Invitation and roundup from Jeff Iannucci
In 2009, right around the time T-SQL Tuesday was getting started, I wasn’t a very good at SQL Server. I could install it, check some boxes, and restart the server if there were problems. But that was about it.
That year I found myself looking for my next job as a Database Administrator. I went to an interview with a large healthcare company all ready to answer technical questions and give reasons why they should hire me, and the interviewer starts by asking me: “What SQL Server blogs do you read?”
I was frozen, because I didn’t read any database blogs. I didn’t even know there were such things. I read blogs about sports or music or any number of frivolous things, but nothing then that related to databases or SQL Server. I blurted out something about “Microsoft blogs” and continued with the interview, a bit shaken. Ultimately, I didn’t get offered the job.
But that question haunted me so much that afterwards I started seeking out blogs, and later other forms of media produced by people in the data community. That sharing of free information in blogs has made a massive difference for my career path. Obviously, at some point I started my own blog, which I dare say has made a significant impact in my skills and employment.
But…have times changed since 2009? Are blogs still relevant?
The invitation
For this T-SQL Tuesday, I’m asking folks to share why they do or don’t think the blog platform is still relevant for those of us working with databases.
I realize it’s a bit odd to ask folks to write a blog post about the relevance of blogs, and how that might tilt the resulting content, but I also know there are a lot of folks who have lapsed in their blogging in recent years. I’m wondering if that’s an issue of being too busy, or not having enough to say, or just not being interested in this medium anymore.
There are no wrong answers. You can talk about your favorite reasons for blogs as either an author or a reader, or even share a short list your favorite blogs and their reasons for relevance to you.
Conversely, you can talk about alternative media you use to learn about all the new things. Or even respond on an alternative medium and link it here (which might be a first for T-SQL Tuesdays). Or, if you have lapsed in blogging and reading blogs, share the reasons. Heck, you can even reminisce about “the good old days” of…whatever you think made up the good old days of blogging.