Is that a Tech Job?
Taiob started out on a ship? That is so cool! I mean I know there is a lot of technology on ships these days so it’s probably not all that unusual, but it’s still really cool! - Me (blog|twitter): My Job Managing a calling list.
In which I learned that either, senior management is as prone to making colossally stupid mistakes as the rest of us, or they really don’t understand IT and the people that work in it. After many more jobs I’m kind of inclined to say both. - Tracy Boggiano (blog|twitter): My first technical job.
It sounds like Tracy’s first job was at once horrible, and really productive. I tend to agree with her though, no job is worth your mental health. If the atmosphere is that toxic just get out. - Dale Hirt (blog|twitter): My first technical job.
Poor Dale tried to avoid tech, but it drew him in anyway. I loved reading about how he got his first job though. It reminds me of how I ended up with one of my truly formative jobs. A friend told the manager I’d be good for the job, and the manager trusted him. Funny how all of that networking works out sometimes. - Hugo Kornelis (blog|twitter): My first technical job.
It turns out Hugo’s first technical job was a lucky break for his mandatory government service. Aren’t software upgrades fun? At least the sales people were technically correct.
- Glenn Berry (blog|twitter): My first technical job.
Glenn’s first job was at Taco Bell, one of my son’s staples now that he’s at college. He shares a fantastic piece of advice, which is to pay attention to your end users. And that applies whether you are a developer, DBA, or really anyone in IT. - Mikey Bronowski (blog|twitter): My first technical job.
A man after my own heart, Mikey fell in love with databases right off. He started with a small company, and I have to say, those types of experiences can be a real career maker. Of course they can also be terrible experiences fortunately it sounds like Mikey’s was one of the good ones. - Shane O’Neill (blog|twitter): Your First Technical Job.
Shane talks about preconceived notions. I.e. what he expected his life guard job to be like, and what he expected his DBA job to be like. And I love the comparison of a DBA to a movie usher. And of course he finishes with the age old answer. It depends. - Allen White (blog|twitter): The Start of my Technical Career.
Wow this brought back some memories. One of my early part time jobs was managing a bunch of greenbar printers that printed out thousands of pages of reports a day, frequently on multi part paper. Which then had to be run through a separator. I never did deal with punch cards. Just missed that pleasure. - Damien Jones (blog|twitter): My First Technical Job.
Damien worked his way up to an Application Support position. Honestly, it sounds a lot like my current job. - Malathi Mahadevan (blog|twitter): My first technical job.
Mala tells another story of a great job for starting a career, but a miserable one for her health. I find it interesting that she started with dBase since that is the precursor to the language I stared with, Foxpro. - Deepthi Goguri (blog|twitter): My First “Why am I even here?” Job.
I suggested my topic thinking I would get a lot of accidental DBA stories. Deepthi is the first accidental developer story I’ve ever heard. Thank goodness, in the end, she was able to get the DBA job she wanted. - Andy Levy (blog|twitter): Your First Technical Job.
From climbing on cranes, to scanning in drawings (and cleaning them up, because that was absolutely necessary back then), then “Excel. Lots and lots of Excel.” and finally Access. That’s one heck of a progression and introduction to IT! - Eitan Blumin (blog|twitter): My First Tech Job.
Eitan talks about his time learning ASP3 as a hobby and then using that in the real world. In the end technology moved on and he moved on to databases. He also mentions doing database work during his mandatory service and an early job selling magazines. - Guy Glantser (blog|twitter): My First Technical Job.
Guy specifically asked not to work with databases. We can all see how well that worked out for him. On the other hand if you need an inventory system built from scratch Guy’s your man. - Steve Jones (blog|twitter): My First Technical Job.
Steve decided to tell us about an early job helping a neighbor with his companies new estimation and inventory program. I have to admit I love stories about getting started with a one off job like this. It’s kind of cool how the things you learn at these types of jobs can shape your career. - Chad Callihan (blog|twitter): My First Technical Job.
I honestly think Chad’s first tech job was one of the best you can possibly have. A broad variety of IT related tasks, dealing with customers and a broad variety of their problems, etc. I think this kind of wide base of skills has to be fantastic for any type of future tech career. - Josh Smith (blog|twitter): Your First Technical Job.
Ahh 1999. What a great TV show. And a pretty good year for making money in IT. Of course, Josh was working as a stage manager, which sounds kind of fun honestly. Thinking about it more, I kind of wonder about how similar stage manager and project manager are. Both sound pretty similar to cat wrangler.
Thank goodness, in the end, she was able to get the DBA job she wanted.