office heaven

Got a great place to work? A beautiful setting in the countryside, an amazing office, a tricked out cubicle, awesome colleagues? What makes where you work so special?

I work projects, so have moved around a bit over the last few years when it comes to offices. I also make use of a small nook (think The Cupboard Under the Stairs, No 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging) when I’m working from home. Some of the places I have worked have been somewhat dark and dreary, others have been all shiny a new, but the best experiences are always those with the best colleagues. I have found that the environment can lack inspiration and the work is a grind, but throw in a few awesome people to work with and it changes everything.

People

I have been lucky in that in pretty much every project there has been at least one person that makes the work fun/exciting/challenging (in a good way)/educational. Here are a few of those people:

Paul

Why? He makes me laugh. And he manages to do it with very little effort too, and it’s not that I’m easy to amuse either (another story altogether). I met Paul some years back when I worked for a small company during my university vacations and by chance we are now working closely once again. He was hilarious then and hasn’t changed one iota. His mannerisms, his outlook on life, his witty banter and way with words all make the current project a fun place to be.

Kappow! Who needs Red Bull when you've got 'Whoop Ass'

Johnny & Jonathan

Why? Energy. Pure and simple. These two guys (both managers of mine) just had so much energy it was infectious. And their energy was natural too, not the kind that you can buy for a few bucks and tends to rot your teeth. Always positive, always encouraging, these guys got the most out of me and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them – and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Nxumsa

Why? She was learning about reporting services and gave me the opportunity to teach. One of greatest gifts is the ability to share our knowledge and to uplift the community where we can. Although, according to Buck Woody (Blog | @buckwoody), teaching/mentoring is also the best form of education (or ‘retention’ if you’re being pedantic). So, being able to impart some knowledge (ok, so some may have been a little dubious…) to a co-worker was a great experience for me too, and given the opportunity to do it again, I wouldn’t hesitate.

Godfrey/Johan/Pierre

Why? I learnt from them. Whilst most of what I learnt was technical – introductions to DTS, SSIS, scripting amongst other things, a lot of what I learnt was about tenacity, camaraderie, diplomacy & negotiation. If you thought that being a great developer/DBA involved just the technical stuff then you’d be wrong. There is a whole list of soft skills to pick up on and this is best done through working with the right people.

Anthony

Why? For all the above reasons. Funny? He’s hilarious. Intelligent? You betcha – but he didn’t know everything, so it was a great moment when I got to teach. Passion & Energy? Like no other. And I don’t think there was a time he didn’t have a smile on his face (that I know of anyway). He is a great mate of mine and one that I miss having around since having moved to the UK.

Environment

Working in a beautiful/funky environment is always a pleasure.  In the places that I have worked there are a few that stand out as Great Places To Work:

• A refitted barn on a river in the UK
• At home in the garden
• A converted warehouse loft space – probably one of my favourite places as there was so much space and I had a window out onto a garden that was home to many birds.

Here are a few pictures of those places:

at work in the countryside

my friday office

a lofty desk perspective

Other factors

There are many other things that could make where you work a better place. For me this includes:

• Not just ‘good’, but GREAT Coffee!
• Awesome colleagues
• A personal space (making your desk space your own)
• A great chair
• A clear desk
• Decent hardware (PC/Laptop)
• Being part of a team that shares a common goal
• A great canteen or coffee shop
• Access to online resources (in a corporate environment this can be difficult as web access is severely restricted)
• Challenging projects – forcing the need to keep learning new things
• …many more

So now you know a little more about where I have worked and what makes keeps my work satisfaction at a good level, I would like to know more about where you work and what makes it a great place. So I’m tagging the following to find out:

• Rob Farley (Blog | @rob_farley) – because [apparently] Adelaide is awesome and he doesn’t have a dedicated office space (his work is onsite mostly).
• Steve Jones (Blog Blog | @way0utwest) – because he lives in and works from a ranch in the middle of the US
• Jorge Segarra (Blog | @SQLChicken) – because he has a rubber chicken pinned to his office wall. Oh, and he lives & works in Tampa, Florida.
• Jenifer Stirrup (Blog | @jenstirrup) – because she is currently working for a University that is over 800 years old.

There have been a few blog posts lately about telecommuting, with some advocating it, others not and some even going to lengths to tell why you’re not.

I’m a big fan of telecommuting. Sometimes.

Brent Ozar (Blog | @Brento) wrote a great post on Why You’re Not Telecommuting (as well as several others which are all listed at the bottom of that post). In it, Brent details a number of reasons why you haven’t landed that telecommuting job yet. But he also goes into three things that you can do to get one. Brian Kelly (Blog | @kbriankelly) tells us why he doesn’t look for a telecommuting role. It’s a great read and all his points are all relevant, some maybe more specific to his particular situation, but they are all good points.

Is it too much to ask to have a role that has both a telecommuting and an on-site element? I don’t think so. It’s what I strive for. While I don’t know what the rest of the population has for a commute, mine is somewhere between 50 minutes up to 2.5 hours. One way. That really burns you out. So I try to avoid it if I can. Telecommuting does away with the ‘commute’ altogether. Being able to wake up, shower, breakfast & coffee, more coffee and ‘commute’ (aka walk) to a dedicated office space, all in under 30 minutes is frikkin’ awesome. If your on-site option does happen to be a 5 minute walk from your residence then you have what I want.

Since I can never seem to land a role that is just five minutes from my humble abode means that I have to come up with other options. So, after I have been in a role for a while (a couple of months) and an opportunity presents itself, I request a day to work from home. On my latest project we were asked to work over a bank holiday and were given the option of working remotely. I call this an opportunity because that exactly what it is. It is a chance to prove what you can accomplish when you are not on-site. If you can prove to your superiors that you can deliver results when you are at home, then you stand a much better chance of the ‘opportunity’ presenting itself again. And again. And if you work hard and deliver the results, then this can lead to a standing arrangement to work remotely. Of course this all depends on what management style is enforced where you work.

There’s a key sentence on Wikipedia about telecommuting:

“A successful telecommuting program requires a management style which is based on results and not on close scrutiny of individual employees”

If your boss is not results oriented, you may need to understand Why Your Boss Doesn’t Want you to Telework first, then go find out how to Convince Your Boss to Let You Telework.

So what’s my ideal situation? Well, having a home/office like Rob Farley did (admittedly only for a client visit) would be nice, but barring that my ideal situation would be one where I can work on-site for 3-4 days a week and at home 1-2 days. This, I feel, gives the best of both worlds. You get the interaction of colleagues and ‘office life’ and you also get the solitude and productivity of working from home. Yes, productivity. I seem to be much more productive when I work from home.

Everyone loves a list. So here’s three about working from home:

Advantages

• Productivity - I get more done at home than I do at work, primarily because (for me) there are less distractions at home than there are at work. On-site there always seems to be someone at my desk asking me a question, which switches my focus for a period of time. At home I have a dedicated office hideaway that keeps me isolated from distractions (my son).
• No commute – how long does it talk you to walk from your kitchen to your home office? No time at all. This also means that I get to have breakfast, lunch & dinner with my family without having an impact on my work. Since my boy is an early riser, I also get to spend a couple of hours with him before my day even starts.
• More flexible ‘Flexi-time’ - working from home may allow you to be even more flexible with you working hours, although this needs to be negotiated with your boss before hand. You may for example need a couple of hours to look after your kids which you can make up for later in the evening once they have gone to bed.
• Online resources at your disposal – Having access to the all the online resources (blogs/twitter/forums/etc) you need can be a great help, especially when you need help ASAP. Some companies are so locked down that access to the web is reserved for a handful of cherry picked sites and nothing else.
• More time with your family - outside of working hours, of course.
• More sleep - intrinsically linked to ‘No Commute’. Go figure.

Disadvantages

• Limited interaction with teammates (can also be an advantage) – but if you have organised your remote day(s) properly, then you’ll have a list of things that you need to do, not what someone else needs to tell you how to do. If you need more interaction, and your organisation allows it, then use of an instant messaging system may be some help. As are telephones.
• Dependent on ISP - if your internet connection goes down, and you are working on your own pc through a portal, then you are pretty much screwed. Being on-site means that you will still have access to the resources (files/folders/systems/databases/etc) you need should you not have an internet connection. If you have a work laptop then this might be a non-issue as you may well have a local copy of what you need.
• Less ‘face time’ - if your organisation’s ladder-to-success requires you have a lot of face time, then this is probably not the best option for you.

Set the Ground Rules 

When you work from home it is important to set a few ground rules, with yourself and your family, so that you have boundaries to work between. Without them, it’s too easy to keep doing the things you want to do instead of the things you need to do.

• Ensure you have a clearly defined list of things to do. Each item should have a duration and a deadline attached to it. You should really have this already, no matter where you work.
• Let your boss know what you intend to accomplish while you are at home – this commits you to the tasks. 
• Define your working hours & stick to them as a minimum – if you manage to finish your tasks for the day earlier than you expected, get cracking on the ones for the next day. Being more productive than anticipated means you may get more time to work from home in future. Remember, your day is not done until you cross off that last task for the day, even if this means working longer than expected.
• Set clear boundaries with your family – you need to let your family know that when you work from home it’s a luxury. One that can be taken away if it’s not working out. And if they keep interrupting you during your work hours, impacting your productivity, this luxury can be taken away. The incentive is to have these work-from-home days, so that you can be with them for more time than would otherwise be possible.
• Get a time tracker to keep a note of what you are doing and how long it’s taken you. Actually something like this is handy where ever you are based.
• Have a break after each task, or set of tasks.
• Ensure you are contactable – if your boss/colleagues can’t get hold of you during the day this sends the wrong signal and you may have your ‘privileges’ revoked.
• Send updates throughout the day, letting your boss know that you are on top of things.

Further reading on Telecommuting/Working-from-home/Telework/Working-Remotely/#Whadeveryawannacallit

• Lifehacker – Set up a Persistent-Video Portal for Telecommuting camaraderie
• Brent Ozar – How to Telecommute: Status Reports
• Brent Ozar – How To Telecommute: Staying Motivated 
• Gina Trapani – Master the Art of Working Remotely

Do you have any thoughts on telecommuting? Let’s hear from you.

More affordable books means the money you save could be used to buy that iPad you’ve been drooling over.

I was conducting my weekly search for new apps for my trusty iPhone this weekend and happened to find a goldmine. A long list of books published by Microsoft Press as iPhone/iPod/iPad apps. That in itself is not all that exciting, but finding out that you could now buy a book for just £3.49 (US$5.99) is. I was a little sceptical at first, thinking why would you be able to buy something for £20 – £25 LESS than the book/eBook value? So I bought one (MDX Step-by-Step 2008) to find out just what they we like (and because I need to brush up before attempting another certification).

I was pleasantly surprised. The app is basically a standalone eBook. But it works really well. I’ve tried several eReaders (for the iPhone) but have yet to find one that I really like. This app/eBook is smooth and works perfectly for the content.     

Now for some justification

How many tech books do you have on your shelf? 10, 15, 20? And you are probably going to buy a whole bunch more right? Well, let’s do some math.

20 books @ £25 = £500

20 apps @£3.50 = £70

Saving through buying the app version instead = £430.

More than enough for a shiny new iPad.

This isn’t of course restricted to Microsoft Press books. There are loads of others if you look around. I know that there’ll be some people who say “all those apps will just clutter up my already fully laden screen”. All I have to say is. 20 [app] books. £430. Go by a seperate iPad just for your books…jeez.

If you’re at all interested, I’ve also listed my favourite iPhone apps.

Recruiters much prefer trying to find candidates before they advertise a job on one of the online job boards. This is primarily because having to wade through the hundreds of CVs they get emailed on day one of posting an advertisement is not very efficient. Those CVs are not searchable or in a standard format, they are literally a heap of emails that the recruiter has to go through one-by-one to find the right candidate. Far too time consuming. They would much rather be doing the searching, and hunting for candidates through the online job websites and their own internal systems/databases is their preferred method for doing so.

Note – this post is angled at the UK  market, although some tips may also be useful in other countries.

Spreading yourself far and wide.

Set up a folder in your web browser favourites and give it an applicable name (recruitment, IT Job sites, etc) and then add the following websites:

• www.jobserve.co.uk – great for searching for available positions (contract/permanent)
• www.monster.co.uk – good for storing your CV for recruiters to find
• www.cwjobs.co.uk – CV storage for recruiters searches
• www.itjobboard.co.uk – good for finding available positions
• www.jobsite.co.uk – great for storing your CV for recruiters to find

Now go to each and create a profile and upload your CV. The most important part of creating your profile is completing the skills and experience section as it applies to each site. This is important as it is what the recruiters will use to search for potential candidates. Put down as much information as you can as this will mean that you appear in more search results.

To make sure that you are on the radar, ‘refresh’ your profile at least once a week (simply making your profile private and then public again has this effect). Refreshing your profile has the effect of putting a ‘last activity’ date onto your profile, which recruiters will use to narrow down the search for candidates to just those who have been ‘active’ in the last n days. The best website to use to generate a lot of calls is Jobsite, as this site has the best search facility from a recruitment point of view (apparently).

Don’t bother with emailing the recruiter about a job that you have seen (refer to earlier point about the hundreds they receive). if the job posting does include a telephone number, CALL THEM! I can’t stress this enough. If you send an email, you’ll just be one of hundreds of others doing the same thing. Calling affords you the benefit of having the recruiters ear and instantly being on their radar. Then, when they ask for you CV (and they will) send it to them while you are still on the phone. Check that they have received it and then you can be sure that you have done everything you can for that particular position. Wash, rinse, repeat.

The search is on

Whenever I get a call from a recruiter about a potential job I try to find out from them where they found my details and what search they did to get them. For many of them this is Jobsite (as mentioned above), but, more calls stem from recruiters searching their own in-house databases for candidates. Knowing this helps to understand what the best options are for placing your CV.

Now, when I get an email from a recruiter asking for an updated CV, I add ALL of their details to my address book and label them as a recruiter and then reply with the following information:

• Summary of skills and experience (i.e. SQL Server 2005 5yrs)
• Start Availability – for current available start dates (this may be 3 months off, but still worth stating).
• Call availability – for when the recruiter should check in with me for an update on my situation.
• Rate – the day/hour/annual rate that I’ll be looking for. It’s important to have a range here as this will make more jobs available to you. And while some may be at a lower rate there may be other factors that will make this preferable over one paying a bit more. An example of this is finding a job close to home – how much is that worth?
• Job type – contract/temp/perm. This ensures that recruiters don’t waste their time and yours when marketing for positions.
• Contact details – your primary email address and phone number. I have set up a gmail account just for recruitment purposes, which I auto-forward to my personal account. This ensure that all my recruitment-related conversations (and contacts) are kept separate from my personal ones and helps to control the spam (well a little anyway). 

You WANT to be on their database. Trust me. As long as you are clear about all the facts then you should find that you are only called about applicable jobs at applicable times for applicable rates. You need to “help them, help you”. You are (mostly) database professionals, you know the value of good clean data and what you can make of it. Conversely, you also know that incomplete data can lead to all sorts of problems when it comes to marketing. I know that you are concerned about spam, I am too (that’s why I have a separate email address), but don’t let this one fact detract from the major benefits of having your details readily available to the recruiter who may have your dream job.

Think of this another way. You are searching for your next vehicle, you know you want a 5-door hatch, between £6000 – £7500. You get hundreds of results. So you start to narrow your search criteria, entering a max distance from where you are, max engine size, etc. This is what happens in a recruitment search. Initially, you are part of the hundreds of candidates that have “SQL Server, Reporting Services, Integration Services” listed as skills, but are you part of the few that also have their availability, rate, contact details, location, etc listed? If the recruiter refines their search by including a rate range and you have not filled this in, then you will be automatically excluded from any of the results. Recruiters need to find the most likely candidate to fill the position, and not appearing in their search means that you are not one of them.

LinkedIn. Use it or lose it

Yes, I’m on LinkedIn and yes most of my ‘connections’ are recruiters. Whilst I have not had many (comparatively) opportunities originating from this site, I have had a few and those tended to result in more CV-forwards and interviews than other channels. There is also an iPhone app, which is great at making it easy to stay up-to-date with what’s going on in your LinkedIn world.

There are many websites offering online CV creation and storage, but LinkedIn has the added bonus of professional networking. Linking you to many other people through your own contacts – have you looked at how many people are contactable through the 2nd/3rd level? Use this single fact to generate leads.

Love it or loathe it, LinkedIn does open the door. Sometimes.

A heads-up to Recruiters (if you are listening)

I doubt that a) any recruiters will be reading this and, b) even if they do, that they’ll take some of this to heart, but it’s worth trying:

When you leave me a voicemail, clearly state your name, company and contact number so that I can call you back. I’ve had several calls that have been so rushed that I couldn’t catch some of the pertinent information and effectively meant that I could not call that person back. Also, leaving a message with “I have a few openings I’d like to discuss with you..” being the extent of the details of your call, means it will be deleted. If you leave message with a short but specific description of a job that you’d like to discuss then I’ll more than likely call you back. My time is precious too and being an information source for you is not how I want to spend 5 – 10 (15?) minutes of my day. The call needs to be win win.

Thanks for listening.

People will find excuses (I have been one of them) not to do their documentation – on whatever subject/system/process/application. These may be:

1. I don’t have the time.
2. It’s not my responsibility.
3. I am not a technical writer.
4. Where do I begin?

Whilst I am sure that there are organisations that have numerous procedures in place for rigorous documentation of systems & processes, coding standards & conventions, there are (I am sure) many many more (smaller) organisations that have little or no documentation. At the very least, it’s a collection of random text files, word docs, Visio diagrams placed in any number of directories. Most of the knowledge of the way things work is stored in a few key employees heads. Whilst this may seem like a position of power to the employee (they’re ‘irreplaceable’), the organisation is taking a huge risk. As an asides, someone once told me “If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted”. It is worth remembering.

Excuse #1            I don’t have the time.

More than likely, this is a cover-up for Excuse #4. There is always pressure to get projects finished as soon as possible, and that means the solution needs to go into production yesterday. Documentation is sometimes relegated to a date beyond that of the ‘go live’ deadline. And then as soon as you begin putting ‘pen to paper’ on the handover documents a new project comes along and documentation, once again, becomes a dim-and-distant memory.

Excuse #2            It’s not my responsibility

Oh yes it is. Trust me, if you ever want a holiday where you are not on call, it’s your responsibility to ensure that whoever is to hold down the fort, has the information they need to do so. Hands up all those who have accrued two years’ worth of leave because they were the only ones capable of maintaining their systems? I have known several colleagues who were in this position.

If you are building or administrating a system, you are responsible for imparting that knowledge to others. How you do this is another matter entirely.

Excuse #3            I am not a technical writer

This doesn’t matter. Whilst it is important to have good documentation, it is better to have something rather than nothing. If your organisation is yet to standardize documentation practices, this is your chance to take the initiative and show what you are worth.

Excuse # 4           Where do I begin?

I am willing to wager that this is the category that a lot of people will fall into. What needs to be included in the documentation? What level of detail is required? Who is the target audience? There are so many questions. As a developer/DBA/sysadmin it can be difficult to imagine what it is other people need to know in order to accomplish certain tasks. Assumptions are made, and then it all goes terribly wrong.

What am I getting at?

I believe that all of the excuses outlined above can be dropped if it was easier to create documentation. This focuses on the How. I have searched high and low for templates that can be used for a number of things, ranging from Database dictionaries & descriptions, system processes and procedures, development standards & conventions, reporting services templates/design standards, integration services standards & consolidation, the list goes on. I have had to settle with creating my own, and they always being improved, but by no means are they perfect.

How many of you would complete documentation if it were a matter of checking boxes and filling in blanks? If you had a template for, say, technical details of an integration services package,  I am sure that you would be more inclined to fill it in and therefore share the knowledge of that particular solution.

I am asking the community to collaborate, in whatever your speciality is, to share your documentation methods, templates, best practices. I would like to start a wiki of sorts that provides this information to everyone. Something that can grow from the community, for the community.

If you are interested in helping to get this started, email me, Tweet about it, DM me, or simply leave a comment. I am certain this could be a huge resource and one that would ultimately assist many people/organisations to centralise their knowledge base.

Some links to other posts on documentation:

• Mike Walsh
• Jorge Segarra
• Jonathan Kehayias