This month, Pat asks us to consider how our code has aged. Like fine wine, or old milk? A common time to revisit old code is when something breaks. I was contemplating Pat’s question this week when a field length change had caused a truncation issue in an old SSIS data flow. Some code doesn’t age […]
For many over the years, they didn’t choose their role. The Accidental DBA was a recognised path into the profession. With platforms and skills changing, I thought it worth asking – are those days behind us? This route to DBA was straightforward. As Brent concisely put it nearly a decade ago – “stand near the database”. That […]
January is a great time of year to raise your head and take a look around. Looking back at what has been, where we’re going, and the technical and mental debt which needs a clear out. I skipped this Year in Review last year due to other commitments, so there’s a little more ground to […]
This month’s invitation from Mike asks us to write a couple of notes – one to our past self, and one from our future self – focused on what we were concerned about, and what we should be concerned about. I love it, and it’s been itching away at me all week. So onto the messages. First from 2025 back to 2020 Andy […]
This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is being hosted by Taiob and he’s posed a great point to consider: How is AI changing our careers? Oh boy, this could be a divisive topic with plenty of opinions – I’m seeing submissions roll in as I’m finalising this and I’m very much looking forward to the community’s views on the topic. […]
Well I’m a little late to the party this month, I got my weeks mixed and was only reading about this month’s T-SQL Tuesday as the community was posting their responses. So here we go, finally. This month’s ask from Josephine was to consider our understanding or expectations from data job roles. When we see […]
This month’s invitation from Garry asks us to talk about what SQL related end of year activities we have to look forward to. Garry has included a few typical DBA examples such as archiving or purging out old data, or updating calendars such as dimension tables or even partition schemes for the new year to come. However […]
This month’s invitation from Kenneth Fisher asks us to share our first tech job. As he points out there are a lot of DBAs who don’t start out working with databases and we slowly succumb to the dark side (my words, not his), intentionally or otherwise. During a gap year whilst at university I joined […]
Andy Brownsword 