Afraid of Help
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The breadth and depth of today's IT world causes a lot of people to be doing work for which they are barely qualified. I'm a BI consultant and I deal with a lot of companies where the IT staff seems out of place. On some projects, a junior web page developer can be assigned as the enterprise middleware developer, a sharepoint guy is doing ETL, and the Business Analyst is doing data modeling. Needless to say, the job is poorly done. In companies like this, these problems are exacerbated by management believing IT work is interchangeable and that people can easily be moved from one area to another, so a network admin can write code and a junior developer can administer a database.
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/carlosbossy
Blog - http://www.carlosbossy.com
Follow me - @carlosbossy -
Well speaking for myself, I usally post questions when I am having a 'D'OH' moment. You know, one of those where you cannot see the woods for the trees, you have been going round in circles for hours, just having a bad hair day and any other metaphors you can think of.
It is nice to have a friend point you in the right direction.
Madame Artois
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"To know is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge."
Confucius
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Yes, it's called laziness, instead of rolling up their sleeves and doing the needed research. Google is a wonderful thing if people would just use it first before posting. It would cut questions on the forum in half. I see it all the time, particularly from female DBA's. Im' not saying that all of them are like this (so don't call me a sexist please), because there are some sharp female DBA's out there like Gail for example. But I do see this alot from that gender in our profession.
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
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Personally, I find that just plain wrong. Its like falling off an ocean liner into the sea and having the rescue guy shout down to you "Mr. Jones!!! Write me a check and I will throw you a life jacket!"
The one of the joys of being an amphibian is life jacket may not be needed, the same goes with software skills of the user is very relevant.
:Whistling:
😉
Kind regards,
Gift Peddie -
Like LONER in an earlier posting, I had to wear so many hats in an earlier consulting career that it got to be too much. One person can not KNOW everything. Once you realize that, you can find an area in which you can become the expert and kinda/sort of limit your knowledge base to that area.
So if presented with a task that I have no experience with, I go to my library of books, or BOL, or a Help file first, then go to Google or another search engine to see if someone else has resolved the problem. I try not to post on forums until I have exhausted all my local resources. I don't like to post online because I find it a challenge to solve my own issues.
However, there comes a time when the task has a challenging time frame and you have no idea of how to proceed. Get over it and ask for help. {Maybe your manager gave you this problem just to see how you would handle it...} If no one in your shop has the experience required, then Google it, call your local IT management group, or a friend in another shop and see if they can direct you to someone with the experience to give you some helpful pointers.
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Ability to do maintenance or small feature extension work in Microsoft Visual Basic 2003 and VB .?NET 2005.?
· Intermediate-level Microsoft .?NET user interface experience (Web Forms or ASP .?NET)
That position is well defined if Winform or Asp.net is removed when you want Oracle, SQL Server and Informix you cannot ask for both platforms when you are doing services and integration. And VS2003 is so obsolete who knows if you can still find a copy without MSDN account.
To blame the DBA's, developers, and users for the failings of the product is rather rude. I'm willing to help people when I can because I know there are parts of SQL Server that are lacking, and I'd hope someone would be willing to help me if I fall into one of those traps that I wasn't familliar with.
I think we SQL Server users from ANSI SQL put pressure on Microsoft about ANSI SQL compliance so the docs are sometimes confusing, that said SQL Server remains the easiest of all the RDBMS because I can get to work with most RDBMS.
Kind regards,
Gift Peddie -
Whenever I've been 'way out of my league and have asked management to bring in a consultant, I've gotten the, "Are you SURE you want us to bring someone else in?"
Meaning, "Are you SURE you want us to replace you?" Same goes for training. If I want it, I have to pay for it and take time off from work to attend it.
Awesome.
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nelsonj-902869 (10/15/2009)
So if presented with a task that I have no experience with, I go to my library of books, or BOL, or a Help file first, then go to Google or another search engine to see if someone else has resolved the problem. I try not to post on forums until I have exhausted all my local resources. I don't like to post online because I find it a challenge to solve my own issues.Actually, we're lucky enough to have a premiere account with Microsoft but for these types of questions I use her as a last resort. I consider posting here still to be in DIY mode. Here's my normal order of places to look: 1. BOL, 2. search here on SqlServerCentral.com, 3. search on Google or MS and as someone else said get 20 unrelated responses :w00t:, 4. post a question here, 5. reach out to MS rep. Of course our rep cost $ or credits and it's better to be in the habit of finding something yourself; at least as a start.
Ken
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I generally don't have a problem asking for help or being asked for it. Happens all the time. We're a cooperative species that does best when individuals specialize and civilizations generalize.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
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Someguy (10/15/2009)
The Gambler had it right - "You've got to know when to hold - know when to fold. Know when to walk away - know when to run!"Great quote, I wish I'd have thought to use it.
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Asking for help shouldn't be a problem. If management expects that you always have the answer, then you are working in a ticking time bomb. At some point you'll have an issue that you can't solve and get fired.
However if you always ask for help first, then perhaps you are not qualified for the position.
It's a balance. You should be able to do most of your job, but there are always places that you will need help at some point.
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Shouldn't we be "thanking" Microsoft and the management folks who listen to Microsoft?
I constantly hear folks at Microsoft addressing SQL Server and the tools towards the application developers. Microsoft believes that application developers can program the applications and SQL Server objects. They even go so far as telling the audience who they believe are primarily application developers and management types how to manage SQL Server. This is so that the smaller companies can have one person/team to do the application development and manage SQL Server. Those are the companies that have the most issues from what I keep reading and hearing.
Unless Microsoft changes their mindset and how they present their products this will do nothing but continue to spiral. Application developers, management folks and DBA's are different audiences that require specific knowledge.
Corporate changes are needed as well. Have a solid SDLC that are made "public" to the folks who need it the most in their every day life at work. When application developers, management folks and DBA's are on the same page or even similar then everyone benefits. Without a SDLC made available to all you have nothing but mayhem.
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reclark-579786 (10/15/2009)
Have a solid SDLC that are made "public" to the folks who need it the most in their every day life at work. When application developers, management folks and DBA's are on the same page or even similar then everyone benefits. Without a SDLC made available to all you have nothing but mayhem.Sounds great on paper but not real world unfortunately. Some people thrive on mayhem, particularly when it comes to their own job security. I know this does not benefit the whole, but it is the way a lot of people are operating in the IT industry right now. Particularly, with the way the job market is right now. It is dog-eat-dog out there, and a lot of people are just not sharing their knowledge with everyone in the shop for fear of losing their job to a person they might share it with. There is the ideal world, and then there is the real world. Enough said..
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
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talltop-969015 (10/15/2009)
reclark-579786 (10/15/2009)
Have a solid SDLC that are made "public" to the folks who need it the most in their every day life at work. When application developers, management folks and DBA's are on the same page or even similar then everyone benefits. Without a SDLC made available to all you have nothing but mayhem.Sounds great on paper but not real world unfortunately. Some people thrive on mayhem, particularly when it comes to their own job security. I know this does not benefit the whole, but it is the way a lot of people are operating in the IT industry right now. Particularly, with the way the job market is right now. It is dog-eat-dog out there, and a lot of people are just not sharing their knowledge with everyone in the shop for fear of losing their job to a person they might share it with. There is the ideal world, and then there is the real world. Enough said..
If I ever have to defend my job by withholding information/knowledge from a co-worker, or anything similar to that, I'll find another employer, or start my own business or something.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
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