Admitting this is my first T-SQL Tuesday contribution seems a bit weird for me to write. I mean I’ve been in this industry over 20 years. (Ok, maybe 25 is more accurate.) I’ve been in the sql community for well over a decade.
But when one of my favorite authors, #sqlfamily rockstar, and all-around awesome human being Louis Davidson, posted on it earlier this month, I was intrigued. He wanted us to answer the question: What advice do you wish Current You could go back and give past you as you were starting your first data platform job?
At first I was giddy about all the things I could write about. But the more I thought about it, the harder it became. Do I write from a technical standpoint? Process? Personal? And what about the Butterfly effect? If Current Me gave first data platform me advice, couldn’t that completely alter where I am now in all aspects? Clearly I was going down a rabbit hole, which explains why I am writing this now on Tuesday evening at 11:33 PM. (Apologies in advance for any typos.)
So on some unexpected errands I had today, I had a little downtime and pulled out my little notepad to make a list. Immediately I saw a problem that I hadn’t even considered: things that I hold to be very important to me today, I couldn’t have heeded that advice 20+ (25) years ago. Things I take for granted and can easily say or do today, as a young women in tech I couldn’t do many years ago. Or at least “I” didn’t feel like I could.
“Speak up for yourself”.
“A company won’t love you back – so outside of work hours only give them what you want to take away from your family or have a genuine interest in doing.”
“Delegate more”
“Don’t knowledge hoard.”
“Don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know something.”
And while each of these things are spot on, when I was a single mom with a mortgage living pay check to pay check and had to a.) make myself invaluable and b.) make myself likable/agreeable/whatever-else-you-want-to-call-it, those things often conflicted with real life. Things are not always as easy as they sound. Especially as a woman. The times I didn’t do both a and b, I’d get into trouble.
Going no where with any of those things, I moved to looking at things from a technical perspective. That wasn’t helpful either; I’ve always followed where the jobs were and most of my jobs only resembled each other because “data” was in the name. That’s given me a pretty wide (if not always deep) range of experience. My ADHD loves it. I’ve had a lifetime of “learn this new thing really fast” and its been fantastic.
Striking both personal and technical things off my list (ok fine, I didn’t have anything technical on my list- though my calibre library will call me a liar on that one), I guess I am left with Process. Which it a good thing because I have about 4, no 3 minutes until the midnight bell tolls. Here it goes:
“Use Checklists as often as you can” and “Learn and Use Value / Effort matrixes” (Is that even allowed to be plural?)
Oh yea, and don’t sweat the typos. They’ll throw you under the bus for time – every time.
Data Work Mom 