August 17, 2018 at 10:26 am
A few years ago, I was project manager for a federal audit that we failed the previous year. I lined out responsibility for the deliverables and the dev team knocked it out of the ballpark with perfect datasets. That was a good one.
I try always to stay in a state of being grateful. Grateful for my job, my friends and family, and for all of the blessings that I have in my life. This has worked out pretty well for me.
August 17, 2018 at 10:48 am
Manie Verster - Thursday, August 16, 2018 11:28 PMA long time ago I was lamenting on this site about how employers did not want to employ an old person (then somewhere in the 50's) like me. Well, I think I must say that the best day in my work life was when at the age of 58 I got a new job at a company that pays me a decent salary. Thank you Steve for this forum where we can post our laments and joys.
Congrats and you are welcome
August 17, 2018 at 1:24 pm
One of my favorite days was when I finally resolved something that wasn't considered an issue, only an inconvenience when it occasionally happened, but was a thorn in my side. I needed to monitor this application to make sure log files didn't grow to an enormous size, taking up all the free disk space on the server and preventing users from being able to use it until someone deleted the offending file. Having given it some thought a couple of years back and deciding it wasn't "fixable", that I would just need to keep monitoring it, I had an epiphany about it a few months ago. Long story short, I came up with a solution and after a few tweaks to cover all use cases, I now can take several days off in a row and not feel the need to log in remotely to babysit this application. What a relief!
August 17, 2018 at 10:21 pm
One of the great times in my career was when I was hired to complete a difficult task that took months and months of planning and building and testing. It was an automated financial system that needed a very thorough database to be built , and built correctly. When at last the product was rolled out and signed off on, I learned that I could solve for things I did not ever imagine. On top of that, others in the company had told me that another employee who had left said that this project could not be done. Nobody was supposed to mention that to me when I was brought on board so that I could think independently. It really felt good in the end.
----------------------------------------------------
August 18, 2018 at 11:34 am
dstrickrott - Friday, August 17, 2018 1:24 PMOne of my favorite days was when I finally resolved something that wasn't considered an issue, only an inconvenience when it occasionally happened, but was a thorn in my side. I needed to monitor this application to make sure log files didn't grow to an enormous size, taking up all the free disk space on the server and preventing users from being able to use it until someone deleted the offending file. Having given it some thought a couple of years back and deciding it wasn't "fixable", that I would just need to keep monitoring it, I had an epiphany about it a few months ago. Long story short, I came up with a solution and after a few tweaks to cover all use cases, I now can take several days off in a row and not feel the need to log in remotely to babysit this application. What a relief!
That's a nice feeling. Good for you
August 18, 2018 at 11:34 am
MMartin1 - Friday, August 17, 2018 10:21 PMOne of the great times in my career was when I was hired to complete a difficult task that took months and months of planning and building and testing. It was an automated financial system that needed a very thorough database to be built , and built correctly. When at last the product was rolled out and signed off on, I learned that I could solve for things I did not ever imagine. On top of that, others in the company had told me that another employee who had left said that this project could not be done. Nobody was supposed to mention that to me when I was brought on board so that I could think independently. It really felt good in the end.
Always good to build some confidence in yourself. Congrats
August 19, 2018 at 6:05 am
Yes I have had many technical victories but as someone with Aspergers the best days have always involved success with other people. I've been extremely fortunate in the colleagues I have had over the years. To be able to contribute something of value and not feel like an outsider is a wonderful thing.
Particular highlights have been
The best days are not always apparent on the day or the easiest days. When writing for other people's sites the editorial process can be rigorous but there is great pleasure in knowing that the editor is pushing you to achieve a higher level of quality. Similarly measuring yourself against colleagues who always seek to ratchet up the quality and meeting their standards is tremendously satisfying.
It may sound bizarre to some of you but receiving a critique on my articles from Adam Machanic, Solomon Rutzky, Gail Shaw to name but a few is great because it is constructive criticism and represents an opportunity to learn. SQLServerCentral and the SQL Community seem to be maintaining a healthy environment in an increasingly toxic online world and I am glad to remain part of the former.
August 20, 2018 at 3:09 am
The best day of my life happened right after the worst. Some guy
with itchy fingers happened to just eject one of the drives of our
raid zero configured server that housed a mission critical database .......
Backups came in really handy...
Thank Goodness.
August 20, 2018 at 8:03 am
OK, so recovering from a disaster is a good adrenaline rush (so long as it doesn't turn into a full blown crisis), and getting praise for a job well done is a good dopamine rush. It also feels good to learn something new, either as a result of solving a new type of problem or just spending a slow day researching.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
August 20, 2018 at 11:03 am
The best days in my career where whan I was 25 years old. Worked as engineer back then, dated a younger coleague, and also did some computer work. I do remeber the work, but it feels much better to remeber the company 🙂
August 20, 2018 at 12:39 pm
David.Poole - Sunday, August 19, 2018 6:05 AMYes I have had many technical victories but as someone with Aspergers the best days have always involved success with other people. I've been extremely fortunate in the colleagues I have had over the years. To be able to contribute something of value and not feel like an outsider is a wonderful thing.Particular highlights have been
- Having my first article published on SQLServerCentral
- Meeting many of the people behind the names on this site at SQLBits
- Seeing people I have mentored and supported go on to surpass me
Glad we made the list 😉
August 21, 2018 at 9:01 am
Previously I said I couldn't think of a "best day". I still can't, but I can say there have been days when what we'd done seemed worth it. This is a bit of a story, so here goes. In my previous job I worked at an agency funded by the largest city in the state, to assist people with substance abuse issues. (Alcoholism and drug use.) Because at the time we were writing it, no one else had done anything like this, it was all written in-house. We wrote the software for doing billing as well as tracking the clients progress in rehab. We wrote the assessment tool and databases, which was a standardized tool that, to the best of my understanding hadn't yet been written. We supported both the counselors that the agency I worked for hired to perform the assessment and determine the client's level of need (there's various levels that unless you're in the field of behavioral health, you probably wouldn't understand). And we supported all of the business clients that used our system for entering the therapy they'd rendered the clients for payment. We also wrote the invoicing piece. Yeah, we did it all. But for the most part we worked writing apps as needed, seeking input from the users and not really getting much recognition.
I really had no idea whether or not we were having an impact until I attended the funeral of one of my colleagues. Yeah, that's pretty strange, but here's what happened. One of my colleagues had passed away. Her name was Margo. She was one of the counselors. My wife and I were there after the funeral for the luncheon, along with several other people. My wife and I sat at a table with several people we didn't know. They were all talking about how long they'd been "clean". Some were saying 3 years, 5 years, etc. We were confused until they explained to us that they meant it had been that long since they stopped using. They were saying how Margo had helped them. And this was during the time that Margo had been with us, before she passed away. So, I knew that at least indirectly the work I and the other IT colleagues had done, had contributed to what Margo was able to do. I felt proud of our accomplishments. We had indirectly effected positive changes in many people's lives.
Since then the whole thing came apart. Everyone lost their jobs over the span of about 8 years, until the whole place closed and laid off those that were left. I note that now the drug problem is much worse than it has ever time in our area, especially with opioid addiction. It would be overstating it to say that it is entirely because that agency is gone, but I'm sure that its being gone is at least significant in the current poor state of affairs.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
August 21, 2018 at 9:46 am
I've been giving this question some thought for a few days and I think the best day I had was the day that I realised that, in actual fact, I'm not that bad at this job after all.
That doesn't for an instant mean that I believe I'm outstanding at it - not as good as some but better than others will do me quite nicely, thank you.
Over the years I have worked as a DBA, or a Dev with DBA responsibilities for several companies. Some places have been supportive and encouraged learning, as well as having a helpful atmosphere. Others have been bear-pits, with very aggressive management and a culture of blame and finger-pointing that would have put Pol Pot to shame.
The position I had previously was a good place to work but I was the only DBA, so I had nothing to compare myself to, other than the blogs of people online. And if you're going to compare yourself to the likes of Adam Mechanic, Paul Randal, Brent and suchlike, then you're going to wonder why you ever bother getting out of bed in the mornings.
At my current gig I work with a team of DBAs and guess what?
I know stuff.
I know stuff that they don't and they know stuff that I don't. And nobody minds.
My opinion is worth something. It might not always have an impact but it is listened to with a degree of respect.
People learn things and share them.
Things go wrong and nobody turns puce with rage - screaming that it's all your fault and you can't go home until it all works perfectly. People just communicate and work on it. Admittedly they might communicate a little too much (Skype, email, text, Teams - eventually somebody will dust off the Ouija board) but it's all for a common goal and nobody gets dragged out to the car-park and shot.
Like many people, I'm generally of the belief that I could have done my last task a little better because you usually learn things as you go along, so sometimes the start of a task might not be as clever or pretty as the end.
I have now realised that I'm OK at this job. I might never reach the giddy heights of some who have the most useful blog sites (or at least, useful to myself) but I am comfortable where I am and far more relaxed because of it. I will always endeavor to improve but I won't do it powered by the fear that I'm not up to a standard that, in reality, I'm setting in my own head.
I'm a DBA and I enjoy it.
August 23, 2018 at 2:24 pm
It was June, 6 1944 ... Normandy, France... the coast. My laptop had just crashed and Ike was on the horn wanting to know why those trucks weren't moving.... ahhh... nevermind. 🙂
August 25, 2018 at 7:12 am
BrainDonor - Tuesday, August 21, 2018 9:46 AMI have now realised that I'm OK at this job.
...
I'm a DBA and I enjoy it.
That's a good place to be. Glad you're enjoying it.
Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 30 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply