Career Development Archives - Page 11 of 11

Gen Ys are coming! What is your company doing about it?

April 19, 2013 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

I have just finished the listening(yes, not the reading, I am learning while I am driving also) the book Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott and I wanted to do a quick blog post, because I am bit worried! I am a bit worried, because I am not sure that companies(not to mention education) can get their heads around the change that is coming (ah… sorry, that already came!). This book is all about the so called Generation Ys (which is us, oh, by the way) and how they (we, me including!) see the things in a bit different way, let’s say…

I was talking with a lot of people(Ys) recently, trying to figure out if we all think the same way in terms of education, work and way of living in general. Interestingly… we do indeed, but in this blog post I want to focus or actually stress more on just a few of the “specific characteristics” of Generation Ys(for more info on the topic – just google/bing it) and their expectations in terms of work. Here are some(yes, just some) of the common characteristics of the Gen Ys:

1. Customisation and flexibility– Gen Ys want to decide when and where to work from! This generation likes to customise everything – from their phone screens and ringtones to their working life. Can your company offer this?

2. Fun at work – This generation expects their job will be fun. They expect that the company’s environment will predispose to amazing and full of laughter moments. Can your company offer this?

3. Speed – Generation Ys want everything to happen fast. Really f*kin fast! They expect to be promoted fast, they want to do everything they do faster and faster each and every next day! Can you company offer them or help them with this?

4. No bans – Is your company banning the access to Facebook, Twitter or any other service that Gen Ys want access? Can your company offer a “use whatever you want whenever you want” policy?

5. No hierarchy – This generation is not familiar with the old school hierarchical models and does not expect strict control applied against it. However, they expect a team where everyone is equal. Is your company culture looking similar?

These are just five of the Gen Ys characteristics! Can someone recognise itself in them? I bet you can…

I am not going to comment the psychological part of this topic here. I am leaving this part to you – read the book, it’s fantastic! However, I want to end this post by raising all of those questions above to all companies out there, because I am not sure that they understand something – the people you are about to recruit in the next years will all be Gen Ys! However, how are you going to “get” them? How are you going to approach them? What are you going to offer them, because if you are not willing to change around those 5 above there are companies that are and your company will lose. What’s more – you’ll lose one the best talents out there, because Gen ys are quadrillion times more productive, informed and ready to prove their knowledge compared to anyone out there!

So… that was it – my opinion. What’s yours?

The past 2012 and the upcoming 2013

December 22, 2012 By Boris Hristov 4 Comments

Another year already behind us. However, a new one is knocking on our doors. Can you hear it? Are you ready to open up the door? What is going to happen next? I thought, it is time for me to do a quick recap of my year as I do this for some years already and it helps me see what I have done, where I need to focus more and what I should do next.

Let me start with what I have accomplished and what I have done throughout the year and then I will move to some negatives and of course future plans.

What I have accomplished:

1. Spent more time with my family
2. Spent more time with my amazing girlfriend
3. Went to the next level in my career and became SQL Server Deep Technical Support Engineer at Hewlett-Packard
4. Lead my own course on SQL Server at New Bulgarian University
5. Lead a course on SQL Server with my teammates at Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Sofia University
6. Presented at Microsoft Bulgaria
7. Presented at SQLSaturday Conference, Sofia
8. Presented at TrainerBG
9. Presented at New Bulgarian University
10. Became ITIL certified
11. Became Microsoft Certified Trainer
12. Failed on the MCSE exam (I consider this as good thing!)
13. Graduated from New Bulgarian University (writing my bachelor thesis now)
14. Made Alarm@Student Council at NBU from an idea to reality
15. Became Student of the Year 2012
16. Did my first interview on TV
17. Did many interviews for various medias
18. Was invited to the birthday party of New Horizons Bulgaria (that meant so much to me!)
19. Bought a MacBook Pro
20. Traveled a bit more
21. Blogged a lot more
22. Read a hell of a lot of books on various topics
23. Did tons of sport
24. A lot more…
————————————————————

Became better and had so much fun!

What I have not accomplished or missed to do:

1. Did not travelled abroad with my girlfriend 🙁
2. Did not made it to TechEd (the airline company went bankrupt)
3. Did not participated in Toastmasters, Bulgaria
4. Did not participated in Pecha Kucha, which was held at New Bulgarian University
5. Did not zeroed out my e-mail
6. Did not zeroed out my Google Reader
7. Did not ordered a Kobe Bryant’s jersey
8. Did not buy a Porsche (still dreaming though! :D)
9. Probably a lot more, but I am trying hard…

What are my future plans?

ahh… I can’t tell you… 🙂

So, to sum it up:

2012 – What a year!
2013 – I expect you to be even a better one!

In the end, I wish you to have a great Christmas days! Be with your family and closest people, laugh, enjoy, relax and see you next year!

End.

MCSE Data Platform. The game is now changed.

September 4, 2012 By Boris Hristov 2 Comments

The game is now changed, folks. I am just coming from 70-457 (Transition your skills from MCTS SQL Server 2008 to MCSE SQL Server 2012 Part 1) and I failed on the development part(admin part – no surprises – 900 points). I needed 2 or 3 more right answers, but that’s not the point. What’s interesting though is that if you want to be a MCSE (the old MCITP) for SQL Server 2012, you will have to do some work. A lot of work. Let me explain…

As most of you know, Microsoft changed the rules of their certification program. For us – the DBAs – there was a DBA certification path up until 2008. For the dev guys – there was a different one. And of course for the BI gurus – there was third. Now, however, things are different. There is still a BI path, but there is no DBA and Dev, but DBA + DEV only, which is huge in terms of what we need to know in order to become MCSE(not to mention that exam on Data Warehousing was added also).

Today, I went for the 70-457(there is Second shot for each and every SQL Server 2012 exam, so go go for it)and I felt what it is to have DBA part (25 questions) and DEV part (25 questions) instead of only one of them. It is also interesting to mention that the questions are now asked in various ways – you no more have only 4 options from which you choose one – no, no. You now have questions with 6, 8 and even more options to choose from. You can choose 1 or more answers and of course that’s not all. You now have questions in which you need to order a sequence of steps or questions with more than one right answer.

Now, that’s fine. I like it. But what I love is the second major difference I already mentioned to you. When you finish with the first 25 questions you go for 25 more, but this time they are in the T-SQL development area(and I do not have the 2008 MCITP in development, so it was a bit tough there). Note that these are not questions on select statements – no, no, no. These are questions related to CTEs, Window functions, Creating/altering various objects (views, tables, procs), stored procedures, table – valued functions, UDFs and a whole lot more.

So my takeaway for all of us is this – if we still want to be MCITPs, but in the world of SQL Server 2012, we will need to learn a hell of a lot new stuff. Period. What’s good though is that this “new stuff” has always been important for us as data professionals – database design, querying and modifying data and database objects, designing database solutions – be they for OLTP or OLAP workloads and now Microsoft just says: “You wanna go up and be relevant in the current marketplace – there are a must dos. It’s your choice whether you will go for them or not.”… and I love someone challenging me this way.

The game is now changed, guys, and I am loving it. What about you?

@Microsoft Certifications, I will be back stronger…

Mission 2012

January 6, 2012 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

Let’s start with a huge Happy New Year to all of you! Wish you all to be healthy, very successful and let there be more reasons for smiles all the way during the whole year of 2012!

Now, 2011 was huge for me! Hope it was huge for you too! However, I strongly, strongly believe that 2012 will be even more insanely great! Last year I wrote a post with my goals for 2011(yeap, in Bulgarian and if you ask me why I am writing this in English my answer for you is – I don’t know. Really. I just feel that I have to do it this way!) and I have gone waaay beyond what I have set as goals for the last 12 months! Way beyond! This year – I will not post anything similar. Why? Cause I don’t feel like I want to and If you know me well, you know that I do not do things that I don’t want to do! I just can’t spend my time this way…

And even though I will not post anything related to my career/personal development I can say that you can expect and will see dramatic changes in both my personal and career during this year. Just the thought that I am graduating from my university(and I have had the chance to study in the best one(my opinion only!), thanks to my family) is freaking me out, because I will have so much time for other things that interest me, that … I just can’t even imagine how amazing this will be!(I will miss this place badly though!)! Combining that with the fact that I really know what I have to learn, what I have to develop as skills to get better at what I do and that I have already done some of the arrangements for that – I believe that there are quite a lot trainings to be led, certifications to be taken, technologies to be learned and trips to be made during this year! … oh yeap – forgot to tell – and I can’t wait! 🙂

So, all, wish you an amazing year! Be healthy, do what you love to do, work hard, but remember – as Steve Jobs said: “stay foolish, stay hungry”! The only thing I wish for myself is to be healthy during the whole 2012(please, wish me that too), because I have everything else! I have everything else and thinking of this just puts an amazing smile on my face!

End. Beatiful end! 🙂