These eleven SQL Server interview questions look far too easy, and every one of them has stopped somebody senior.
Single-Query Tuning Versus Workload Tuning
Single-query tuning versus workload tuning decides whether one fast victory becomes a durable performance improvement.
Your Second Skill Was Never a Parachute
Your second skill was never a parachute, and the proof is six hundred years old. The Black Death wage laws of 1349 explain what is happening to our careers.
Beautiful T-SQL Queries: Three Could Delete the Company
AI writes genuinely beautiful T-SQL queries. Aligned, aliased, commented. Beautiful has never meant correct, and three of these could delete the company.
Tech Conferences Are Worth It. The Sessions Are Not.
Tech conferences are worth every hour I have given them, but the sessions are not. So here is the program for a conference that does not exist.
AI Slop: The Literary Offenses of the Machine
How to spot AI slop, discovered the hard way, over four hundred entries, in a dressing gown, at two in the morning, and ending in a place I did not care for.
Validating AI-Generated Index Recommendations
Validating AI-generated index recommendations is the step between a persuasive script and a change you can defend in production.
Cost Optimization That Never Reaches the Invoice
SQL Server cost optimization has a problem nobody puts on the slide. The savings are real, and none of it reaches the invoice.
A Better Fire Alarm Is Still a Fire
A better fire alarm is still a fire, and many SQL Server incidents I get called for were preventable. Here is the T-SQL audit I wish had run before the pager rang.
They Finished the AI Training. Eleven Days Later, the Job Was Gone
An anonymous interview with a database professional who finished the AI training their employer assigned. Eleven days later, the job was gone.