T-SQL Tuesday March 2019 – Dipping into the Cookie Jar

T-SQL Tuesday March 2019 – Dipping into the Cookie Jar

This month’s TSQL Tuesday is hosted by Shane O’Neill (B/T). The challenge this month is to write about “Dipping back into the cookie jar” or using the memories of a past challenge or accomplishment to help you through a new issue.

I can think of two incidents right off the top of my mind. The first, happened during my SQL Saturday as a presenter, SQL Saturday 97, in Austin, TX on September 28, 2011. Things were going OK, but I realized I was halfway through my material about 15 minutes in! Since this was my first time in front of a crowd, outside of work, I made the rookie mistake of going way too fast. But then, to make things a little more interesting, I had a special guest for my session: a bored toddler! Yes, one of the attendees brought their child to the session. The angry toddler was enough of a “reset” for me that I managed to finish on time. After the session, I went up to the parent, who was upset, and mentioned that it was OK and how the small outburst actually helped me. Most of the evaluations made note of how I handled the situation without missing a beat! Little did they know!

The second situation that comes to mind is helping our CTO with a tricky TSQL query. From memory, I wrote a CTE to eliminate duplicates from his result set. Of course, I have a blog post where I have copy and pasted the code many, many times before. But, in his eyes, I was a miracle worker and some sort of TSQL wizard.

Though I can look back and smile now, I’m sure I was a sweaty mess during the first half of my presentation back in 2011. Since then, I’ve gone on to present at several other SQL Saturdays. I’ve also given full-day training classes to my coworkers, so I’m no stranger to being up in front of people. I like that I have the reputation of being cool under pressure. Until next time, happy coding!

Rudy

Rudy Rodarte is a SQL Server Database professional based in Austin, TX. Over his career, Rudy has worked with SSRS, SSIS, performance tuning troubleshooting. When away from Keyboard, Rudy goes to Spurs and Baylor Bear sporting events.

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