This is not yet another career session that tells you to be friendly and network. Forget that - this is about using your IT skills to reinvent the way you get paid. Brent will explain how he went from DBA to MVP to MCM to business founder. Brent will show you simple techniques to build a blog, a brand, and a business without that pesky personal networking stuff. He will explain why you have to give everything away for free, and why you cannot rely on the old methods to make money anymore. It will not be easy - and that is why this session is level 500. This session is about radical methods that achieve radical results.

1. 500-Level Guide
to Career Internals
Brent Ozar, Brent Ozar Unlimited
Moderated By: Yusuf Kothari
Slide deck: BrentOzar.com/go/24hop

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6. Brent Ozar
97-99: sysadmin & programmer
99-05: developer, DBA, architect
05-08: DBA for $7b company
08-10: expert for Quest Software
10-now: consultant, small business
owner: BrentOzar.com
BrentOzar
@BrentO
BrentOzar

7. 500-Level Guide
to Career Internals
Brent Ozar, Brent Ozar Unlimited
Slide deck: BrentOzar.com/go/24hop

8. What career success means to me
Doing challenging work I love
Being surrounded by people I admire
Working for a company that I respect
A fair trade between hours I put in, and the reward
The ability to make that tradeoff choice myself
(Success doesn't have to be working for yourself, or being a consultant, or
working four hours per week. It CAN be those, but it doesn't have to be.)

9. What job hunting success means to me
Not having to job hunt at all
People bringing fun opportunities that are perfect
for the next step in an awesome career

10. Why I had to hack my career

11. Q: In order to meet new people, I:
1. Read stuff online, getting to know the authors
2. Talk with others in forums, Twitter, Facebook
3. Go to in-person events and hoping others
introduce themselves to me
4. Go to in-person events and breaking the ice by
introducing myself to other folks

12. Q: My personal network is:
1. Ethernet or WiFi
2. A few folks that I've worked with in the past
3. Dozens of people I've met online (but not IRL)
in the database community
4. Hundreds of people that I stay in touch with
and meet up with regularly to keep growing

13. Q: To get ready for my next job, I:
1. Uh, wait, is this about the office supplies I stole?
2. Tune into webcasts every few months that cover
topics I'm already working with
3. Every month, I learn about new things outside of
my comfort zone
4. As I learn and grow each month, keep my resume
and LinkedIn up to date with what I'm doing

14. Q: For my career growth, I set aside:
1. None
2. 1-4 hours per week
3. 1 day per week
4. 2 days per week

15. Q: I give back to the community by:
1. I don't.
2. Being a good attendee by filling out feedback
forms and leaving constructive blog post
comments
3. By doing things online like blogging
4. By doing things in person like volunteering,
presenting, and organizing a user group

16. Now add up your points.

17. 5-7 points:
First, think about who's
responsible for your career.

18. 20-25 points:
You don't need this session.

19. The rest of you need this session.
I certainly did.

20. 2004 Brent’s job hunt

21. I make SQL Server go faster.

22. I measure stuff for a living.

23. but I didn’t measure my career.

24. big irrelevant data

25. metric: rainfall

26. Foundations of Career Internals

27. The basic rules
1. Managing a career is just like managing a server:
pick a metric or two to watch, and work on them.
2. You can do this with the skills you have: installing
software, following checklists, and writing emails.
3. It's all been done before: just follow what works
from other industries.
4. You are the only one who can do this for you.

28. 1. Measuring Your Career

29. How do you measure these?
Doing challenging work I love
Being surrounded by people I admire
Working for a company that I respect
A fair trade between hours I put in, and the reward
The ability to make that tradeoff choice myself

30. Measuring these is easier
Not having to job hunt at all
People bringing fun opportunities that are perfect
for the next step in an awesome career
The starter metric: how many people know you?

31. Yes, this sounds vain.

32. How many people know your work?
How many want to follow your work?
• # of blog subscribers
• # of email subscribers
• # of social media followers (Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn)
• # of YouTube channel subscribers
(But no, not Instagram selfie subscribers, not in the SQL Server industry anyway)

33. 2. Moving That Metric

34. Old-school networking sucks
It requires being in a certain place at a certain time,
and you don't have that free time
It's not Web Scale: unless you get an auditorium,
it's only a few people at a time, and it can't go viral
You don't have people skills

35. Networking 2.0: passive networking
1. Write a good article or script, and give it away free
(we’ll talk about the plumbing/hosting details soon)
2. Other people who find it interesting will pass it on
to their network, doing your networking for you
3. Profit!

36. Pick your topic carefully
You’ll be known for what you write about.
What do you love doing today?
What would you love to do more of?
What seems idiotically easy to you today?
That's the stuff you build and write about.

37. It's all been done, and it doesn't matter
Digital images courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program. http://www.getty.edu/about/opencontent.html

38. Painters and bloggers
The subject isn’t the point: your style is.
You don’t have to paint a lot, either.
Pop quiz: who are your favorite bloggers to read?
The ones where you’ll likely read the whole post?

39. Your brand is how you write about it
How would these people cover the same topic:
• Paul Randal: SQLskills.com
• Klaus Aschenbrenner: SQLPassion.at
• Kendra Little: LittleKendra.com
• Pinal Dave: SQLAuthority.com
• Books Online

40. Make your content easy to share
Free, free, free, free
Don't hide it behind a paywall or registration wall
Put easy-to-use share buttons on your blog

41. Make yourself easy to follow
Start a blog with WordPress.org
Set up Mailchimp.com so readers can subscribe
Get Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn accounts
Use BufferApp.com to cross-post
We’ll cover the mechanics of these at Summit

42. The basic rules
1. Managing a career is just like managing a server:
pick a few metrics to watch, and work on them.
2. You can do this with the skills you have: installing
software, following checklists, and writing emails.
3. It's all been done before: just follow what works
from other industries.
4. You are the only one who can do this for you.

43. 3. It’s All Been Done

44. Resources for why: books and training
• TheWhuffieFactor – Tara Hunt
• DoubleYourFreelancing.com – Brennan Dunn
• The Referral Engine – John Jantsch
• TheLeanStartup.com – Eric Ries
• Purple Cow – Seth Godin

45. Resources for how
How to install and configure a WordPress blog:
BrentOzar.com/go/blog
My favorite themes: ThemeForest.net
(click WordPress, then filter by responsive, sort by number of buyers)
The process: On Writing – Steven King

46. The basic rules
1. Managing a career is just like managing a server:
pick a few metrics to watch, and work on them.
2. You can do this with the skills you have: installing
software, following checklists, and writing emails.
3. It's all been done before: just follow what works
from other industries.
4. You are the only one who can do this for you.

47. 4. Doing It For Yourself

48. Shoot yourself today.

49. Typical setup timeline
Day 1: buy domain, configure Gmail hosting, DNS
Day 2: install & configure WordPress
Day 3: the visuals: pick theme, profile photo, install
Day 4: social tools (Twitter, FB, LI, Buffer, Mailchimp)
Day 5: write the skeleton pages: about-me, contact
Day 6: write titles & outlines of your first 5 posts
Days 7-12: writing each of the first 5 posts

50. What 12 days of spare time looks like
Done 1 day per weekend: 3 months
Done 2 days per weeekend: 1.5 months
This isn’t the finish line: this is the first phase
Nothing about this is easy:
you need time for you and your loved ones too

51. Remember why we’re doing it
Doing challenging work I love
Being surrounded by people I admire
Working for a company that I respect
A fair trade between hours I put in, and the reward
The ability to make that tradeoff choice myself
(Success doesn't have to be working for yourself, or being a consultant, or
working four hours per week. It CAN be those, but it doesn't have to be.)

52. Trust me, the work is worth the reward.

53. Questions?
Slide deck: http://BrentOzar.com/go/24hop

54. Coming up next!
Securing your Data is Easier Than Ever: Security
Investments in SQL Server 2016, Azure SQL Database,
and SQL Data Warehouse
Joachim Hammer

55. Thank You for Attending
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& #sqlpass