DBA Confidential

Last month I was in NYC for some meetings and happened to grab thirty minutes of time with my manager. We shared a walk to grab some breakfast, headed back to the office and just sat in a conference room for about thirty minutes and talked. Why would I bother to tell you this? Well, two reasons. First, because I want to stress how nothing will ever replace face-to-face human interactions. Second, because during our conversation he happened to mention that I should pick up a copy of the book by Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential.

If you have read this book already, good for you. If not, go buy it or put it on your wish list for Santa. It is an easy read and worth your time. Having worked in a few kitchens in my life I can attest that much of the details in the book I witnessed first hand. Some other details (like why you never buy fish on a Monday) are well worth knowing.

The reason I decided to blog about the book is that I started to realize that there are many parallels to life in a kitchen and life as a production support DBA. Both field are very demanding upon your time. Both field demand results immediately. Both fields have colorful characters, people that you know are unstable but you cannot live without. Both fields have their own language that serves as a way for colleagues to communicate that seems utterly foreign to those on the outside.

In the book, Mr. Bourdain describes a kitchen staff to be similar to a pirate crew. They dress differently, they talk differently, everyone wants to be like them, and no one wants to make them angry. Now, I cannot say the same about DBAs, or IT professionals as a whole, or can I?

We have our own language(s). We have people who dress differently than the rest of Corporate America. I am not sure that people want to be like us, but I am fairly certain that for the most part people do not want to make us angry on any given day. And what is the end result? Well, like a pirate crew, we tend to recruit others that fit our mold. Or perhaps we recruit someone we feel we can train.

In the book he also talks about the camaraderie of the kitchen in that you need to be able to work fast and have a thick skin. If you cannot keep up with the dinner rush and cannot stand people making jokes at your expense, then you will not survive. Is that any different than what we have as DBAs? I spent a week at PASS and was constantly ridiculed by my fellow pirates DBAs. In fact, our photo walk on Monday could have been described more as shore leave.

I think the main takeaway from that book, besides telling you what to avoid on the menu, is that successful teams all share the same traits. They get along. They joke with each other. They help each other. They communicate with each other in unique ways. They dress alike. This has been true for every team that I have ever had the privilege of being a member, leader, instructor, or coach.

In short, people show up because they want to, because they feel as if they a part of something, a part of something that for whatever reason they feel is special at that time. And the moment you lose that feeling becomes the moment you know it is time to move on.