Search results matching tags 'professional development' and 'dba'

Demo Mastery for the Technology Evangelist

KKline — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:02:00 GMT

In the same way that the finest presentations involve much more than the simple relaying of information, the finest software demos are much more than just presenting features.

REMEMBER: The goal of a demo is to INSPIRE the audience to use the software/technology, not to teach them every nuance of software/technology.

I've spent the last 10 years learning how to give good presentations and to give good software demonstrations. Here are several tips to take your software demonstration from informative to masterful:

1. Know your audience

Whenever you start a demo, make sure you have a good idea what the audience is interested in. That way you can focus the attention of the audience upon things that actively engage their imagination. You really, really want the audience to be thinking about how they're going to use the software that you are presenting. If it if you're not presenting on something that they're interested in, they'll mentally disengage. In some cases you'll even see them open their laptops and start to answer emails. That's the last thing in the world that you want to happen.

In many cases, I'll begin a presentation by asking my audience to tell me more about themselves. I want to know how much of their time is spent as a developer, as a DBA, as a designer. If nothing else, I can change the sort of examples that I use to be tailored specifically to the audience that are presenting to.

Truly bad software demos have problems. The code doesn't work. The beta software crashes. The screen shows the dreaded blue screen. But that's one thing. What you really want to avoid, is the truly mediocre software demo. The quickest path to a mediocre software demo is to simply show every feature and explain each in as much detail as you can. It's like those games that sit in our closet that no one likes to play. Most all of these games are ones in which one person takes a turn while everyone else waits. No one has any fun except for the three or four minutes in which it relates directly to them.

2. Start, but only start, with an agenda

It's always a good idea to inform your attendees of what you would like to present. What you present the agenda it's a great idea to confirm that this agenda is what the audience is looking for. Before I learned to do this on a regular basis, I found that my presentation might contain two or three lengthy sections of my software demo which were completely uninteresting to the audience. The customer is really numbed by this waste of time. It's far better to tell the audience what you are going to tell them.

Here's my routine when I start a demo. Confirm that your agenda is of interest to them and recheck the time constraints of the meeting. Then, get to what they are interested in. This flexibility also provides you the opportunity to inject other software demonstrations that are much more pertinent to your audience. Audiences love a presenter who can think on their feet and are flexible to the interests of the audience.

3. Skip the lengthy intro

This is a aspect of demonstrations and presentations that I struggle with. I worried a lot that I hadn't demonstrated enough credibility with my audience. And so for many years of my technology evangelism role, I spent a lot of time telling the audience about myself and about the company. What I found over time though, is that audiences actually give you an initial dose of credibility. It's up to you to maintain and even enhance that credibility through a strong demo and a good presentation. Better to have a very short introduction and get straight to the meat of the presentation.

Call out - Mouse Cursor Movement: It's especially important to remember in online demos that there is usually a great deal of latency between what you do on your screen and what your audience sees on their screen. So it's important to remember to MOVE YOUR MOUSE SLOWLY AND THOUGHTFULLY! I've sat in online webcasts, and even in in-person events, where the mouse literally disappeared on one section of the screen and reappeared elsewhere because the presenter was moving their mouse cursor here, there, and everywhere. If you want the audience to see what you're doing with the mouse cursor, keep it slow.

4. Show what is pertinent

One of the most important things a software evangelist can do is to show the most important and pertinent take away of their software. Let's you are trying to teach an audience about the extreme ROI (return on investment) of a particular kind of business intelligence strategy, it's crucial that you figure out in advance what are the key takeaways that you would like your audience to remember. Typically in audience will only remember two or three very salient points about your demo. If the BI presentation spends the first 30 minutes showing how to build a report but never once mentions ROI, what do you think the audience will remember? Once you know what is pertinent to your audience and what you want the key takeaway to be, you should focus the rest of your energies on building an airtight demo that supports those takeaways.

You will see the inverse of this many times in a mediocre or poor demo. At the end of the demo the audience will feel like they have sat through product training, rather than a call to action that inspires them to use the product. I've sat through demos in which the presenter carefully walk through several different menus, tabs, and wizards. And after 30 minutes of that, I now knew HOW to use the software, but I still didn't know WHY I would use the software.

In the worst cases, showing everything that your software can do may leave the audience feeling that it is too complex, too detailed, or too overwhelming for them to use effectively. Remember that a software demo is not design to train the audience. A software demo is designed to inspire the audience to use your products.

5. Don't get sidelined

We usually get sidelined in our demos by two things: questions from the audience and "technical difficulties" a.k.a. bugs.

Questions from the Audience

It's usually a good sign if your demo is provoking questions from the audience. However, you don't want to demo to turn into free consultation to solve one person's problem. Nor do you want to turn into fact-finding for one very narrow set of interests or to become the arbiter of some sort of political dispute between factions in the audience.

When taking questions, remember to repeat the question to the audience. This ensures that you fully understood the question, that the questioner asked for what they meant, and that if there is any recording going on the question will be picked up by the recording system.

But my typical rule of thumb is to only spend a couple minutes on a single question and questioner. Once a single questioner goes beyond a couple minutes, you can usually tell if you're heading for the sidelines. It's at that point that I asked the questioner if we can take the question off-line and come back to it afterwards so that everyone else can benefit from the time that we have set aside right now.

Technical Difficulties

Another form of sidelining are bugs in the software and outright crashes of your demo environment. Many times this simply can't be avoided. This is especially true if you are demoing a beta version of the software. But there are couple important things to remember if you are sidelined by a bug or crash.

First, mention if you're using a beta and that it might not be fully stable. Also, be sure to mention that the software WAS stable when you prepared the demo. Second, test your demo after conducting a full reboot of your demo environment. I've seen many demos crash because the presenter made other changes in the environment but only tested for the software demonstration itself. Third, Don't draw attention to bugs that you encounter during the demo, especially if they're just cosmetic. It's important not to do things like slap your four head and exclaim "what the hell is that?" If it's a bigger bug that hampers or interferes with functionality, you might state that it's normal functionality is… XYZ. Finally, if you experience a major bug or crash, immediately disconnect the projector or the desktop sharing application. There's nothing worse than seeing a presenter struggle with the bug in front of the entire audience.

6. Hit the jackpot

All good jokes have a punchline. All good action movies have a climax. All good newspaper stories have a headline. Your demo needs to have a jackpot, where the audience can clearly and immediately see how your software pays off.

Let's say you're doing a demo of the new columnstore features in SQL Server 2012. You could spend a lot of time showing the conceptual underpinnings of a columnstore index. You could show the state was to create columnstore indexes, to modify them, to drop them. You could admonish the audience and ways to build read-write systems so that they can easily get data into and out of columnstore indexes.

But what's the real payoff of a columnstore index? It is incredible fast for a particular kind of scenario on SQL Server. So in this example, your jackpot is to show how difficult that scenario is under normal circumstances and then immediately show how easy and fast it is with the columnstore index. Bingo! Your audience is hooked. They immediately see why they want this. There inspired to start using it. Now, they want to figure out how to use it and want to know when and under what conditions they should use.

Are you an SC, technology evangelist, or technology presenter? What are your tips for a better demo?

-Kevin

-Follow me on Twitter

What's It Like on a SQLCruise?

KKline — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 19:25:00 GMT

I always seem to get a question or two along the lines of "What's it like on a SQLCruise?" as I present at various conferences, SQL Saturdays, and user group meetings. Since we just finished up the 2013 Miami SQLCruise, I thought it'd be a good time to recap so that you can judge for yourself if you'd ever want to do it yourself. Personally, I think that Tim Ford (Twitter | Blog), together with his wife Amy, are doing better than ever in making the cruise both a top-quality learning experience and fantastic social experience. I've heard from many attendees that they learned enough in the first day or two to make the whole trip worthwhile and, keep in mind, some of these attendees paid for the trip out of their own pocket.

Loads of pictures at http://sqlcruise.com/cruise/past-cruises/sql-cruise-caribbean-2013/.

SQLCruise Content

SQLCruise is, first and foremost, a training event. On each cruise, Tim usually pulls together four or five very well known experts in the industry who, in turn present several hours training. Each day the ship is at sea is a day spent in class. Example of the agenda is on the lower right. When the ship is in port, it's a day of activity and adventures. Tim spends quite a bit of time coordinating with the speakers so that the curriculum is both unique and well tailored to the students.

But each and every night, whether at sea or in port, is spent in 'office hours'. For many attendees, office hours are their favorite part of the learning experience. Since Tim caps registration at 15 students, that means the students get virtually unfettered access to the experts. If you've ever attended a conference, you've probably encountered that common scenario where the speakers are busy with presentations and, at the conclusion of their session, are mobbed by attendees with questions. They're lucky to get 3-4 minutes of the speaker's time. On the other hand, the students get hours and hours to talk about whatever is on their mind. And since we're on a cruise ship in the tropics, office hours usually look like the image at top right. It's both very relaxing and very educational.

Another aspect of the content on SQLCruise that makes it unique is the amount of time spent on personal and professional development. The majority of attendees are not newbies. They're mid-career professionals who are doing well and their career and want to take it to a higher level. But as we often find, our earlier years in IT are spent learning how to be really good at the technology part of our career. We like technology and, sensibly, it's the immediate problem we face in day-to-day productivity. But as the years progress and we earn a few promotions, we come to find that rising in the ranks means a lot of communication and, gasp, office politics. The speakers, in many cases, have careers the students would like to emulate. This is where SQLCruise really shines. Imagine being able to pick the brains of senior technologists and managers in a friendly and welcoming environment. How great is that? In fact, many SQLCruise attendees (I know of several from each cruise I have attended) have used the professional counseling they received on the cruise to enact an energetic new phase in their career with big pay raises, exciting new jobs, high-profile blogs, and all sorts of other really cool things like that.

You'll have to suffer through excursions like Trunk Bay on St. John's in the US Virgin Islands.

SQLCruise Experience

Now that I've told you about the grueling educational side of SQLCruise, did I mention that we do all of this ON A CRUISE SHIP IN THE CARIBBEAN?!? The cruise ships are, if you will, an enormous Vegas hotel on the water. There are casinos, a constant parade of entertainment, live music, comedy, pools and water slides, discos and dancing, live game shows - the works. Ask Neil Hambly (Twitter | Blog) about the dancing!

Several of the sponsors also help to put on really fun contests and activities, some of which produce some really funny antics. There are fun scavenger hunts and other team relays which, if you can get over your inhibitions, are a ton of fun. Another aspect that makes the SQLCruise a unique experience is the fact that most attendees bring at least one other person, if not their entire family. That means that there are plenty of people for your significant other to hang out with while you're in class. Kids have built-in playmates, over and above the kids' activities that the cruise line keeps running around the clock. Lots of folks, including me, have also brought along a parent or several parents. They all have a great time and, in many cases, look forward to meeting their new friends again on a future cruise. Would it surprise you if I mentioned that most of the parents are not the type to start emailing each other as soon as they get off the ship?

Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of SQLCruise for many attendees is that you're on a cruise ship in the Caribbean hundreds of miles from bandwidth. That means very limited connectivity. Although I've witnessed a student or two have to miss a class to put out some sort of fire back at the office, this is a really rare occurrence. In fact, it's much less common than what I've seen at the big conferences because you're so disconnected from all fast forms of bandwidth. Yes, there is an expensive sort of satellite connectivity on the ship. But your boss would have to be pretty desperate to keep you on the front lines while on one of these trips. Now I don't know about you, but my training events are always more enjoyable when I don't have the cares of the office weighing on my mind.

SQLCruise Instructor Allen White (Twitter | Blog) teaches about PowerShell for the SQL Server professional at right. Notice his casual but totally appropriate attire. Shorts, sandals, and comfy shirts are the norm even in class.

SQLCruise Cost

SQLCruise costs less than $200/day for the training. That compares to more than $300-400/day training costs of most commercial training centers who use the Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC). On the other hand, there's the cost of the cruise itself. But again, the cruise is all-inclusive for lodging and meals (but not alcohol). So, for me at least, the cost of cruise itself was actually a little cheaper than a standard, nice American hotel chain like a Hilton, Marriott, or Sheraton.

Another, less tangible benefit of the expense of the SQLCruise is that the instructors are never unable to answer your questions, compared to many training centers whose trainers have never actually had a career built around the topic they're teaching. It's a huge difference.

Finally, if you're weighing the idea of paying for a trip like this out of your own pocket, consider that training expense are tax deductible. In my experience, probably a third of attendees cover their own costs. In a few cases, employers cover the training and the attendee covers their travel expenses. And for the rest, their employers cover the cost. Check out the FAQ and other resources on the website for tips on convincing your boss that this is the right training for you. As an aside, SQL Sentry gave away a full registration to the event - winner Mickey Stuewe is in the center of the picture at right. Congrats Mickey!

It's a great event and a great way to spend a week. I hope to see you at a future SQLCruise!

-Kev

-Follow me on Twitter

PASS Summit 2012, Slide Decks

KKline — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:02:00 GMT

Ok, I have to admit the painful truth. I'm reliably slow to the finish line. This year, I got my slides into PASS HQ by the skin of my teeth, the weekend before the event was to begin. Although I could say with a straight face "I uploaded my slides!". I have to be honest that I wasn't surprised when many of my attendees said that they weren't available for download by the time my session started. OTOH, I also have to say that I really do prefer for attendees to focus on the presentation while it's being presented and that they should grab the slides afterwards. But that's just my personal preference.

Having said all of that, I'm going to post my three session slide decks here so that you can grab them in case PASS has to take a while longer to get them posted. If you don't mind, the PASS program committee has introduced a new electronic feedback system. PLEASE PROVIDE FEEDBACK!

(Click on the session title to download the zip file of the slide deck).

PASS TV - Gaining Executive Support

This brief session is all about convincing your boss to do something you want - telecommute, make a big purchase of hardware or software, bring in a consultant, and so forth. See the PASS TV schedule for other sessions.

Winning Influence in IT Teams

Abstract: Ever wanted to convince the boss to try something new, but didn't know where to start? Ever tried to lead your peers toward an innovative, fresh idea only to fail to achieve your goals? This session teaches you the eight techniques of influencing IT professionals and the means of communicating your ideas upward to management and out to teammates so that you can innovate and achieve change in your organization. You'll learn the fundamental difference between influence and authority and how you can achieve a high degree of influence without explicit authority. You'll also learn the eight techniques of influencing IT professionals, when to apply them, and how to best use them. And you'll discover the communication and procedural techniques that ensure your ideas get a hearing by bosses and peers, and how to best win support for them.

Evaluate Session

Managing SQL Server in a Virtual World

This session rocked the house! We had standing room only probably at 20 to 30 minutes before start time. Our attendance was over 500, but we probably could've filled the biggest 700+ person room. A special thanks to my friend David Klee (blog | twitter) for tag-teaming with my like mega-nerd luchadors.

Abstract: Why are so many organizations implementing VMware, and what does it mean for SQL Server DBAs? In this deep-dive session, you'll see that when configured and managed properly, SQL Server can run just as well in a virtual environment as a physical one. We'll review the benefits VMware provides, including hardware abstraction, easier failover, and simpler capacity planning. We'll also explore key tips to help administer a SQL Server instance running inside a virtual machine. You'll learn the differences in general administration, disaster recovery, and high availability on VMs; get a better understanding of activity and performance trends on VMs; and learn how to ensure effective capacity planning and optimal performance on VMs. If you’ve ever had a virtual deployment go bad, or if you’re struggling to manage the performance of virtualized SQL Servers, be sure to catch this session.

Evaluate Session

Secure Your Spot at the Nashville SQL Saturday!

KKline — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:50:00 GMT

PASS SQL Saturdays are free 1-day training events for IT professionals interested in Microsoft SQL Server, providing a variety of high-quality technical sessions, all happen through the efforts of local volunteers. The leadership team of the local chapter of PASS here in Nashville (Facebook | LinkedIn) have worked hard to make this year's SQL Saturday a day of great training and networking.

The local NashSQL leadership team includes yours truly (blog | twitter), Joe Webb (Twitter | Blog), Louis "Dr SQL" Davidson (Twitter | Blog), Christina Leo (blog | twitter), and Shelton Dickson (website). We also get a lot of operational help from Matt LeBlank (LinkedIn | Twitter).

We think you'll find it's a great way to spend a Saturday!

Register for the free community day with 5 concurrent tracks of hour-hour technical sessions running all day long: www.sqlsaturday.com/145/eventhome.aspx

Also, we are very pleased to announce the SQLSaturday #145 Pre-con event on Friday, October 12th. We have four paid sessions available from established industry experts. Session details are provided in the links below.

Please be aware that each Pre-con is priced at a staggeringly cheap $129.95 + $8.14 processing fee.

Registrations made by August 31, 2012, will receive an EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION rate of an $99.95 + 6.49 processing fee!!!

Don't miss out on this fantastic offer! Register now: SQL Satuday #145 PreCons

A continental breakfast will be served and tea and coffee will be available throughout the day. Lunch will be provided.

Two New Slide Decks. Plus, the Week in Colorado.

KKline — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:03:00 GMT

I had the honor of traveling the great state of Colorado last week, speaking at the PASS chapters in Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Denver. At all three events, we had a stellar attendance and, at least in Denver, broke all the records in recent memory both in terms of overall attendance and in first-timers. Denver, in fact, was standing room only and had nearly 30 first time attendees. Great news! I also want to give a special shout-out of thanks and appreciation to Chris Shaw (Twitter | Blog) whose hard work and tenacity ensured that all of Colorado got to see me speak. From left to right, Gabriel Villa (Twitter), me, Chris Shaw, and Rebecca Mitchell (Twitter). If it weren't for Chris, I wouldn't have been there. Thanks for putting in the time, amigo!

New Slide Decks!

During the 3-day jaunt, I presented two of my more popular sessions. These are updated slide decks, in case you want to download them here:

UG - End-to-End Troubleshooting

and

UG - Top 10 SQL Server Administration Mistakes

Be sure to check in the Slides area of the website, if you want to see the links for SpeakerRate, and in the case of several of my presentations, white papers, video recordings, etc. It's the People that Matter

A Blast from the SQLPASS Past!

I've always tried to maintain the relationships I built with the founding members of the PASS board of directors. After their time on the PASS board, almost all of them have moved on from SQL Server to other adventures. Pam Smith, the first president of the organization, is now a professor. Guy Brown, the second president, is now the director of IT at his same employer, rather than just SQL Server as when he was on the PASS board. A few, such as Kurt Windisch, a former VP of PASS, and my good friend Joe Webb (Twitter | Blog), are still active in the SQL Server space. One relationship that I've enjoyed over the years is with PASS' original Microsoft liaison and now a Denver-area software entrepreneur Steve Murchie (at right) running his own healthcare IT outfit. Steve has been a source of inspiration to me and also of great advice for all things startup-related. It was great to connect with Steve and catch up on his latest doings.

I also got to enjoy an evening out with the local attendees after the Denver user group meeting. It was great to hang out with folks there. I got to meet Kevin Cox (twitter), a member of Microsoft's incredibly talented SQLCAT group, and for whom I was a technical editor on a SQL Server v6.5 book back in the Neanderthal era. That shows just how old both Kevin and I actually are. Other cool folks that I got to meet included Steve Wake, Mike Fal, Marc Beacom, Jason Kassay, Jason Horner and my ol' buddy, Kelly the Greeley Geek.

On top of that, long-time SQL Server MVP and all-around awesome guy Steve Jones (Twitter | Blog) visited. I kept him out way too late that night which, to be honest, isn't usually my style. But the good conversation propelled us on past midnight.

The Good Folks at SQL Server Professional and Windows IT Professional Magazines

I've written for SQL Server Professional (formerly the artist known as "SQLMag") in some form or another starting from my first cover article for them way back in the mid 1990's. My Tool Time column has been going strong there since, oh, around 2006 iirc. For most of the time I've known the folks at SQLMag, they were located in Loveland, CO but they were able to move to some incredibly nice digs just up the road in Fort Collins. In all the many years, I've written for them, I'd never been to their offices - until now. It was great to visit and break bread with Megan (to my right), Blair (across), and Jaylee (across and to my right)!

I've always supported SQLMag and encourage you to subscribe. On top of the goodness already in the digital magazine, there are some neat developments coming down the pipeline with SQLMag which I think we'll all enjoy. Be sure to subscribe today! (You can click the badge on the left or simply go to http://www.sqlmag.com).

What's Next?

My current travel schedule is pinned up on this blog post HERE. However, I also know of a couple on-line appearances and probably a trip between the long gap between now and my next in-person appearance at the Orlando SQL Saturday at the end of September, where I'll also be teaching a pre-conference seminar (register HERE for the seminar).

SSWUG

The first on-line event to note is my a presentation by SSWUG of my Leadership Skills for IT Professionals video series, starting on August 24th. Sign up using the hyperlink (note that a video plays immediately upon loading the webpage, in case you want to be ready to pause or stop it). You can also buy a DVD set of the 14 hours of leadership training content.

24HOP - The 24 Hours of PASS Event

I'll also be speaking on the topic of influence in the next 24 Hours of PASS coming up on September 20th and 21st. Registration for the twenty-four hours of around the clock presentations is completely free and well worth your time. Check the schedule for the event and register! Even if you can only watch one or two sessions (or even zero sessions), be sure to register so that you'll automatically be notified when the sessions become available as streaming media.

Enjoy!

-Kev

-Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook

Come See Me. I'll Probably Be Just Down the Street Soon!

KKline — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:02:00 GMT

Even though I've recently changed jobs, I'll still be speaking at a lot of SQL events across the country and internationally. There are still a few trips that I've yet to finalize, in particular with the fine folks in Houston, run by my friend Nancy Hidy (blog | twitter), and my friends in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, run by my friend Mark Ginnebaugh (blog | twitter). Also, do to some missed deadlines, it looks like I won't be speaking at the Nordic SQL Rally this fall. My bad! On the other hand, you can see when checking my roster, that I hardly have time to catch my breath with this travel schedule.

I'll also be doing several on-line events with the PASS Professional Development Virtual Chapter, run by Mark Caldwell (blog | twitter), through out the year.

Here's what's on the docket up through the start of the holiday season:

New York City

SQL Saturday 158, August 4

The Colorado User Group Tour

Boulder PASS user group meeting, August 14

Colorado Springs PASS user group meeting, August 15 (Register here for Colorado Springs PASS user group meeting).

Denver PASS user group meeting, August 16

Comatose, August 17 (Not an actual city in CO).

Orlando

SQL Saturday Performance Tuning Pre-Con, September 28

SQL Saturday 151, September 29

Online

SSWUG 2012 Fall vConference, Oct 2-4, (Please register using code 'VCKEVIN'. I will personally hug you, virtually.)

Lincoln

SQL Saturday Performance Tuning Pre-Con, October 5

SQL Saturday 165, October 6

Cedar Rapids

East Iowa PASS user group meeting, Oct 8 TBD

Quad City PASS user group meeting, Oct 9 TBD

Nashville (Go Titans!)

SQL Saturday Leadership Skills for IT Pros Pre-Con, October 12

SQL Saturday 145, October 13

Seattle

SQL Connections, Las Vegas, Nov 1-4

PASS Summit 2012, Seattle, Nov 6-9

Let me know if you're nearby and if you're coming to any of these events. I'd enjoy seeing you personally and getting a chance to shake your hand!

Hope to see you soon,

-Kevin

-Follow me on Twitter!

-More content at http://KevinEKline.com

Starting this week: Dublin, Maidenhead, and London

KKline — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:18:00 GMT

This might be most most overcommitted four-week period of time ever in my life. I’m tired just thinking about it! Not only am I traveling internationally and speaking over the next few weeks, I’m also helping on two book projects, learning some new applications from Quest Software, and helping on a small Transact-SQL refactoring project.

Swag on hand? I’ve got a special printing of 500 video training DVDs for this trip:

SQL Server Training on DMVs

Performance Monitor and Wait Events

Plus, I’ll have a few posters, stickers, and other goodies. Come see me!

SQL Saturday 105; Dublin, Ireland; March 24

My maternal grandmother was first generation Irish-American and, somehow, going to Ireland feels a lot like going home to grandmom’s house. And all my Irish friends make it feel like I’m going home to see the extended family – cousins and ‘once-removed’ family types. And on top of that, we get to talk about SQL Server at SQL Saturday #105! I’ll be doing a session called “Top 10 Things Every Developer Should Know”. I’ll also be hanging out at the Quest Software booth much of the day and, just for fun, I plan on doing a completely unscripted lightning talk.

SQL Server User Group; Maidenhead, UK; March 27

From Dublin, I head over to the lovely town of Maidenhead, UK. I’ll be spending a couple days in the Quest Software office there in Maidenhead, whose SQL Server User Group is lead by fellow Questie Richard Douglas (blog | twitter). I’ll be presenting after Business Intelligence impresario Jen Stirrup (blog | twitter). Space is limited, but there are still some seats left.

I’ve already heard from other twitterati that some great Microsoft SQL Server MVPs will be attending, like Tobiasz Koprowski (Blog | Twitter). If you live in south, central England, then this is your chance! Register here: http://www.sqlserverfaq.com/events/386/Maidenhead-UG-meeting-SQLBits-Preview-Speakers-include-MVPs-Kevin-Kline-and-Jen-Stirrup.aspx.

SQLBits; London, UK; March 29 – 31

This is the official launch event for SQL Server 2012! This is your chance to get the best and biggest dose of SQL Server 2012 training for quite some time. The free training day event is sold out. However, some of the training day seminars have open seats, including my seminar Leadership Skills for the Database Professional. This seminar distills the years of formal training and hard-won experience I’ve accumulated throughout my career starting as a developer leading a small team, through the founding and early startup years of PASS, into my later years leading a large, multi-national development organization. You’ll learn all the skills that are crucial for you to make the leap (and it’s a big one) from full-time technologist to a leader and manager of people.

And we’ll be hosting our popular SQL trivia quize and IT Horror Stories sessions as well. So be sure to plan on grabbing your lunch and heading into our fun lunch-time sessions!

I hope to see you at one of these upcoming events! Cheers,

-Kevin

-Follow me on Twitter

Why "Tailoring" Your Resume Is Bad

Mike C — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 03:16:00 GMT

I was just writing a response to a comment on my "Sell Yourself!" presentation (http://sqlblog.com/blogs/michael_coles/archive/2010/12/05/sell-yourself-presentation.aspx#comments), and it started getting a little lengthy so I decided to turn it into a blog post. The "Sell Yourself!" post got a couple of very good comments on the blog, and quite a few more comments offline.

I think I'll start this one with a great exchange from the movie "The Princess Bride":

Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

So before we get started on why I think "tailoring" your resume is a complete waste of time, let's make sure we're all talking about the same thing when we say "tailoring". There are two types of "tailoring" your resume:

1. You create multiple versions of your resume targeting different areas of interest to you. Shannon Lowder mentioned that she keeps a "master resume" with all his experiences listed, and pulls content out of it for each position he's applying for. He indicates he's had good success with this method. I'm not sure if Shannon creates a completely new version of his resume for every job posting or just general versions for different types of positions. I would recommend the latter, especially if you are planning on sending your resume out to a *lot* of recruiters and/or companies. It would be difficult (thought not impossible) to manage 20, 30 or more copies of your resume with only slight variations between them.

Shannon uses a method that is actually very similar to one of my suggestions, which is to keep a Word document with descriptions of *all* your accomplishments (no matter how small). Update the document regularly (I update mine at least once every 3 months, or more often if anything interesting happens). When it's time to update your resume you can easily grab the relevant accomplishments from your master document and format them for your resume. Even if you're happy at your current job, with no plans to ever leave, your master document comes in very handy at annual review time when the boss asks you "what were your accomplishments this year?". It's a very small investment for a potentially significant return.

I know of several people who have had success creating multiple versions of their resume, but there are some guidelines to keep in mind:

Make sure each version of your resume reflects a position you would *want* to be in. If I'm interested in SQL Server development, .NET or SSIS development positions, it doesn't make much sense to create a custom resume highlighting my 3 months of Linux experience.
Manage your resumes well and make sure you send the right resume to the right recruiter. Sending the wrong resume to the wrong recruiter, or bringing the wrong version of your resume to a job interview will only serve to confuse people.
Create your multiple versions of your resumes before you make first contact. That is to say, put your multiple resume versions together before you approach a recruiter. More on this later.

So if it's all good, and people have success with it, what's the downside to "tailoring" your resume? Well, that's where we get into #2.

2. The flip side of tailoring your resume is the last-minute rush job. This happens after a recruiter has contacted you (or vice versa) and she tells you something along the lines of "Java development is required for this job, can you tailor your resume to highlight your Java experience?"

This one calls for a little introspection. If you were really interested in a position requiring skills that aren't highlighted on your resume, why wasn't that skill highlighted on your resume (or one of your resume variants) to begin with? Considering you weren't interested enough to highlight that skill in the first place, do you think you're going to be happy in a job where it's a core requirement? If you decide you'd love that job and leaving it off the resume the first time was just an oversight, then you should thoroughly integrate it into your resume and go for that job. Here's the problem with "tailoring" your resume on-demand at a recruiter's request:

The recruiter probably wants it turned around quickly, usually within a day or two (at most). You don't usually have adequate time to ensure quality.
Whatever you slap on your resume at the last minute will most likely have that tacked-on feel; it might have the "doesn't belong there" quality to it. This can actually diminish the impact of your resume.
When you make last-minute changes to your resume you increase the odds that you'll introduce a typo or other error. As I mention in the presentation your resume is your primary marketing tool. You've most likely spent countless hours writing, formatting, spell-checking, reviewing, adjusting, tweaking, and perfecting your resume. You can easily destroy all that hard work in a matter of minutes.
In my experience (this is just my experience, mind you), last-minute changes to your resume are almost completely ineffective.

As Andy Warren points out "...the challenge is that if you don't tailor, the recruiter may perceive that you're not willing to help you both be successful." I agree with Andy that if you're not willing to make last-minute changes to your resume the recruiter won't be happy; but a good recruiter should ask the same questions you asked above: Why isn't that skill already highlighted? Any recruiter worth her salt will wonder this. A great recruiter will ask you that question and probe deeper to find out if this job really is a good fit for you. To turn Andy's point around: If you change your resume to get a job that requires skills you're not really interested in, neither you, the recruiter, nor the company who hired you has achieved success.

The important thing is to consider the concept of "tailoring". Classic tailoring (making, mending clothes) requires thorough planning before the first cut is made in the cloth; well before the first stitch is stitched. Randomly cutting and sewing pieces of extra cloth into a $1,000 tailored suit at the last minute is not a recipe for success. The same thing goes for your high-quality resume.

So, the bottom line for me is that creating multiple versions of your resume (well before you send it to recruiters) is not a bad thing. I'm all for quality "tailoring" like this -- just make sure you manage it well. Low-quality last-minute on-demand "tailored" changes to your resume don't seem to improve the odds of getting a quality job.