New Beginnings

After 14 years at my previous employer (major financial services company) I decided that it was time to move on and pursue my ideal Microsoft BI position. Unfortunately I had to leave my previous company when I came to the realization that I was never going to get that position there. I must have timed this at the perfect time as the job market started to rebound in the Denver area since I had a few interviews for great positions within days of starting to look. I didn't really broadcast it loudly to the world that I was looking for a new job, since I had some very specific ideas on what this position would be and the type of companies I would consider.

The first priority for me is that it had to be a Microsoft BI focused position, not a do everything, Microsoft BI and .NET developer and SQL developer position (there are a lot of those positions out there, but I really question the judgement of the companies wanting someone that tries to do so much). I also didn't want something that was focused on just one of the Microsoft BI tools. I wanted to work in a place where I could contribute with all of the skills that I have learned over the years and make a real difference using these technologies (and the future technologies coming). Another big priority for me was to work for a much smaller company, when I started at the company that I worked for the previous 14 years it was a very small company which I have found that I miss greatly over the years and it became bigger and bigger with all of the issues that go along with a large corporate environment.

I only ended up doing interviews for 3 different companies and had 2 that I was really hoping to get. The first one didn't pan out, which ended up being a good thing because it forced me to look a little bit more for other options. Before this I was going off of positions that were being sent to me directly by friends or posted on LinkedIn (great resource for job search), now I tried to look at monster.com and dice.com to see what else might be out there. Applied for a few positions on dice.com and within hours of applying for one of the jobs on dice.com I got a call that one of them wanted to interview me. That company ended up being the one that I accepted, I immediately hit it off with the people that I interviewed with and the job description fit all of the criteria I listed above and more!

While it can be quite scary to leave a place that you are comfortable in after many years, some times you have branch out. I have not regretted the decision in anyway and it gives me the chance to do what I have been wanting to do with my career for at least the last 3 years, if not longer. I still don't want to give out company names, but my new title is Manager, Reporting and Business Intelligence (or BI Manager for short) at a Microsoft Gold Partner that delivers custom Microsoft Dynamics solutions in the Retail and Food/Beverage industries.

Thanks to all of those that help me along in this journey!

P.S. I will be at the SQL PASS Summit 2011 in Seattle this October as well, so I'll see all of you there that will be attending this year as well!

Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group

I will be presenting on SSRS 2008 R2 Report Parts at the Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group this Wednesday evening, October 20th. This will be very similar to the presentation that I did for SQL Saturday #52, but with some changes based on things I have learned since.

For more details on how to get to the meeting location, please click here.

To see my slides for this presentation, please see below and I hope to see you all there on Wednesday night!

SQL Saturday #52 - Denver, CO

Sorry for the long absence on this blog, as with many things work has been getting in the way.

Anyway, I was able to present at SQL Saturday #52 here in Denver, CO on 9/25/10. My session was all about SSRS 2008R2 Report Parts. A very specific new feature in SQL Server 2008 R2 that has some great potential, but also so big issues in this first iteration. Hopefully Microsoft will add some new capabilities to Report Parts in future versions of SQL Server.

Below is a link to download my presentation slides if you are interested in learning more about this feature. Sorry I don't have any sample code that I can provide for the demo section of the session since all of it was done in Report Builder 3.0.

SQL Saturday 52 - SSRS 2008R2 Report Parts Presentation

I will try my best to post more in the future, I have quite a few things coming up that will make for good blog posts.

Rest of Microsoft RTMs!

Microsoft has been really busy finishing up all their 2010 products! After the Visual Studio 2010 RTM a couple of weeks ago they now have announced that all of the Office 2010 Suite (including SharePoint Server 2010) and SQL Server 2008 R2 have RTM'ed.

I have not been able to find out when the Office 2010 Suite will be available for download on MSDN, but SQL Server 2008 R2 will be available on 5/3. For details on the SSRS changes see Robert Bruckner's blog post.

Time to rebuild all of my VMs! :)

Visual Studio 2010 RTM!

Today is the day for Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET 4.0 Framework releases! For those with MSDN subscriptions head to the side and download whatever version you can. I'm looking forward to all of the upgraded look-n-feel and the integrated SharePoint development. I will try to pass on as much stuff about the SharePoint development in VS2010 as I can, since that is something that I am going to start learning now as well.

Stay tuned!

24 Hours of SQL PASS 2010

Sorry for the lack of updates, but things have been pretty quiet as SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010 are getting ready for RTM.

Go to this link for some free training from SQL PASS! Most of it is focused on SQL Server 2008 R2, which will be very timely in May with RTM coming around or just before that timeframe.

SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP Available

The next public CTP release of SQL Server 2008 R2 is available to all MSDN and TechNet subscribers. There are many new Reporting Services features, you can get the download links and details on the new features by going to Robert Bruckner's blog.

Gemini is now PowerPivot

At the Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas this week Microsoft announced that the new Excel 2010 Self-Service BI technology that was code-named Gemini is now called PowerPivot.

Not sure what I think of this new name, but then Gemini was as strange code-name as well. Guess I will get used to over time, just sounds like some kind of messed up super hero name to me right now.

Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group Presentation

Here are the slides for the SQL Server Reporting Services: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow that I did for the Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group on Wednesday, October 21st.

Thanks to the Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group for inviting me to present at their meeting. Lots of great questions, hopefully I inspired more people to get into SQL Server Reporting Services!

SQL Server 2008 R2 August CTP and Gemini

Sorry for the lack of posts this summer, been crazy at work lately.

Microsoft has posted the SQL Server 2008 R2 August CTP bits for anyone that wants to see what this update has to offer. There are many great changes for SSRS coming in this release, including an all new Report Manager interface, Maps as a report item like graphs and charts and the best of all an AJAX enabled ReportViewer control! The ReportViewer control is not available for use in Visual Studio yet, but will be in the next beta of Visual Studio 2010 that gets released. Report Builder 3.0 is also available as a separate download (see links below).

SQL Server 2008 R2 August CTP (technet)

Report Builder 3.0 CTP

Visual Studio 2010 beta 1 and .NET 4.0 beta 1

The new ReportViewer control included in Report Manager will make this a must install upgrade as soon as it comes out in 2010!

For those that are also participating in the Office 2010 beta you can get the Gemini CTP as well, but Office 2010 is required since it plugs into Excel 2010. Gemini is also going to be part of SQL Server 2008 R2 when it comes out and is a self service Analysis Services technology that will work on the client desktop.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Gemini CTP (requires Office 2010 beta)