Here I am, finally fulfilling a dream started back when I was 14 to see Europe. In my Freshman German class, I paid a small amount of money to have some penpals around the world. I remember I had a German girl, a French girl, and an Australian girl that lived in Adelaide. She and I kept in touch through college and I still have a cassette tape she sent me. I’ve described this trip as being a structured/non-structured trip. It was based around me speaking in Oslo at Data Saturday Oslo, but also about meeting so many of my professional acquaintances and friends, some for the first time. It’s been a dizzying trip with a short time on the East Coast, ten days in Norway, two in Sweden, and now working on ten plus days in Germany! During this time I have seen Johan Brattas in Oslo, my college buddy Siri Evju in Oslo, Ben Kettner from Berlin (in Oslo), Argenis Fernandez (hey Seattle), Anja Jensen in Hamar and Oslo, Marthe Moengen in Oslo, Gianluca Sartori from Italy (in Oslo), John Martin from Scotland (in Oslo) and now I am staying with my good friend Frank Geisler in the city that never sleeps, Ludinghausen. All of these are outstanding data people (except for Siri because she’s an expert interior designer!) But, I also met a ton of new people in Sweden, Mikael Wedham, his apprentices Marcus and Peter, Tobias Strandh, Bernat Rosello, Stijn Wyants, Ola Hallengren (such a cool guy), Magnus Ahikvist, and Daniel Hutmacher. Again in Oslo, Daniel, Magne Fretheim, Anders Larsson, Rune Rakeie, Kurt Ringstrand, Aesgir Gunnarson and Nils, the heraldry expert, and lest I forget Jo, the extremely cool bartender at Krøken in Bergen that gave me that perfect spot to polish my presentation.
What’s the point, am I listing off all these people to sound like I am cooler than I really am as a data person? No, it goes back to two of the common statements in “Things to be successful in your data career”, Join a data group, and improve your network. Thanks to joining Oregon Data Community back in 2011, and then full on in 2016, I made contacts, I improved my knowledge, and more importantly, I really started to enjoy my chosen profession. We spend roughly one-third of our lives working. When you have a good network, your work becomes more enjoyable and you know that you have “your peeps” to bounce ideas/concepts/concerns off of, but also real people to talk about real things. I noticed the SQL Saturday effect back in 2011 when I went to my first one. I felt better. I knew I had made the right decision. 11 years later, that feeling is even stronger.
Thanks to Covid, the groups have been disrupted, but the network is still there. Take a look for Azure Data groups in your local area and get out there and meet some people! You really won’t be sorry!
