The call...
It all started when my aunt gave me an old computer while I was in college. Or maybe I heard the call before that (was I only three feet tall?), I'm not sure, but at one point or another I got hooked on computers. I have never been much of a "hardware" guy (e.g. build my own machine kind of thing) and I've never been much of a gamer (Wii Mario Kart is about as cool a game as I've ever played). I have, however, always had an affinity for data and using data to solve problems.

I remember the first time I saw an SQL SELECT statement, I think I just sat there, staring at that statement for what feels like hours, completely wonderful and beautiful in its simplicity. Yes, this is likely weird for non-data geeks, but I've learned to embrace this quirk and build a pretty darn successful career working in data management.

Yes I am a pirate...
My six-year-old daughter recently asked me, "Dad, what do you do for work?" and I started with the generic "I work on computers" answer - but Tina (my wife) nudged me to go a bit further. How do you explain "data management" to a six-year-old when you know most adults are either uninterested or just plain "won't get it"? I started with talking about "lists" and how companies like grocery stores like to keep track of things like "how much they sell" and "how much stuff they have in their store." I then told my daughter that in order to do these things companies would need people like me to work for them to help. That seemed to make sense and we moved on to a different discussion, likely something about how everyone's day went and if anything interesting happened at school that day.

A bit of smuggling...
My older daughter (nine years old) at one point or another asked me if I was a "renaissance man" because of all the different types of jobs I had throughout the years. We all found this quite funny (Michelangelo I am not), but I did spend a little time jotting down the jobs I've had throughout my first 40 years. The list goes something like this:
a paperboy, a dishwasher, a short order cook, a grocery store stock boy, a pool cleaner, an administrative assistant, an auto mechanic, a football team equipment manager, a bartender, a restaurant busboy, a mover, a warehouse employee, an inventory counter, a carpenter, a pension plan administrator, a desktop systems administrator, a project manager, an Excel spreadsheet & macro builder, a software quality assurance tester, a data analyst, a database developer, a database administrator (DBA), a wanna-be UNIX administrator, a DBA team manager, a website designer, an IT Solutions Architect, a business proposal writer, a large-quote/bill-of-materials administrator, a wannabe product manager, a data architect, a data quality manager, a data management blogger and tweeter, a homeowners community website administrator, a data management team manager, a data governance director, a sales engineer and a data management subject matter expert.

Got to stop wishing...
Where am I heading with all this? Well, I'm not really heading anywhere other than taking a peek in the rear view mirror of my professional life. Why? Well, this month marks my 40th birthday and heck, don't I deserve to take a moment to reflect? As you might expect, I have tons of other personal stories I'd include on some sort of all-encompassing biography, but I'll keep this post strictly about my professional career.

Got to go fishing...
I'm currently working for a neat company based out of Annapolis, Maryland and I've been here for almost seven years. My official title is pretty much irrelevant; let's just say I run a team of data management folks while keeping my fingers on the keyboard as much as I can (while keeping my backside out conference rooms as much as possible). The team is comprised of data analysts, database developers, database administrators and architects. During a typical day we'll get to design and build databases and ETL type of code for new projects, design and build new reports, figure out root causes of data quality issues for existing projects, determine why things went "bump in the night" and didn't work, etc...

Occupational hazards...
The most difficult parts of my job have never been about data; they have always been about understanding people's needs/wants and trying to figure out how best to get them what they would like. Most times the people in question are my clients (internal and external) along with my senior management team. I have found, however, there are times where I have to take a step back and make sure the needs of my team members are being met. Interestingly enough I've found that the timing of all of these are all strongly correlated. Too bad it has taken me 40 years to figure that one out.

Gonna head uptown...
I've done all kinds of neat things with data I have had access to, but there is so much more that I'd like to do in my second 40 years (while trying my best not to work a "second 40" hours). I've essentially made my career thus far "all about better data management" and I'm very much now looking forward to spending some quality time and energy digging deeper into the data we have. I want to not only remedy the obvious problems, but to use the data to solve problems we may not even know we have. I'm pretty sure this sentiment is right in line with where the data management market is right now. We're all wondering what's next and how to get value out of our data resources. It's well past time to begin thinking this way - we need to get on with it and make some fantastic things happen with our data.

Until next time...Rich
p.s. I'm a big fan of Jimmy Buffett and his song "A Pirate Looks at 40." Can you tell?