SQL Quiz Part 2

Chris Shaw called us out again. This time, it was Tom LaRock who tagged me in this round. This time around, the question is ‘What are the largest challenges that you have faced in your career and how did you overcome those?’

For me, the largest problem has always been myself. It’s difficult to admit, believe me, but over the years I’ve allowed a few bad habits to get in the way of getting my job done effectively.

One of the biggest has been my desire to get everything done and learn everything at the same time. Early in my career, I didn’t know that it was acceptable to say no to people. I took on every project that was thrown my way, regardless of how critical it was, and I tried to multitask to get everything done quickly. This led to very long days, long nights, and long weekends. Combine that with a recent college graduate and an active social life and you have a recipe for burning out.

Over the years, I realized that I didn’t have to know everything about everything and that I didn’t need to be a master of every new technology the instant it came out. I learned that it’s important to be aware of new technologies, to know the pluses and minuses, but I don’t need to have practical experience working with them just so long as I’m aware of the pluses and minuses of any approach and how it fits in as a piece of the entire puzzle.

The thing that has been harder for me is learning how to say ‘No.’ And this, ultimately, comes from my soft skills. I’ll admit freely that part of what drew me to IT was the stereotypical image that people in IT don’t need to have soft skills. Boy, nothing could have been further from the truth.

Due to my lack of soft skills, I have been unable to correctly and effectively say ‘no’ to people. In the past, I’ve over done things, taken on too much, and let myself become exceptionally rude with other people because I was struggling under the load I created for myself.

My soft skills are something that I’m still working on – it’s a daily struggle for me, but it’s a learning process that I appreciate and enjoy. Because I’ve been focused on developing my soft skills, I’ve gotten myself involved organizations like PASS, jumped on board with twitter, and have begun building my network – both amongst IT folks and outside of our immediate industry.

These days, I have a better idea of how to say ‘no’, I’m more comfortable with not knowing everything and I use my desire to know everything to direct myself in constructive directions, and my soft skills have improved greatly over the years. Protip: The best way to say ‘no’ is often to ask ‘why?’

So, in summary, my two biggest problems have been saying no and learning to let go and realize that I can only know so much.

I’m going to tag Louis Davidson aka Dr SQL and Grant Fritchey.