Kscope19 Session: Turbocharging your Data Engineering Career
One of the great parts of the ODTUG Leadership program is that you get to hear from industry experts on numerous topics. Many of them made a great impact on me and because of that, I wanted to propose a slightly different kind of session this year. I asked Heli Helskyaho if she would do a Career session with me. (A whole other post on the Leadership program is probably coming soon, stay tuned!)
I am very glad I got to do a session with Heli. We both had nice feedback after the session, so I think it went well. Our slides are can be found in the ODTUG site and also here on my slideshare.
Overcoming Negativity
There is a section in our slidedeck from Heli on avoiding negativity. In that section, I shared an anecdote I had heard from Jeff Smith that was very special to me.
Jeff spends a great deal of time on forums and helping Oracle customers. Being on the internet a lot, he does encounter a larger than usual share of the trolls and negative people. He mentioned to me that anytime he needs an antidote to the negativity, he pulls up a thank you email I sent him a couple of years ago. Now keep in mind, I don’t really remember sending him a note, but that doesn’t really matter. He made an impact on me during my leadership program because of a presentation he gave. I sent him a note to let him know. It took me probably a few minutes to share my appreciation with him. That small bit of thanks is enough to keep the negativity at bay.
Think about that. And now go to the person who has helped you, listened to you, shared some advice with you. Tell them thanks. It can make a whole world of difference for a person for years.