A square peg

Turns out my friend Rick may be leaving his current Senior Developer position; that's why his manager called to talk with me today - Rick had sold her on my heavy SQL experience (the programming language for our database). He's a former Database Administrator, and put together a highly complex mortgage information system, requiring expert-level SQL knowledge. The system runs daily, undoubtedly via mainframe processes (although she was not sure).

My dilemma is that my background does not measure up to my friend's perception of it. I have been in niche roles during my data warehouse tenure; first in deploying tools to allow end-users to directly get information from the database, and the last several years developing Web front end applications. Both required solid SQL skills, but not near the level required by that mortgage system. And I haven't used the mainframe since 1993. Other than that, I'm good!

Could I pick it up eventually? Sure. And I might even be tempted if it was a fairly quiet system. But it's very active, lots of initiatives to be implemented this year: no time for a learning curve. I will talk some more with Rick about it next week when he returns, but unless my perceptions were totally off, this wouldn't be a good fit.

Another thing: my strengths may be liabilities at the bank. She was impressed that my background combined both business and technical skill sets: that was rare in her opinion. Unfortunately for me, most openings at the bank prize specialization, not skill diversity. Thus I have good business skills, but lack the line of business expertise required to be a "senior business analyst". I have good technical skills, but often not in the exact specialization needed.

I'm the square peg in a world of round holes.

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