April 26, 2016 at 4:09 pm
I would suggest being something of generalist in your early career so that you can intellectually sample what's out there and see what you like or at least what what you don't like... which is the more likely case. At some point I would start to specialize once you've found something that really interests you. Try not to over-specialize or you may find yourself starting a new career once your technology is out of style. Never assume your skillset with a particular technology will be needed for 40 years or more; adjust your plans accordingly. I've never considered the money much but have been thankful that it pays well; it's a reward of diminishing returns after a certain point.
April 27, 2016 at 12:19 am
jeff.mason (4/26/2016)
Microsoft has made SQL Server so big that even "generalists" are usually "specialists". I know of few people who are experts in the DB engine, AND SSAS, AND SSIS, AND SSRS, as well as all of the other ancillary technologies MS has bolted into the product -- just too much technology to become a master at. You might be a generalist across the DB engine, but you also have specialized in the DB engine as opposed to reports, or ETL, etc.....
Doesn't stop employers from advertising that they need all the skills and extra.
April 27, 2016 at 8:38 am
ccd3000 (4/26/2016)
I would suggest being something of generalist in your early career so that you can intellectually sample what's out there and see what you like or at least what what you don't like... which is the more likely case. At some point I would start to specialize once you've found something that really interests you. Try not to over-specialize or you may find yourself starting a new career once your technology is out of style. Never assume your skillset with a particular technology will be needed for 40 years or more; adjust your plans accordingly. I've never considered the money much but have been thankful that it pays well; it's a reward of diminishing returns after a certain point.
Good advice. Thanks
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April 28, 2016 at 1:21 am
I think I'm a generalist but I'm a specialist in solutions for a particular domain. After a while of building up knowledge and tools for a particular domain I could transfer and improve things quite easily to other organisations for the same task but putting me into another domain there may be a delay while I had a clear idea of what to build on. Hopefully I could add value quickly
April 28, 2016 at 8:58 am
Good article.
We've appointed a DBA who thinks indexes are updated one a week, when they are rebuilt
on Sunday evenings.
April 28, 2016 at 5:15 pm
Yet Another DBA (4/27/2016)
jeff.mason (4/26/2016)
Microsoft has made SQL Server so big that even "generalists" are usually "specialists". I know of few people who are experts in the DB engine, AND SSAS, AND SSIS, AND SSRS, as well as all of the other ancillary technologies MS has bolted into the product -- just too much technology to become a master at. You might be a generalist across the DB engine, but you also have specialized in the DB engine as opposed to reports, or ETL, etc.....Doesn't stop employers from advertising that they need all the skills and extra.
I get emails about jobs with where they want people who just don't exist. Who would want them if they did exist? Anyone who is an expert at the whole BI stack, T-SQL, MDX, Sharepoint, C#, AWS and Python can't be any fun to work with. Someone like that doesn't need a job, they need to go to a baseball game.
-- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001
May 1, 2016 at 11:51 pm
I get emails about jobs with where they want people who just don't exist. Who would want them if they did exist? Anyone who is an expert at the whole BI stack, T-SQL, MDX, Sharepoint, C#, AWS and Python can't be any fun to work with. Someone like that doesn't need a job, they need to go to a baseball game.
I read somewhere that H.R. is the department that protects management from employees.
H.R., I do believe, create a wish-list of the perfect employee and see what they find. In my experience, while one needs to know of all of skills listed, only one or two are really important to the position in question. The question is finding out which one, but then an interview tends to answer that question.
May 2, 2016 at 6:14 am
Alan.B (4/28/2016)
Yet Another DBA (4/27/2016)
jeff.mason (4/26/2016)
Microsoft has made SQL Server so big that even "generalists" are usually "specialists". I know of few people who are experts in the DB engine, AND SSAS, AND SSIS, AND SSRS, as well as all of the other ancillary technologies MS has bolted into the product -- just too much technology to become a master at. You might be a generalist across the DB engine, but you also have specialized in the DB engine as opposed to reports, or ETL, etc.....Doesn't stop employers from advertising that they need all the skills and extra.
I get emails about jobs with where they want people who just don't exist. Who would want them if they did exist? Anyone who is an expert at the whole BI stack, T-SQL, MDX, Sharepoint, C#, AWS and Python can't be any fun to work with. Someone like that doesn't need a job, they need to go to a baseball game.
They may advertise it like that or it may be interpreted as that, but I think most are just looking for some of those skills and experiences. At least that's my experience with adverts like the ones you mentioned. The biggest catch on most is the use of, "or one of the following skills..." and reading it as needing all.
I get those too and I sometimes follow up on them because I am one of those guys who uses SQL Server with NoSQL, AWS and Python. I know others who dabble between SQL and C# a lot because they wear so many hats. When I follow up on opportunities like you mentioned, they are normally wishing for all of those to save money in one position, but don't get what they want and end up saying they are looking for only some of that, not all at the end of the day.
November 9, 2016 at 3:10 am
I basically haven't got a choice, although I am being named "the database expert" I do what I am being asked to do. Some of us haven't got the luxury of being a specialist, although I spend a lot of my idle time reading and learning to be a better man in the job. I find myself often arguing my cases with people who are just doing sloppy jobs. Trying to be a specialist does not however stop me from learning everything I need to know to implement solutions that require various skills and knowledge of a whole system, not just a narrow part of the subject.
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