I was talking with a friend recently about some of their co-workers. In this case, they were complaining that another person couldn't do some tasks that my friend considered relatively easy things. Deal with an unusual restore situation, write some PowerShell to reconfigure servers, build somewhat complex (to them) queries, etc. Things that my friend thinks most database people should be able to do after a year of experience.

However, my friend questioned whether they were evaluating co-workers appropriately. How can one tell? I might be able to tell if a coworker is better or worse at a task, but what's my frame of reference and my experience. I might think them not capable at things I do well. At the same time, I can be wowed by someone with more experience with a technology I don't know well, such as Azure Data Factory, but not really be able to judge if they're average or an expert.

I suspect most people think they're good at their jobs, or at least competent. They think they are earning their salary, and they likely are. However, that doesn't mean they are better than the average SQL developer (or DBA or C# dev, etc.). That's a different standard, and while most people in surveys think they are better than average, that's not how averages work. Half of us are below the average.

It can be hard to determine where you might relate to others in a skill level. I think this is one reason why we struggle to interview and hire well. It's just hard to determine what a senior person should do, and in a short Q&A period, we can't often determine if a candidate can do all the things we might ask them to do later. I think many people get good at a small number of things their organization asks them to do, but often aren't well rounded outside of those boundaries.

The people I've known in any business who excel are those who are always learning and improving themselves. Whether they're technologists, doctors, or chefs, they are looking to get better at their existing skills and regularly add new ones. That's a good outlook for life in general, and I would hope many of you adopt that attitude.