Joshua Higginbotham

Follow up to SQL Saturday Dallas

2019-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

As SQL Saturday comes to a close, I want to say thank you to all the organizers, speakers, and the community that attended my session. This marks my second SQL Saturday that I have had the privelage to speak at. The first leaving me with a good deal of room to improve. Just ask Akhil :).

Power BI - From Beginnning to End

The precon that was put on by GuyInACube was amazing. If you have the opportunity to attend one of thier sessions, it’s well worth the investment. If it’s not possible, their group is killing it with their weekly videos on Youtube.

Introduction To GitHub

ToDo: Reflect on the session

Speaking at SQL Saturday Dallas

2019-05-29T00:00:00+00:00

Tomorrow morning I’ll jump on a plane to speak at my second SQL Saturday event this year. This has been an amazing year for personal growth and I couldn’t be more thankful to those who have helped me along the way. If you’re looking to get a better understanding of working with GitHub and will be attending SQL Saturday Dallas on June 1. Look for me in room 117 on the 1st floor at 3:45pm.

Session Abstract

Introduction To Github Duration: 60 minutes Level: Beginner Track: Application & Database Development Getting started with GitHub can at times be overwhelming. Especially when you’ve been working with other source control and project management systems your whole career. In this session, we will overview the below tasks to ensure your success with GitHub.

Initial setup of a Repository in GitHub.
Build Issue templates for new features, bugs, or custom tasks.
Securing the check-in/merge process to your root branch.
Integrating GitHub with other productivity tools to keep on top of changes.

New Logo, Same Old Gig!

2019-05-26T00:00:00+00:00

When I started consulting, I built out an office 365 account, used a cheap logo service for a generic logo for some business cards, and began working. My goal was not to invest a whole lot of time into the look and feel of the organization, mainly because I didn’t know if I’d survive more than 6 months. Two and half years later, I’m as busy as ever and continuing to add work to the queue as the months go on. Due to this, I felt it was time to invest a bit into the look of the company. Pay for a designer to build a custom logo, one that fits my background and personality. I researched a bit and landed on 99Designs based off some work that @sqlrus had done with them in the past for his logo. It was really simple to get started, pricing was competitive, and I’d retain the rights to the new logo once everything was finished.

The Process

The process was simple. Create a profile, choose a couple of design concepts to help the designers build a profile of what you were looking for, set a color schema, and then provide any details you may want to see included in the design. From there, the designers would have a week to submit their designs and for you to choose the one that you liked best.

The Submissions

Within minutes, submissions came in that were decent, but they really didn’t fit what I was looking for. The designs included some of my requests, but nothing really popped out to me. As the days went on, the theme remained the same. Some designs seemed to be a copy of what the other artists were doing. I started to look at maybe settling on something that I liked but still seemed a little cartoonish for my taste. When I woke up on the third day, I had a submission that immediately made me think, this is the one. It fit the design I was looking for, something simple and modern. It related to my background and could be thrown on t-shirts or polos when the time was right to invest some more into the brand.

The Graphic Designer

Before the unveiling of the new logo, I want to give a quick shout out to the graphic designer that nailed the design. She was amazing to work with and I couldn’t be any happier with the result. If you’d like to work with her, you can find her 99Designs profile here.

The New Logo

It’s been a great ride so far, with new challenges each day. So to finally have a logo of my own which may seem small to some, is a big stepping stone for me. Here’s to new adventures with a brand new look.

Give me CI or Give me Death!

2019-05-23T00:00:00+00:00

Let it be known, on May 23, 2019, I have successfully set up continuous integration for my blog. This has been a goal of mine since I started blogging and working with DevOps at the shop. Not because it was absolutely necessary to operate, but because it was something I could dig my teeth into and nerd out on.

Recap of Speaking at SQLSaturday Cincinnati

2019-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

On March 30, 2019, I had the privilege to speak at my first SQLSaturday event in Cincinnati. The topic I had chosen, I felt pretty good about. I had presented it a handful of times to local groups and the feedback, for the most part, was always positive. So I began the prep work needed to get ready. I built out multiple redundancies within my plan. Two laptops fully provisioned with the software needed to present the session, multiple sets of adapters in case something went wrong or I showed up and the type input was different than I expected, and finally I uploaded everything to GitHub in case of major failure. What I wasn’t prepared for, was that when I entered into presentation mode from within PowerPoint, that it would fry the input on the project system. Not once, but twice within two separate rooms.

I thought, surely the attendees and event organizers were going to run me out of town with pitchforks and torches. But everyone involved was amazing, they helped try to troubleshoot the cause and ultimately I ended up having to just speak through my session without any display. The attendees remained seated throughout all of this, highly-attentive, and provided great Q&A throughout the remainder of the session. I say all of this just to say, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience for my first event. Akhil and the other volunteers put on an amazing and welcoming event for everyone within the community. My only hope is that next year I have the opportunity again to speak and this time, make sure not to mess anything up :).

An Epic Quest Or Box Office Bust!

2019-01-28T00:00:00+00:00

So, you’ve decided that you want to enter into the glorious field of Database Administration. You want to live, eat, and breath the SQL engine while slaying the monsters (Developers) that attempt to kill your system each and every day. Well, I can say from experience that it doesn’t come easily as one would think. While I won’t bore you with my life story, I will provide some of the things that have led to my success in my career.

Mentors

Finding a mentor or mentors within the community to me has always been pivotal in the overall success I’ve obtained in my career. These can be professionals from within your company or from the community. For me, one example was someone within the company I worked for years ago. He was a developer, like myself, that had started in an operations role. However, while working, he applied himself after hours to learn the skills necessary to move into a development role within IT. To this day, I’m not sure why he decided to take me under his wing. But I do know that I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for his guidance.

Blogs and Resources

You’re not the first person to go down this path, and because of this, there are resources within the community that can help you in your quest to becoming a DBA. Below, I’ve listed some of the blogs and resources that I’ve used in the past when I’ve ran into challenges.

Brent Ozar Unlimited: https://www.BrentOzar.com/blog/
PASS: https://www.pass.org/
Brad McGehee: https://www.red-gate.com/library/how-to-become-an-exceptional-dba-2nd-edition
Twitter: Live inside of #SQLHelp, you’ll thank me later!

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Asking for help from your peers or from the community is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of maturity as a data professional. We’ve all been there and we’ve all had that experience we like to talk about when we toss back a couple drinks and exchange war stories. I, for one, know I’ve had plenty of those RUEs (Resume updating events) throughout my career.

Have Some Fun

If, in the end, all you take away from this post is this last section, then I’d call it a win. There are so many ways that you can work within the instance that you’ll never stop learning. This, to me, makes being a DBA (by title or by methodology) one of the best career choices. So, just have fun with it. Tear down some instances (Preferably in Test) and build them back up. You can be both the creator and destroyer of your own little world, and that makes this process so much more enjoyable. :)