Oracle DBA turned MD delivers a letter to his younger self.

1991 - Gulf War kicked off, England hosted the 1991 Rugby World Cup, the Terminator was back, Brian Adams's stole the year, and one more thing… a Computer Science graduate started off his first role as an Oracle DBA - our current MD.

So we asked Dev to write a letter to his younger self and share his experiences and advice … here's what he had to say…

Dear Dev,

Personal advice

- I know it's the 90's but trust me when I say, hair curtains is not a good look, tell everyone!

Techie advice

- The mantra you have today is 'if you have to do something twice you should write a script to do it'. Now with the cloud we say 'if you have to do something twice provide a self-service app and get the person requesting it to do it themselves'.
- Focus on the impact on the business and people not just the technology
- IT is no longer in silos, so build relationships across disciplines to provide agile solutions
- Focus on the basics. Successfully applying new methods and ideas all leverage from a really strong understanding of the fundamentals
- Computers spew out data and it may feel edifying to collect it, however, rather than collecting more data it would be better to spend longer focusing on the data that matters

General advice

- Managing dsp will be one of the most exciting professional opportunities you come across however it's going to be hard work
- In life - it's nice to be nice - but in business it's important to be nice
- Learning something new is better than feeling like an expert.
- The next 20 years are going to be fantastic so enjoy the ride!