Career

My Desktop Setup - Updated

Every once in a while when I’m recording a Pluralsight course, I’ll take a photo of my desk to let people see the behind the scenes of the process. Well, my friend Steve Jones (@way0utwest) encouraged me to write a desk setup post…so here we go! Desk Autonomous SmartDesk 2 - Home Office Most standup desks come at a much higher price point, and this one lands somewhere between $379-$500 depending on the features.

A New Road Ahead…

Where I’ve Been Since January 1, 2012 I’ve been the principal consultant at Centino Systems. Jokingly, I refer to myself as The Centino of Systems. I learned a lot of lessons running my own business. Such as how to be a consultant and also how to scale the business even as the only employee/consultant. There’s been ups and downs, successes and failures and I couldn’t be more happy with how things went.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional – Data Platform for 2019-2020

Today, I’m proud to announce that I have been renewed as an Microsoft MVP – Data Platform for the 2019-2020 award year, my third MVP award. This is an truly an honor and I’m humbled to be included in this group of exceptional data professionals. I really look forward to continuing to work with everyone in the MVP community and continuing to contribute to our unmatched Data Platform Community! ****

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional – Data Platform for 2018-2019

Today, I’m proud to announce that I have been renewed as an Microsoft MVP – Data Platform for the 2018-2019 award year, my second MVP award. This is an truly an honor and I’m humbled to be included in this group of exceptional data professionals. I really look forward to continuing to work with everyone in the MVP community and continuing to contribute to our unmatched SQL Community! **** What is an MVP?

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional – Data Platform

Today, I’m proud to announce that I have been named a Microsoft MVP – Data Platform. This is an exceptional honor and I’m humbled to be included in this group of exceptional data professionals. I really look forward to working with everyone in the MVP community and continuing to contribute to our unmatched SQL Community! What is an MVP? Here’s the definition according to Microsoft Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, or MVPs, are technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community.

5 Must Haves Before You Start Consulting

Please join me at IT/Dev Connections on Oct. 12 at 8:00AM where I’ll be hosting a Birds of a Feather session “Moving to Independent Consulting” Bring your questions!* Yes, an 8:00AM session in Las Vegas, but if you’re serious about going out on your own…you’ll already be up :)* The most common questions I’m asked during networking sessions at technical conferences and events aren’t technical! People want to know what it’s like being an independent consultant.

Thanks Paul!

What I’ve noticed this year is that there’s really not another group of people like the SQL Community. Earlier this year Paul Randal ( b | t ), in the name of community, offered his services to mentor to a small group of people. Check it out here. Crazy as it may sound he went ahead and offered mentoring to everyone that submitted here and I was on that list. Here’s my blog post submission

Reflections as a consultant

Let’s just start with the last three years have been fantastic! This blog post is a slight deviation from the technical content on my blog. We’re going to focus on career and professional development for a minute. In 2011 I was thrust into the world of consulting…accidentally. Accidentally you ask, how can that happen? Well, at the time I worked remotely for a large health care practice doing system design and software development on the Microsoft stack.