This month’s T-SQL Tuesday topic comes from Andy Leonard who asks “how do you respond when technology changes under you?” Check out Andy’s invitation blog post by clicking the image below:
For my contribution this month, I want to go over how I work to make the scenario of technology changing under me happen as little as possible. One reason I love technology and working with it every day is that it’s always changing. Some people may like consistency but I would hate doing the same work the same way every day. Since it’s always changing, that means a little extra time keeping up with what exactly is changing will go a long way.
Blogs
If you’re reading this, you’re probably already following some blogs. If you have a couple consistent blogs to keep up with, it’s easy to stay up to date on how current technology is evolving or learn about emerging technology. You might find someone to show the best way to use a new SQL 2019 feature…or maybe why another feature should have never been released.
I’d also count the Database Weekly newsletter from SQLServerCentral here. Their weekly collection of blog posts make for good weekend reading. Check out what applies to you or use it as a way to begin learning something brand new.
Social Media
I’m not a big fan of social media but it has some benefits. Stick to tech related users on Twitter and technology subreddits on Reddit.
Watching YouTube videos is great but only gets you so far. Don’t get trapped watching video after video. At some point you need to start getting your hands dirty and work through something yourself. Perfect use for a secondary monitor, one monitor for you and one monitor to work along.
Job Postings
Here is what might be a strange way to keep on top of technology. From time to time I’ll do a generic search on database administrator jobs not because I’m looking to apply but because I want to see what technologies are popular and being adopted. There are postings for a SQL Server DBA that are purely SQL related (be familiar with certain SQL versions, know how to manage backups, install updates, etc). As years go by, there are more and more SQL Server DBA positions where things like PowerShell and Python show up as “nice to have” skills or even required skills. One particular posting had a unique description of how Python was used in relation to their SQL environment which gave me some ideas of my own to implement.
Combine Them All to Stay Ahead
Don’t fake knowing what you don’t know. I’ve been on calls with development teams where they start talking about a technology that I’ve not heard of and I wonder if it’s a company tool or something publicly available. After a call like that it’s time to Google. No need to spend hours becoming and expert but it’s nice to at least be familiar for the next time around. You’ll never know it all and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
Thanks for reading!
Chad Callihan 