It's all one life.

The following is a post I wrote back on December 13.  I found it in the drafts folder, and figured this was as good a time as any to go ahead and publish it.  So here you go: enjoy. :-)


------------------------------------------------------------------------


I updated my Twitter profile today. It used to read this way:

"MS SQL DBA in Central Ohio."

It now reads:

"Central Ohio SQL DBA, Family Man, Musician, Skeptic, Apolitical, Woodworker, Scientist, Thinker, Atheist. Not always in that order."

There has been some discussion, and always will be, about keeping our private lives and professional lives separate. This isn't a bad thing, but there is also something to be said for being viewed as an individual, rather than as another cog in the machine. I can safely say that at every job I've held or applied for so far, my bosses, their bosses and some others, have known almost each little factoid contained in my current Twitter profile. I can also say that it has made only a positive difference.

For a time, I also considered the idea of 'branding' myself as a SQL Server DBA. The thought still occurs to me. I am inspired to be a good DBA, especially by the likes of Brent Ozar, Jeremiah Peschka, Paul Randal, Steve Jones, Kendra Little, and so many others, I don't have the storage to name them all. To that end, I train myself to be one. But there's more to me than just SQL Server. Sure, some employers might like a mindless SQL based automaton, but those aren't the people I would really want to work for. Luckily, I haven't had that kind of experience yet.

Ultimately, I think what people see in you is a function of what they want to see in you. Most people that I know are able to look at people and see the good things. I know many people personally that, while they would completely disagree with me on some matters, do respect my opinions on others. Maybe it's my hopeless optimism, but I have a feeling that little I do outside of my professional life, would make a serious difference in it. Of course, someone's always got a story about so-and-so who did such-and-such and got fired. Those are the stories because they are they exception, not the rule.

So what I'm going to do is re-expand my blog a bit, to contain not only SQL Server posts, but personal things as well. Some will hopefully be helpful to others. Some may just make for a laugh. Some will be me, just ranting, which I do have a tendency to do from time to time. But all will hopefully paint a more complete picture of who I am. I've noticed that the blogs I enjoy most, even the SQL bloggers, are the ones that contain some glimpse of the person, and not just the technical content. I work with machines all day. I'd rather work with people. People have lives, and personalities, hopes, dreams, foibles and fables. And I want to hear them all. It's what makes life worth living.

Let's go live.