Author: Praveena Sivasankar

Introduction:

I started programming on system nobody knows nowadays. Later on I was working with a lot of different RDBMs and became a fan of COBOL because it is easy to work with data. Because of my early adoption of PostgreSQL I was moved into DBA roles.

Currently I co-manage the PostgreSQL Telegram channel https://t.me/postgreschat. In addition I am a member of the PostgreSQL Europe Diversity Committee.

Journey in PostgreSQL:

I started using PostgreSQL in 1998 for personal projects. At that time I have been working with different RDBMs like Oracle, MS SQL Server, Sybase to name a few.

But as the license cost was horrible, I started to look for an open source one. At the time I already used Linux for some years. But PostgreSQL did not work on Linux at the time, therefore I used a BSD Unix on an old computer. And PostgreSQL did the job.

Can you share a pivotal moment or project in your PostgreSQL career that has been particularly meaningful to you?

The first project I was able to bring PostgreSQL into that company included PostGIS. Showing other people what could be done with them was fun and surprised people.

As there was only me with some PostgreSQL knowledge, that was the start of doing DBA jobs.

Contributions and Achievements:

I regularly participate in translations for the press releases into German of new PostgreSQL versions.

In addition I work on some extensions, one adds some missing functions, two others are foreign data wrappers, you may find them on https://github.com/sjstoelting.

An important thing to me was to get childcare available at PostgreSQL Conference Europe. The first one we had it was in 2022 in Berlin.

Have you faced any challenges in your work with PostgreSQL, and how did you overcome them?

I attended my first PostgreSQL conference in 2008, but it took until 2016 until I gave my first talk at a conference. The problem at the time was a lack of examples, I have been one of very few women attending and women giving talks was rare.

It is very good, that this has changed, but there is more work to do.

Community Involvement:

I give talks at conferences, have been honoured to be on several program committees, this year it has been Nordic PGDay and the coming PGDay Napoli. In addition I was part of some Code of Conduct committees.

In addition I write blog posts about PostgreSQL related subjects. Several ones are based on questions that came up often on a PostgreSQL Telegram channel, https://t.me/postgreschat, that I co-administrate.

Since last year I am a member of the Diversity Committee of PostgreSQL Europe, https://www.postgresql.eu/diversity/

Can you share your experience with mentoring or supporting other women in the PostgreSQL ecosystem?

Lætitia Avrot started a Postgres Women informal group and she asked me to join. I sponsored tickets to women for some conferences. In addition I try to motivate women to give talks and to attend PostgreSQL conferences.

Insights and Advice:

Don’t be shy, do what you like, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.

Are there any resources (books, courses, forums) you’d recommend to someone looking to deepen their PostgreSQL knowledge?

At FOSDEM PGDay I gave a lightning talk about books, you’ll find my recommendations on https://gitlab.com/sjstoelting/talks/-/tree/main/PostgreSQL-Books.FOSDEM-PGDay-2025.

Crunchy Data has a good self learning platform at https://www.crunchydata.com/developers/tutorials where you can run commands in a browser.

And there is a Telegram channel I have already mentioned above, https://t.me/postgreschat.

To get more knowledge of SQL, take a look at Markus Winands https://modern-sql.com.

A starting point for looking something PostgreSQL up, should always be the documentation https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/index.html.

Looking Forward:

There is a patch that got committed recently titled RETURNING OLD/NEW VALUES, https://commitfest.postgresql.org/patch/4723/. In fact it will bring back data time travelling to PostgreSQL, a feature that has been removed in version 6.3.

Do you have any upcoming projects or goals within the PostgreSQL community that you can share?

Improving diversity in as many ways as possible.

Personal Reflection:

The PostgreSQL community is a nice place to be, I made friends with some nice people there. Without that I would have left PostgreSQL behind.

How do you balance your professional and personal life, especially in a field that is constantly evolving?

What I love about IT is, that one never stops learning. For example there hasn’t been a single PostgreSQL conference, where I did not learn something new.

Also do some tourist things in the places, that you visit to attend a conference.

Enjoy your life, meet friends, have some hobbies, mine are photographing and kayaking.

Message to the Community:

Visit conferences, get in contact with the nice PostgreSQL people. Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do something, you can!

Introduction:

My professional role is Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer of PGX, Inc., a PostgreSQL consultancy in Alameda, California. I serve as the President of the United States PostgreSQL Association (PgUS), and am the Board Liaison with the PgUS Diversity Committee. I am a co-organizer of the San Francisco Bay Area PostgreSQL Users Group. I was honored to be named as a Major Contributor in July 2023.

Journey in PostgreSQL

My professional work began when the then-CEO of PGX approached me to do some Human Resources consulting for the company. Little did I know I would end up on the executive team! My community work began at PgCon Ottawa in 2010, when I volunteered to help “for a few hours”, and that turned into the entire week.

(II) Can you share a pivotal moment or project in your PostgreSQL career that has been particularly meaningful to you?

At FOSDEM in 2016, Tom Lane approached me on behalf of the Core Team about creating a community Code of Conduct policy and process, which was a great honor and deepened my community involvement.

Contributions and Achievements:

The Community Code of Conduct. It was a long and complex process: drafting the policy, gathering feedback, revising the draft, keeping communication open and constructive to address the concerns expressed about how it might affect the community, and holding a public session about it at PgCon Ottawa to give those present a chance to discuss it directly with me and the Core Team. It took longer than expected, but the time and effort we put into it was well worth the results. The Code of Conduct policy was officially launched in 2018, and I was Chair of the Committee for the first three years.

(II) Have you faced any challenges in your work with PostgreSQL, and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge for me is increasing community involvement, and that’s an ongoing process. Meeting people at events (conferences, Meetups, etc.) is a significant part of bringing people into active roles in the community. During the Covid lockdown years, when there were no in-person events, the challenge was even greater, and so we had to focus on trying to create those opportunities for connection in other ways. The Meetup groups who held virtual events were a great help in this regard, and the increased activity on the community mailing lists was also a source for new volunteers.

Even with the return of in-person events, it’s still a lot of work to persuade people to step into a community role. People worry about being too new to the community, or not knowing enough to take on a role—to which I say that I joined the conference staff onsite at the first Postgres event I attended, and I think it has worked out pretty well!

Community Involvement:

PgUS is where I focus most of my community time. In addition to all the President work to be done, I am the Board Liaison for the Diversity Committee, which is quite rewarding. I manage our Membership Coordinator and Volunteer Coordinator, and am available to the PgUS Committee Chairs as a sounding board when they have questions or ideas to discuss.

I am currently organizing the onsite Code of Conduct Committee for PgConf.Dev in Montreal, and have managed the onsite CoCC for PgConf.EU for the past two years.

PGEU has a Diversity Task Force working to create their own Diversity Program, and I have been acting as an advisor to them, providing ideas and materials developed by the PgUS Diversity Committee.

There is interest in reviving Postgres Women activities in Europe and North America, and I am working to create a structure for that.

(II) Can you share your experience with mentoring or supporting other women in the PostgreSQL ecosystem?

For me, support and mentoring are simply what I do each day; I don’t have a set time for “now I will mentor this person!” Many of the women who were active in Postgres when I joined the community have left due to job changes, life changes, etc. so I have a longevity which gives me a unique perspective I can share with those who are newer to Postgres. I do my best to be visible and available and am pleased that people seem to feel comfortable approaching me for advice and support about becoming involved with Postgres.

Restarting the Postgres Women activities will provide structured opportunities for mentoring, and I’m excited to see how those will develop.

The PgUS Diversity Committee has several new members as of this year, most of whom are at the start of their careers, and I am doing my best to provide support and useful encouragement to them.

Insights and Advice:

Ask questions—and answer them, too. There’s always something you can learn, and there’s always something you can teach. Even if you have only been working with Postgres for a week, you know something that the person who just started today hasn’t learned yet—be willing to share that knowledge and keep that openness as you progress.

The same is true for community involvement, whether in an official role, or simply as a welcoming presence at an event. If you felt shy at your first User Group Meeting or conference, and you’ve developed ways to overcome that, you can befriend someone who is attending their first event and help them feel welcome.

(II) Are there any resources (books, courses, forums) you’d recommend to someone looking to deepen their PostgreSQL knowledge?

The community mailing lists are terrific! Especially for those new to working with Postgres, the Novice list is a great place to learn your way around the code.

I’d like to see more activity on the Advocacy list—it’s a good place to start your community involvement.

Looking Forward:

PgUS is working on some new ways to bring in volunteers, and I’m hopeful that they will work out! I also have great hopes for our new Diversity Committee; they are a good group with many ideas.

I am especially excited about PGEU’s emerging Diversity Program and look forward to seeing how it develops.

I am also working on ideas for increasing community involvement in general, not only with the nonprofit organizations, and look forward to rolling those out this year.

(II) Do you have any upcoming projects or goals within the PostgreSQL community that you can share?

Everything I talked about in (I), above!

Personal Reflection:

Being part of the PostgreSQL community means having the opportunity to work alongside some of the smartest, most creative, and genuinely caring people I’ve had the good fortune to meet, so that we can make both the software and the community better for everyone.

(II) How do you balance your professional and personal life, especially in a field that is constantly evolving?

I am fortunate that my company gives its employees working hours to do community work, which is a large part of why I have the balance I do. However, being completely honest, I don’t always do a great job of balancing, even with that advantage. Part of it is that I am so focused on my goals for PgUS and other community work, I am willing to devote more time to those projects and make them a priority for my non-work time when I feel it’s necessary.

The time boundaries I do keep are: 1) no day job work on the weekends and 2) Screenless Sundays. I occasionally do community work on the weekend, but I do my best to limit it to work hours; I would rather work extra time during the week and keep my weekends clear.

Screenless Sundays are essential for my well-being. One full day with no computer, no tablet, and no phone is amazing. I figure if the Queen of Denmark can take Sunday off to engage in personal and artistic pursuits, I can manage to do the same!

Message to the Community:

Don’t hesitate to start; if you have started, keep going! Don’t overthink it—just pick one thing and do it today. Whether that’s posting your first question (or answer) to a list, or volunteering as conference staff, or taking on a larger role in the community, taking that first step may seem overwhelming.

Once you have taken it, however, each consecutive step follows more easily; you find yourself learning things, making contributions to the project, developing good relationships with colleagues, and a few colleagues who become friends.

You will go places and have experiences you wouldn’t have imagined at the start—so start today!