Career Advice

Latest Posts in Career Advice

Going Beyond Fixes: DBAs Become Business Leaders

Picture this: you step into your dream DBA job, and everything’s running like a well-oiled machine. Your monitoring tools show you any hiccups before they become full-blown issues. you’ve got…

Because I’m All About That (Data)base II — SolarWinds TechPod 075

As data infrastructure gets more complex, clarity is more important than ever. Our guest Blythe Morrow talks with hosts Sean Sebring and Ashley Adams about the importance of communication for…

What to Know Before Becoming an Application Engineer

Application engineers play a crucial role in bridging customer needs and the efforts of application development teams. Applications are becoming more complex—businesses are seeking to deliver more services while the…

Being a Technical Mentor for a Career, Not a Role

I’ve been in the SQL Server space for a long time—my entire career, in fact—but it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m great at what I do; it merely means I’ve seen…

IT Trends Report Shows Experience Equals Confidence When Managing Complex IT Environments

Each year, SolarWinds publishes the IT Trends report, a collection of responses to survey questions meant to gain insight into the world of IT. I enjoy the IT Trends report…

Comparing DBA, DBRE, and SRE Roles

As I navigate further into my career, I’m finding the scope of my role has shifted over the years. I thought I’d take some time to help relay the differences…

Who Benefits From Your Technical Blog? You Do!

Writing a blog can be a personal endeavor or a chance to give back to the community. Either way, you can also benefit from sharing your knowledge, skills, and insights.…

Six Tips To Become a More Productive DBA or DBRE

At this point in my career, I’ve realized the responsibilities of database administrators (DBAs) and database reliability engineers (DBREs) can differ from company to company, from year to year, and…

Product Management: What Does It Mean? How Do You Do It?

I’m often asked all kinds of interesting questions in my day-to-day work. Usually, these questions are related to the products we build here at SolarWinds®, and I absolutely love answering…

What Is Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)? The SRE Role Explained

Historically, there was a clear delineation between what system administrators (SysAdmins) do and what application developers are responsible for in IT organizations. In recent years—especially in organizations focused on software…