Professional Development

I'm Speaking at SQLBits 2022!

I’m proud to announce that I will be speaking at SQLBits! I had the absolute pleasure of speaking at SQLBits in the past, both in person and virtual, and experienced first hand how great this event is and cannot wait to get back and speak again (in person)! And this year, I have several sessions with some of my best friends on our data community!!! One on building and deploying container based applications in Kubernetes and the other on deploying SQL Server in Kubernetes

Speaking at PASS Summit 2019!

I’m very pleased to announce that I will be speaking at PASS Summit 2019! This is my second time speaking at PASS Summit and I’m very excited to be doing so! What’s more, is I get to help blaze new ground with an emerging technology,** Kubernetes and how to run SQL Server in Kubernetes**! My session is “Inside Kubernetes – An Architectural Deep Dive” if you’re a just getting started in the container space and want to learn how Kubernetes works and dive into how to deploy SQL Server in Kubernetes this is the session for you.

There will be no Doctor No, for now!

A few weeks back several SQL Server bloggers discussed their academic pasts…well here I’m going to let you in on a little secret of mine too. I failed out of college too. I was a Management Information Systems major and limped along with a 1.82 GPA before I got tossed from The University of Mississippi in 1999. Fast forward a few years, in 2002 I went back to school at Benedictine University in Lisle Illinois to study Computer Science.

Speaking at PowerShell Summit!

Speaking at PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit 2017! I’m proud to announce that I will be speaking at PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit 2017 on the conference runs from April 9th 2017 through April 12th 2017. This is an incredible event packed with fantastic content and speakers. Check out the amazing schedule! <p> This year I have two sessions! </p> <p> On <strong>Tuesday, April 10th at 10:00AM</strong> &#8211; My session is with none other the <a href="https://twitter.

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.

Immersed in SQL Server at SQLskills

Over the last two years I have had the pleasure of attending all three SQLskills Immersion Event classes. This training is second to none in its quality and intensity. The three courses help you look at SQL Server from different angles and are major parts of my job and likely yours as well. Each course uses a building block approach where you’re introduced into core fundamentals that the later modules build upon with more advanced topics.

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.