SQL Saturday #337 Oregon Recap

The day has come to an end and SQL Saturday #337, once again, was a huge success. It was a very well-planned and executed event. Event like SQL Saturday Oregon would never be possible without the Sponsors, the local chapter leadership and volunteers. This is what make SQL Community so great. The willingness of people to share their time, their knowledge or their labor for the betterment of the rest of the community. If you never had the chance to attend or participate in a SQL community events, you are missing out. If you would like to be a part of the community, go to www.sqlpass.org and check on upcoming events.

Ok going back to recapping the day… One session really stuck with me and it’s not a technical session. I attended “Life Lessons in Communications” by Tom Roush (@GEEQL) at the end of the day. From the description of the class, I was expecting the class to talk about the common mistakes IT professional made in communicating with others in a business setting. What I got instead was knowledge so profound and wise, it was pure poetry.

“You are not right until the right people know you’re right!”

Those are one of many words of wisdom shared by Tom in his 75-minutes session. Tom talked about the important of communicating our work to our coworkers, direct reports and to our higher-ups. He also showed examples on how to quantify the abstract nature of our work in the IT field. He showed example on how to come up with a believable number when presenting to your higher-ups. For example: instead of saying our process ran 60,000x faster after some changes you made, try saying that you reduced the run time by 99.8%.

“Huge part of being smart is knowing what you’re dumb at!”

Tom also talked about how to recognize your mistakes and owning up to it. Having the integrity to admit your mistake, work through it and asking for help if you need it.

At the end of the session, I want to rename the session to “Important Skills for Career Advancement and Longevity”. If you have the pleasure of meeting Tom, ask him at least for the slide of this presentation. It will change how you see your career and your relationship with your upper management and your peers.

On the lighter side of the day, it was nice catching up with old friends and made some new ones. Can’t wait to get to Seattle for the PASS Summit 2014.

~ HC ~