Good Day

I'm not one to brag much about my skills, abilities or acomplishments, but once in a while something just asks to be bragged about. I'm a perfectionist by nature. Many times I'm just so critical about the outcome that I don't give myself the credit I deserve. But, sometimes, like today, things just fall into place and go better than could be expected.

My career of choice is SQL Developer at the moment. For those of you who don't know what that is we'll just say I do database design and development and leave it at that since most people know what a database is.

Recently I'd been given a rather complex modification to make to keep up with some changes a client is doing. I had put off doing this task until almost the last minute. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow right? I had put plenty of thought into how to tackle said project and just felt in my gut the solution I had arrived at would not work without putting any effort into it yet.

Perfectionist that I am, I asked the programmers I know, and the one I'm married to, what approach they would take with the given scenario. The answers they arrived at were exactly the same as mine. So, off I went, putting my solution into action and testing. As it turns out my gut feeling was right. Things are never as easy as you might think at first.

Always listen to that little voice in the back of your head. I should have known that by now.

Frustrated, I went off to think of a plan B and take a break from the screen. I quickly arrived at another solution to try. Sometimes things just click like magic. This was one of those times. I put my plan B into action and presto! It worked on the first time out! Sometimes you just gotta say, "damn I'm good". That made me feel good to get that out of the way, even if it did take all day when I expected only a couple of hours.

One of the top reasons I left my last job was due to lack of acknowledgement and thanks. I don't expect to have someone acknowledge every little thing I do or thank me for everything, but a nod in my general direction once in a while is a good thing. I hate it when people think that they can just get by without you and you don't contribute much to their little world. Usually I do much more than they know because things run so smoothly that it's seamless to them. The difference with the job I'm at now is that they know these things and they do take the time to notice and comment on them.

So today my boss's boss, who just happens to be the VP of IT asks for an update on a particular project. I reply it is done and we are ready when they are and he tells me what a great job I did getting it cranked out in such short time. What he doesn't know is how hard I busted my ass last week preparing said project, but why dwell on it when it's in the past. At least I got the kudos in the first place. The fact it comes from the big man just makes it feel even better. Let's just hope when that client is ready to roll out it goes smoothly.