Welcome to my first blog post! I have been looking for a reason to start blogging and when I saw the topic this month for T-SQL Tuesday I said, “That’s it!” So here goes nothing!
This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Ewald Cress (b/t), and is about recognizing those people who have made a difference in our lives in the world of data.
I am going to limit myself to recognizing two individuals that helped nudge me in the direction of databases and being a DBA. My tech career started in the Summer of 2005 when I moved to Little Rock, Arkansas to work as a junior .net developer with Robert Hanacek. Robert and I attended college together and towards the end of my 4th year he reached out to let me know his company had an opening for a junior developer. After a couple phone calls and 12 hours in the car I was offered the job. It was here that I learned just how bad you can hurt a database engine with bad application code. Not only did Robert get me the job but he also helped me troubleshoot and resolve all of the issues I created. The lessons I learned during those first years of my career made me a better IT Professional today.
The next person who influenced me early in my career I also met while in Little Rock. I asked my boss at the time if I could attend the Little Rock Dot Net User Group conference at the local college. I attended a session at the conference by Peter DeBetta which had a lot of content about SQL Server 2005. I don’t remember specifically what the session was about but I remember thinking, “WOW! This version of SQL could solve a couple of the problems we are having with application ‘x’ at work!” On my way home that night I stopped at Barnes and Nobel for a coffee and whatever books I could find. I was hooked; every position I’ve held since then has had some sort of heavy focus on SQL Server.
If it weren’t for Robert providing me the opportunity for my first “big boy” job and for Peter DeBetta’s presentation my career might not be where it is today. Thank you Robert and Peter for what you’ve done and how it helped shape my life as it sits today.
Also, thank you to Ewald for hosting and coming up with a topic which got me off the sidelines and into the blogging scene.
Mike D Lynn 