T-SQL Tuesday #163 – The Best Career Advice

We’re a little delayed this month. Both the host and I forgot about this. So far in June, I’ve been in Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Denver, and Cambridge for events. I head back to Orlando this week, and I’m a little out of sorts.

Maybe one piece of career advice: try to avoid spending 14 of the first 20 days of June away from home.

We have Gethyn Ellis hosting this month with a great invitation: what’s the best career advice you’ve gotten. I really have two answers, but I have to choose the best one, so I’ll do that.

Say No First

I was actually at the Redgate LevelUp 2023 Conference this week and two different speakers mentioned that they keep saying yes to requests. They told the audience that they struggled to say “no”. (a 2019 recap of the event here)

I don’t know when I learned this, but at some point in my 30+ year career I started to say “No” as a default. I would just say no to requests from co-workers, customer, even my manager. I just wouldn’t initially commit to many things, at least not many things that can’t be finished in a few hours.

I didn’t say no to everything, but the busier I was, the more I said no. Then I’d let them convince me why it was a good idea, and sometimes I’d change my mind, and sometimes not. However, this helped me in a few ways.

First, I learned to better manage my workload. I hate not meeting a commitment, and I always try to under-promise and over-deliver. By saying no, I give myself time to think about whether I can sustain something.

Second, this started to force others to really justify their requests. I’ve had no shortage of things people ask for that are really their dreams and ideas, often not thought through. Many people have learned to ask for something without really thinking about it. Just like many technical people start writing code and compiling it without really thinking through what is needed. By not agreeing right away and letting them make a case for why something is needed, I force them to really justify if something is needed.

I get some pushback from managers, but learning to stand up and argue a bit is a good skill. Overall, I’ve frustrated some people, but most others learn that they can count on me.

If I commit.