I had the privilege of guest lecturing at the University of West Georgia last night. Special thanks to Dan Rocco, the professor and friend who was kind enough to loan me his class. The class was his database class, and the goal was to help give the students a perspective on how databases are actually used in the real world. The academic approach is effective for teaching them how to use the technology, but I think it’s also important to see ways that companies deploy databases, how they reach certain decisions, who handles database responsibilities, and the wide array of jobs that use databases.

I added some job-hunting tips for them, as well as a couple of “case studies” from my experience. The students were very polite and receptive, and they have a pretty cool thing going on in their CS program. They aren’t a Research I school, so the focus is actually on *teaching*. Dr. Dan actually took the students (and me) out for Mellow Mushroom pizza afterwards, on the CS department’s bill! The cameradery was nice – interesting how things change when the focus is on the students. Slides are posted here.