Conflicted as how to move forward

  • I just keep my resume updated on Dice.com, even when I am working fulltime at a place I like.

    Getting the phone calls and emails helps to keep me informed on what competitive salaries are for Sr SQL Server DBAs.

    If you have 10 years of experience then the range around Seattle/Bellevue/Redmond is about $100,000 to $110,000 for base salary.

    Although I had one recruiter mention $125,000 this week. But it is a company that I know has high churn.

    But I saved the email with that number. I might show it to my Director at the next review. 😀

    Market adjustment ?

  • Thank you James, that is very valuable information! Everyone seems to be so nervous talking salaries these days.

    I have 7 years experience and am close to that, so I guess I feel good being in the 'range' :-D.

    I don't believe I have put a resume on Dice in like 4 years though, I think I will post one there soon 😉

    Link to my blog http://notyelf.com/

  • I had a boss that would "kill or die" for his staff and he got strong loyalty and people busted their butts for him. I also had a boss that for a long time was more interested in who to blame than getting a resolution to the problem. He didn't have anywhere near the loyalty and other groups didn't want to work with him.

    I absolutely agree that if you have a problem then make your boss aware, then when people ask him about it he can say we are working on it already, instead of we'll get right on that.

    And sending you boss' boss an email, thats usually a last resort, it is rarely received well. You might have a conversation with that person if you have been friends for a while, good friends. Otherwise you might as well be looking for another job.

    CEWII

  • Elliott Whitlow (10/20/2011)

    And sending you boss' boss an email, thats usually a last resort, it is rarely received well. You might have a conversation with that person if you have been friends for a while, good friends. Otherwise you might as well be looking for another job.

    CEWII

    It really depends on the culture and size of the company.

    I would not even hesitate to send an email to my director and the CIO of the company about an issue.

    Of course, this company only has 150 people in it and I go to lunch every day with the director.

    We both play World of Warcraft and Rift. Good crowd. 😀

  • JamesMorrison (10/21/2011)


    Elliott Whitlow (10/20/2011)

    And sending you boss' boss an email, thats usually a last resort, it is rarely received well. You might have a conversation with that person if you have been friends for a while, good friends. Otherwise you might as well be looking for another job.

    CEWII

    It really depends on the culture and size of the company.

    I would not even hesitate to send an email to my director and the CIO of the company about an issue.

    Of course, this company only has 150 people in it and I go to lunch every day with the director.

    We both play World of Warcraft and Rift. Good crowd. 😀

    So your director falls into the "good friend" exception I listed. Even the I would still tread lightly, I might make it a private "off the record" conversation because I would be willing to be your boss wouldn't like being circumvented, regardless of culture.

    CEWII

  • James, my company is the same size 🙂

    Though I don't have the same relationship with my director :). I guess I should clarify that the ONLY reason I would consider going to my boss' boss is because my boss is new and only has been here 3 months. My level of confidence in their ability is in question and I felt it may be necessary to bring this to light. I have decided against that now, as now that I have calmed down I don't feel we have reached that point :).

    Link to my blog http://notyelf.com/

  • Elliott Whitlow (10/21/2011)

    So your director falls into the "good friend" exception I listed. Even the I would still tread lightly, I might make it a private "off the record" conversation because I would be willing to be your boss wouldn't like being circumvented, regardless of culture.

    CEWII

    I likely wouldn't see the OP's scenario in the first place. It just doesn't happen here.

    That is the culture.

    Certain corporate cultures look to CYA and assign blame. Others just look to fix the problem. There was one situation here where a SQL developer caused some serious bad data to get into our production system. It literally took over a month to figure out a resolution and get the data cleaned up. He was sure he would be fired when it was over. He thought he was only being kept around because he knew the most about it. Instead they gave him some extra vacation time and made it clear that he learned a lot and is more valuable than ever.

  • JamesMorrison (10/21/2011)


    Elliott Whitlow (10/21/2011)

    So your director falls into the "good friend" exception I listed. Even the I would still tread lightly, I might make it a private "off the record" conversation because I would be willing to be your boss wouldn't like being circumvented, regardless of culture.

    CEWII

    I likely wouldn't see the OP's scenario in the first place. It just doesn't happen here.

    That is the culture.

    Certain corporate cultures look to CYA and assign blame. Others just look to fix the problem. There was one situation here where a SQL developer caused some serious bad data to get into our production system. It literally took over a month to figure out a resolution and get the data cleaned up. He was sure he would be fired when it was over. He thought he was only being kept around because he knew the most about it. Instead they gave him some extra vacation time and made it clear that he learned a lot and is more valuable than ever.

    I have seen some bad things introduced into production by development, most often due to poor testing. However, sometimes things do happen and you simply can't test every edge case. In some environments that dev would be toast, I don't agree with that in general, everyone makes mistakes, there are some cases where it would be appropriate but I'm giving benefit of the doubt here. The best way for the dev to handle those situations is to "own it", there was an error, it was my fault, and let me help fix it. A developer who roundly refused to admit it could possibly be his code even when the evidence clearly shows it was, is of no use to me, I don't see him as teachable. No matter where we are in our careers we still have things to learn, I've been doing MSSQL since the mid 90's and programming since the early 80's and I still have plenty to learn. I worked for a company that wasn't to rough but it never hurt to write a memo about things just to be sure there was a trail, this office had a total of about 15 people. One day I had a request to configure a piece of hardware a specific way, about a week or two later the requestor came to me and said I had done it wrong. Ok, it could happen, but then what he described as wrong was different than what he requested and I had the request to show him that. He relented with what he was describing was what he really wanted. And that was fine, no problem, but don't come at me and say I did it wrong when I didn't, that was where he got into trouble. I reconfigured it and all were happy. And he never did that again.

    While this situation may not play out this way at your work it is VERY common in the corporate world and discretion as they say, is the better part of valor.

    CEWII

  • Elliott Whitlow (10/21/2011)


    . . . The best way for the dev to handle those situations is to "own it", there was an error, it was my fault, and let me help fix it. . . .

    Absolutely. Everyone screws up here and there; if you do not have any screw-ups, you probably do not push too hard. So owning to it and explaining that it just slipped through the crack due to your high workload is a good thing.

  • Revenant (10/21/2011)


    Elliott Whitlow (10/21/2011)


    . . . The best way for the dev to handle those situations is to "own it", there was an error, it was my fault, and let me help fix it. . . .

    Absolutely. Everyone screws up here and there; if you do not have any screw-ups, you probably do not push too hard. So owning to it and explaining that it just slipped through the crack due to your high workload is a good thing.

    And something I learned a long time ago, when things are going well with no real problems, we, as humans, don't really learn anything, at least not that is retained. But when its raining destruction around us we learn a LOT and we REMEMBER what we learned.

    CEWII

  • Such a true statement Elliot 🙂

    Thanks again for the advice everyone, it was truly helpful and appreciated.

    Link to my blog http://notyelf.com/

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