How many times have you said to yourself, “Someone should build an application that does [x]…”, or “Wouldn’t it be easy to add automation to [y]”, or “It would be a lot of fun to work on a project to build [z]”? For me, this has happened a lot, and seems to occur more frequently the longer I’m in this…
In my continuing series entitled “On Failure”, I want to talk about skiing. I’m not a great skier. It would probably be a stretch to say that I’m a good skier. Still, I enjoy doing it, and I want to (and can) get better at it. Since I live in the Dallas area, I don’t get a lot of opportunities…
The first rule of blogging is that you should write about topics you know a lot about. And I know a lot about failure. This post will be the first in a series on the topic, through which I’ll share a few of my own failures and how I’ve done my best to use them to my benefit. In almost…
Social media is the new résumé. In many ways, it’s even better than a résumé – a person’s social media stream can reveal attitudes, biases, and deficiencies that wouldn’t dare appear on a résumé. Your online thoughts are what friends and strangers will use to assess who you are and what you can contribute. The things you share on social…
Perspective can make or break a career. Maintaining a proper perspective is very often the differentiating factor between a good technologist and an incredible one. In my 15-ish years in IT, I’ve said a lot of dumb things. Many of them I’ve forgotten, but I can’t shake the memory of one particular phrase I uttered more than a few times…
In the blogging meme of the day, I was tagged by my friend Tim Costello to share four things I wish I’d known back then. The only hard part was paring the list down to four items. I think back to 15 years ago, when I was working retail and desperately seeking something else. Something I could really get into. …
I met up for lunch with a good friend and former coworker today, and among the topics of discussion was how we as professionals often neglect personal relationships when work and life get busy. I’ve found that to be especially true since I started working from home last year. I don’t miss a lot about working in an office setting,…
For me, 2013 was one of the most interesting and busy years of my life. It was a good year for me, especially on the career front, and it’s certainly been the busiest year in several years. Among the highlights of 2013: Going independent The most significant event for me this year was when I fulfilled a long-time dream of…
Through the course of my career, I’ve spent time on both sides of the job interview table, which has given me an empathy for both job interviewees as well as their interviewers. The former wants to put his best foot forward to demonstrate (or at least talk about) his most appealing attributes, while the latter seeks to find the best…
Since I started regularly attending SQL Saturday events some five years ago, I’ve sat in on a number of professional development sessions by Andy Warren, Buck Woody, Don Gabor, and others. Each one offered different bits of advice based on his or her own experience, but there was an overriding theme in all of them: Don’t wait until you need…