Best. Luncheon. EVAR.

I just finished up moderating this year’s Women in Technology panel here at SQLRally, and it was fantastic.  SQLSentry sponsored (thanks!), and our panelists were SQL notables Erin Welker (@sqlbigirl), Jen Stirrup (@jenstirrup), and Wes Brown (@SQLServerIO)*.

The topic was absolutely brilliant: Negotiation. The abstract:

Whether you are searching for a new job or simply needing to relocate your desk, you need the right tools to make your request effective. Come hear how our Women in Technology (WIT) panel of experts have tackled these issues, and learn how you can give yourself the best opportunity to negotiate for what you want.

 Man, did they deliver. Among the points discussed…

When negotiating, presentation is key

• You can be too polite. You can polite yourself right out of big raises.  (Ask. What’s the worst that can happen?)
• We universally undervalue ourselves.  IT folk are reclusive and accommodating.
• On dealing with resume gaps: Don’t be apologetic. You “took a sabbatical” (whether you did so to raise kids, or whatever, it’s still a great way to phrase it.)

Arm yourself with help and information

• Get coaching from those who’ve done negotiations.
• How do you know what rate to ask? How do you know how to value yourself?  Maybe we just need to be better educated. Answer: the internet!

Have goals

• “Money is the means to the end, not the end.”
• On balancing salary against intangibles and “rate per hour” (higher salary may mean more hours). “It depends.” And, ask! Ask about work environment, especially if you know people on the inside.
• Write down what you want, and use that as a reference when you’re fielding offers.
• Ask why the last person left, how many people have gone in the last year.
• Website recommendation: www.GlassDoor.com – People anonymously review places of employment. Cool!

Protect yourself!

• Business is business; businesses watch out for themselves, not you!
• Know and use basic negotiating tactics.
• GET IT IN WRITING.

Final thoughts and notes

We have a few more notes that came out of the question and answer period:

• Salary.com and payscale.com
• Don’t negotiate from a point of weakness
• Careful about contracts, especially IP
• Consider having a lawyer review your contract
• Review your state laws

 And finally, my own thoughts:

• Wes was an excellent choice. He has a ton of solid career advice.
• So was Erin. She’s an experienced SQL professional, and one of my favorite people to speak to about career issues.
• And so was Jen. I particularly was pleased that she was able to pull up statistics specific to what we were speaking on!**

 A final thanks to everyone, and see you next time. Happy days!
Jen McCown
MidnightDBA.com/Jen

* Alphabetized by first name, so there.
** And no, that wasn’t scripted…none of the session was.

Thanks to @SQLBalls and @SQLChicken for the pix!

TheOatmeal.com has provided the absolute best counsel regarding creativity vs marketing. The comic I’m talking about is entitled “How to get More Likes on Facebook“, but the advice applies to absolutely everything we do. For example:

• Panel 1, 2, & 4: Over-pimping your blog, product, or session (in any way) is deeply annoying. It turns people off of your blog, product, or session (ref. panel 4).
• Panel 3: Don’t be desperate in interviews. It’s deeply unattractive.
• Remainder: Whether it’s making friends, picking up dates, professional networking, or self-promotion, content is king. Marketing, while valuable, is largely useless at the end of the day if it’s for something insubstatnial.

Now: go do things.  It makes you a more interesting and attractive person / professional / brand.

Happy days,
Jen McCown

This is in response to yesterday’s Twitter conversation, and subsequent blog by Eddie Wuerch, about submitting to more than one SQL event on the same date.

Doubling down? It’s just not my bag, baby…

I guess it never occurred to me that this would be such a problem: submitting to two SQL Saturdays at the same time.  I suppose I believe that, generally speaking, it’s a bad idea to submit for an event that you’re only iffy on actually attending. I made sure I had work clearance to go to London before I submitted for SQL Bits, so I’m preaching what I practice (if you can call this preaching).

This sorta rarely comes up as an issue because:

 (1) I’m reasonably choosy about where I’ll speak – not because I dislike some cities/orgs, but because I only get 1-2 out of town SQL Saturday weekends, and I like to leverage those. For example, I like speaking in Atlanta, because that gives me a chance to visit a close friend out there. (Hi Christine!) 

 (2) The events that I would pick rarely overlap. Last year I had to choose between submitting to a SQL Saturday in Colorado, or one in Kansas City (not the same, but adjacent weekends). I have good reasons to go with either, but I picked Colorado because that was the weekend my daughter could go with me.

Solution 1: Pick Another Weekend

Is it too simplistic at this point to say that double submitting shouldn’t be that big an issue for others, either?  I mean, Eddie gave the example of four SQL Saturdays on one weekend.  Couldn’t you submit to the most likely of those, and if it falls through, submit to another later in the year? 

Solution 2: Get Input

Better yet, is there anything wrong with getting a feel for the likelyhood of your being accepted?  Meaning: Just ask.  We talk to SQL Saturday coordinators all the time. Those conversations can go a little like this:

Hey, I’m Jen McCown. I’m looking at submitting to SQLSat YourCity. How are you guys looking for speakers so far?  SQLSat TheirCity is the same weekend, and I certainly wouldn’t want to submit to both, in case I’m suddenly in high demand .  I understand of course that you can’t promise me a spot, I’m just feeling the waters.

And while Eddie brings up a good point – Sean and I are, in fact, in a favored position because we’re experienced speakers, and MVPs to boot (and slightly famous) – I don’t think that we’re in any better position when it comes to asking than anyone else. (Just make it clear that you don’t expect a guarantee, and that you want to submit ONLY to the SQLSaturday where you’d do the most good.)

Solution 2a: Get More Input

What’s more, once a SQLSat’s call for speakers has gone on a little while, ask the organizers what kinds of session submissions they’re lacking. If you have more than one kind of session, you can be a real lifesaver to a planning committee that’s overrun with sessions of type A, and scraping the barrel for type B.

Hi again, it’s me, Jen McCown.  The speaker call for SQLSat YourCity closes next week, and I’ve been looking over the submissions list. It looks like you’re short on BI session abstracts, so I’m thinking of submitting a couple of my SSRS talks.  Would that be helpful? Are you running short in any other areas?  Again, I understand that you can’t guarantee me a spot.

Allowing or Disallowing Double Submissions

Finally, I don’t agree with the community proposal that the PASS board should programatically disallow conflicting submissions; it would certainly be useful to organizers if they received a notification, and then they can decide how they want to handle it. (I think that’s where the Twitter conversation ended up, anyway. Hooray for solidarity!)

Happy days,
Jen McCown
http://www.MidnightDBA.com/Jen

Two days of precons.
60 regular sessions over two days.
The now-famous Women in Technology luncheon.
Open access to Microsoft Customer Service and Support engineers and the SQL Server Customer Advisory Team.

And you’re not GOING? Are you SERIOUS?!?  Do you have any idea how easy it is to fly to Dallas? We have TWO major airports! TWO!  The hotels here are cheap, the freeways easy, the weather warm and cozy.

AND-AND-AND, our major signature thing is to have Paciugo gelato* for one part of the event! No other city in the WORLD gives you Paciugo as a standard part of their SQL event planning, and that’s a fact, Jack.

Rally is cheaper than Summit, closer (for a lot of you) than any other conference, and more awesome than ZZ Top in concert**.  Go register online today.

Happy days,
Jen McCown***

*Gelato is ice cream, only awesome.
** Assuming you’re a ZZ Top fan.  Okay, maybe Rally is as awesome AS ZZ Top in concert. Note: ZZ Top is from Texas.
*** I made it all the way to the end of my blog before mentioning my session, and Sean’s TWO sessions at Rally!

For me, conference season begins with the new year, and ends with the PASS Summit (sorry, November and December SQL Saturdays!), with a break sometime in the summer.  Last week I spoke at #SQLSat111 in Atlanta, this week in Houston, and next month at SQLRally. Busy times!

SQL Saturday Houston

http://www.sqlsaturday.com/107/eventhome.aspx

This weekend, Sean and I have a combine FIVE sessions (thanks for the love, HOU!):

• 8:30am Sean: Beginning Powershell for DBAs 1.0
• 9:45am Sean and Jen – Mouth Wide Shut: Coherent Interviewing – New session!
• 11:00am Jen: Unraveling Tangled Code – A Spellbinding Tale
• 11:00am Sean:  Understanding Backups
• Lunch: I just may hold another unscheduled #WITeverywhere session…
• 4:00pm Jen: T-SQL Brush-up:The Best Things You Forgot You Knew

SQL Rally

http://www.sqlpass.org/sqlrally/2012/dallas/

May 10-11 (actually, I think just the 11th), Sean and I are presenting at SQLRally:

• Jen: Unraveling Tangled Code – A Spellbinding Tale of Victory Over Chaos
• Sean: The Backup Tune-up (Community Pick)
• Sean: Understanding Backups (Community Pick)
• Plus an OFFICIAL Women in Tech panel to attend Thursday – the topic is negotiating! – and other fun stuff!

More Plans

More will be revealed…

-Jen McCown
http://www.MidnightDBA.com/Jen

I particularly enjoy SQL Saturdays in Atlanta for a few reasons. It gives me an excellent excuse to come out and see one of my best friends from college, Georgia is simply gorgeous, I get to see a TON of my SQL friends, and Atlanta UG….well you know, Atlanta UG puts on a damn fine SQLSat.  This year was no exception.

Great signage, great venue, great speaker lineup, great snacks and drink lineup, (okay, the boxed lunch sammiches were mediocre, but whaddya expect for $10?), etc etc etc.  In short: Very good job, ATL.

I had two sessions, plus an unofficial lunch session – more on that in a minute. In my morning Intro to T-SQL class was completely full, and went really well. I threw chocolate and crackers at people, and the guy who asked first got the ticket for the free book.  Adorable fan / genial stalker @SQLThugette (see pic) asked for a picture, and I was delighted to oblige.

In my afternoon session (the T-SQL Brushup, aka Forgotten T-SQL), many laughed, few slept, and much was learned! This time, the guy that laughed loudest got the free book ticket. I’m a sucker for suckups.

Note: All of the sessions I present a events, plus recordings and scripts are on my Sessions and Pubs page.

So, the unofficial lunch session. A week or two back, @DataChick Karen Lopez and I were discussing the women in technology movement, and she mentioned that (since there wasn’t a WIT session at SQLSat ATL) she’d like to have an unofficial WIT session. I jumped RIGHT on board, and we did. We gathered with a few people – men and women – in the gorgeous Georgia sunshine and talked about mentoring, outreach, and other good stuff we can do to encourage girls and boys in the direction of STEM and tech.  I think I’ll call this #WITeverywhere.

(Talk about synchonicity. I just popped over to Twitter to check in on the world, and found this tweet: @codingforkids @codeclub has launched – nationwide, after-school coding club for 10-11 year olds. 69 programmers signed up so far >> http://bit.ly/HKLLs5 )

IF you’re looking for a recording or link, or something else I mentioned at the event, start here:

See some of you in SQLSaturday HOU this weekend!
-Jen

A while back I invited the unpublished masses to submit abstracts for a new-author-written SQL book – called Tribal SQL – and the people spoke.  The chosen ones are now feverishly writing their first drafts, as the rough deadline for first drafts approaches.

This entire proceeding is new, interesting, fun, and – truth to tell – fairly experimental*. We’re keeping it loose to see how well a group of people can come together to Make a Cool Thing, just for the joy of doing so, of passing on knowledge. So far, so good, and I’m #FuriouslyHappy when I think about it.  (Write on, writers!)

So now, I need editors!

If you’re interested in being a part of this project (and getting an editor credit), please contact me at Jen@MidnightDBA.com with your joyous communication.

Happy days,
Jen McCown
http://www.MidnightDBA.com/Jen

*Okay, only sort of experimental, as we’re largely following the MVP Deep Dives format – get a bunch of people to write a chapter about something awesome and SQL-y, peer edit, and publish it. I think the “experimental” part comes in where we’re not using a publisher, and that we – the MidnightDBAs – are the ones coordinating this.

This will be my first Meme15 (here’s Jason Strate’s original Meme15 post), and today we’re talking Facebook. The question is:

How do you balance mixing family, friends, peers, and co-workers on Facebook?

Frankly, I simply don’t use Facebook much; I’m a Twitter being.  My personal Twitter account posts to Facebook, and I get email notification of replies there, so I generally check in with Facebook every few weeks (slightly more often than LinkedIn).

To answer generally: LinkedIn is essentially my resume repository; Facebook is my occasional friend-and-family checkin; an Twitter is my daily contact with the wide, wild world. 

To answer more specifically: I have family and friends on Facebook, and pictures of my kids and vacations, so I don’t generally “friend” people in the IT community. I make a few exceptions for people that I’m particularly close with, but that still follows the “actual-friend-not-Internet-friend” rule.  So I do all my “balancing” up front, by ignoring an awful lot of friend requests. It’s not personal, I just consider it my personal space.

Catching up

I’m really sorry (as in, unhappy with myself) that I haven’t been paying attention to these, so I’ll catch up on the whole series in one quick go:

Meme15 #1 (Dec 2011)

1. Why did you start blogging?  Because of Quest’s SQLServerPedia contest. (I won.)
2. Why do you currently blog?  To teach, to explain and record for myself, to communicate with the tech community and friends.

Meme15 #2 (Jan 2012)

1. Why should average Jane or Joe professional consider using twitter? The absolutely overwhelming availability of technical and professional help and support on Twitter, that’s what. Also, it’s totally fun and flexible; it is what you make it.
2. What benefit have you seen in your career because of twitter? Tons. Lots of answers to my questions, answering other questions, discovering new events and resources, staying connected to community.

I talked about Twitter in a crappy video I made for the PASS Summit 2011 (see embedded video below) – wherein I recommended Brent Ozar’s Twitter Book, explained why I’m on Twitter and what you can do with it, and showed the camera TweetDeck on my phone.

“Twitter did for the Internet what cell phones did for long-distance communication. Yeah, it’s that good.”

Meme15 #3 (Feb 2012)

1. Why and how you use LinkedIn? I used LinkedIn as the professional side of my social networking. I keep my information up to date, and check in every few weeks, but I’m not very active on it. However, I got my current job via LinkedIn (the HR people here found and emailed me.)

Happy days,
Jen McCown
http://www.MidnightDBA.com/Jen

Updated with links to no-login goodness. Updated again with IE rage.

This week, Microsoft announced the SQL Server 2012 release to market (RTM), and a Virtual Launch event.  Much like a movie premiere, an event like this is meant to really jazz up SQL customers (and potential customers) about the awesomesauce of the new product.  It’s shiny! It’s awesome! We worked really hard on it, so come and see!

The Virtual Launch website was a bit confusing.  For events like this, here’s what you typically get (what everybody’s grown to expect):

1. What the event is about.
2. A way to register.
3. What day it’s happening.
4. What time it starts.
5. What sessions happen, and when.
6. A way to login.
7. A way to choose those sessions. Generally they’ll get added to your calendar on the webpage, and/or you can put them in Outlook.

We got 1-3. We didn’t get 4-7. That would be fine, except the site gave every indication that we had 4-7: somewhere in there, there had to be a start time.  A session schedule. A way to login.

I wrote emails. I tweeted. I got no reply.

The day of the launch (today) arrived. The rumored time of the launch approached. Still no change. Even the session moderators couldn’t log in.

I got an email that said I could login. I couldn’t. I wrote an internet-nerd-rage email:

… You can’t provide a website like this that gives all the indications that users will be able to log in and choose sessions, and then provide no way to do so. You set no expectations as to how the site would work, nor when the expected functionality would become active. Many of us have been banging our head on the desk, tweeting and emailing you and each other, trying to get in.  I’ve received no reply to my emails and tweets.  This gives us the impression that the site isn’t working properly, and we won’t be able to get in in time for the keynotes and sessions.

The time for the launch came and went, and nothing changed. Twitter exploded in similar nerdrage. When the site finally opened for logins, the incoming flood brought down the page.  Quoth one user: “This wouldn’t happen if they’d let people login early…”

Microsoft, you’ve been at this a while now. You know far, far better than to make such a huge, massively-publicized mistake like this, and you’re going to get massive amounts of flak for this launch failure.  I realize that you’ve probably got a vendor running this campaign, but I and the rest of the ragey internet trolls lay this at your feet, because someone should have been more involved.

That said, I’m really looking forward to the launch, and to SQL 2012. You know we love you, that’s why we’re so hard on you. (Well, most of us.)

Update: The launch site apparently doesn’t function in Internet Explorer.  And moderators aren’t able to get in and moderate (see Sean’s blog for the moderator’s POV). Here, Microsoft’s vendor company…have some rage:

Links that you don’t need a login for:

• Watch the virtual event keynote without logging in: http://t.co/DW4m8Ob2
• New SQL 2012 MSDN Virtual Labs: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jweston/archive/2012/02/29/sql-2012-new-msdn-virtual-labs.aspx

Happy days,
Jen McCown
www.MidnightDBA.com/Jen

Just a quick note for you today: Microsoft announced that SQL Server 2012 (previously codenamed “Denali”) has released to manufacturing. Go download the evaluation and play around with it on a test environment*, and impress your boss, friends, and children with your cutting-edge-ness. 

If you really want to impress them all, attend Wednesday’s virtual launch, too. You can’t beat 30+ free sessions.

Enjoy, and happy days!
Jen McCown
www.MidnightDBA.com/Jen

*Not. On. Production. NOT on production. Notonproduction. No. You want 2012 on a production environment, upgrade properly, my friend.