See You On The Other Side

Today is my last day with (I’ve never been allowed to publicly say where I work and it always rubbed me the wrong way). Nine years of my life. Thankfully none of them were wasted. During my time here I was given the opportunity to grow, both as a person and as a professional. There is no doubt in my mind that all I am today is a direct result of all the support that (I’ve never been allowed to publicly say where I work and it always rubbed me the wrong way) has given me.

On Monday morning I will board a plane and head to New Orleans to meet my new coworkers for the first time. I will be attending TechEd and if you are also at TechEd then you will be the first to know the identity of my new company. The official press release will come out on Tuesday, and I am thinking of doing a live broadcast from TechEd on Tuesday as well. Think of it as my debutante, but without me wearing a dress.

I have had many opportunities to leave (I’ve never been allowed to publicly say where I work and it always rubbed me the wrong way) in the past few years but I never did. Reason number one for not having left for any of the other opportunities is that I knew I didn’t want to make a lateral move. I have been a production DBA for over six years, and I think that is long enough. I didn’t want to trade this pager for a different one, that made no sense. I knew that I was looking for something else and fortunately Life exists as a combination of things you plan for and things you need to improvise for. And then the Universe sent me a sign to help guide me on my way: Buck Woody

Last year at the PASS Summit I was approached by Buck (blog | twitter) who asked if I had some time to chat. That conversation and subsequent ones over the next few months helped me to understand a lot about what it is I was searching for in my next opportunity. Buck would pose questions to me like the following:

“So, you come home from work, you kiss the dog and pet your wife or whatever you do when you get home, and you tell her you had a great day at work. Tell me what things happened to you that day?”

And over time I started to realize the things that made me happiest. After some additional questions and discussions Buck and I were able to piece together the types of jobs with which I would most likely enjoy a high degree of success. I started to understand how it made me feel to have someone say “thank you” for being able to help them, even if that thank you was simply a nice comment left on my blog to something I had written a year ago. The fact that I was able to help someone, somewhere, was a great feeling.

I also enjoyed learning new things, and meeting new people. Let’s face it, I make my living with SQL Server. It is important to me that I have the opportunity to continue to stay on top of the latest trends, the newest features, and also start seeing how other people are implementing solutions in their shops. I also enjoy writing, giving presentations, a little bit of travel, blogging, and putting together my own videos or webcasts. As weird as this sounds, I consider myself more introverted than not, and yet I enjoy interacting with others when I have the chance, whether in person or through social media tools. And let’s not forget my involvement with PASS or as a SQL MVP, both of which have certain time commitments.

Put all that together and you have my new job description. Part marketing, part sales, part technical support, part evangelist, and all SQLRockstar. I get to stay involved with the SQL Community, maybe even more now that before.

My new company was not advertising for any particular job, we just met one day and started talking about things. Turns out they were looking for someone like me, and I was looking for someone like them. And come Monday, we get to start working together to do some great things. I can’t wait.

See you there.