Wrapping up 2013 and Goals for 2014
Almost a month late, but better late than never: goal review for 2013 and new goals for 2014.
Goal Review 2013
Start a website/blog
Complete. The term “personal brand” still makes me want to gag, but the underlying idea is sound. Brent Ozar has a great post on starting your own blog . I can still hear myself saying to a co-worker “How hard is it to blog once a week?” Ha! Harder than I thought, but we’ll get to that in goals for 2014. Needless to say, my post output started strong and tapered waaay down. I managed to produce 12 posts for a meager average of 1 per month. This year is not off to a good start, as I published nothing in January. Ack!
Present at a user group
Complete. Pushing out of my comfort zone, I presented “Data Management and Indexing Options for SQL Server Data Warehouses” to the Atlanta MDF user group. The presentation was well received and it has given me the motivation to present again (more on that in a minute).
SQL server 2012 certification
FAIL. OK, first missed goal. I don’t know why, but when studying for the tests I always start strong, but then I let life get in the way and find it hard to pick it back up. And if I’m being really honest, I probably have a tiny part in my brain that is afraid to fail the test AND BE EXPOSED TO THE WHOLE WORLD FOR THE FRAUD THAT I AM. Ahem. Well, identifying the problem is the first step.
Move into the consulting business
Complete! My biggest career jump so far, I had been preparing myself for a year to give it a try and finally had an opportunity present itself. I launched Data Join Consulting, LLC in Q4 2013.
Deep-dive learn MDX
Complete, and on-going. This was a murky goal, in that it doesn’t fit the SMART criteria. I started the year with only a cursory knowledge of MDX, but I wanted to really dive in a learn as much as possible. MDX has a learning curve, but when the light turned on I really became of a fan of the language. There are some things I would love to change about it, but it is extremely powerful. Learning MDX is a journey not a destination, but I am much farther along today than I was this time last year.
Random
TRAINING
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I attended a 5-day “Advanced T-SQL” with Itzik Ben-Gan that was fantastic and too short.
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I attended a 2-day “Master SSIS” class with Brian Knight.
BOOKS READ
BOOKS INCOMPLETE
As I was looking through my iPad to remember what books I read last year, I’m realizing that I start too many books simultaneously and have left too many unfinished. The following I have partially read, and intend to finish:
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MDX with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services: Cookbook
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Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Server
NEW GOALS FOR 2014
What I plan to do this year.
SQL server 2012 certification (revisited)
At the least, I need to pass 461, 462, and 463. Time to take care of business.
Finish the books left unread from last year
No need to list them again.
C-Sharp
While I stay focued on SQL Server and BI-related technologies, I want to at least keep my skills current on modern C# development. Jon Skeet has some C# courses at PluralSight that I want to watch, particularly Mastering C# 4.0 and C# Design Strategies.
Social/Reach
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I will best my blog post output from last year. One down, (at least) 12 to go!
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I will present at one user group this year. As a matter of fact, I’m already scheduled to present “MDX: Fundamentals” at the February 2014 meeting of the Atlanta Microsoft Business Intelligence user group.
Time to get moving!
