RE: A DBA's career development

Andrey,

Valid questions: And the answer? "It depends" :) It depends on some factors such as the size of your shop and their plans (in case you want to stay with them), the time (and $$) that you can invest on learning, your own background, likes and dislike, etc., as well as possible predictions of what the market needs a few years down the line.

> I'm thinking of several possible paths :
> Oracle DBA + UNIX sysadmin ;

This is definitely a good one as the combination is an effective and has better employability during a downturn. A combination of these skills is required to keep the servers / dbs running and if you can assume both responsibilities, then your staying power and employability increases.

> Ora DBA + developer ;

This is a good one if you tend to lean towards development and have a bent for it. The problem is that there is such a huge variety of tools, so if you specialize in one, you will still need to look specifically fo that technology at your next gig. If this is an older technology or becomes obsolete, then you have lost your investment. You haven't lost your programming skills, just the tool related stuff, but that still counts...

> DBA of Oracle + some other DB , that i'll need to learn

This is Ok if you are in a 'junior' position, or the shop is small. 'Enterprise-wide' DBAs (with a team of 5 or more) would certainly specialize in one Database. You wouldn't want to use your expensive hunting knife for paring vegetables, would you?

> Or may be it's time to move to some sort of system analysis ,
> datawarehousing ,ERP or ... ???

ERP is certainly a good area to be, and I notice that Oracle Applications is steadily increasing in its reach and depth of market penetration. I grew from a 'normal' DBA to an 'Apps DBA' - there are a few additional things, but one needs to grow from a 'normal' DBA position into this. Such a path will utilize known, hands-on skills. So would System Analysis (to some extent) and Data Warehousing - these skills do command wide employability. One thing that you could think of is aquiring expertise in the area of Security - not only IT but organizational/process/networking security - I believe there is a huge untapped market for this out there in the future.

YMMV! and a happy new year to all.
John Kanagaraj
Oracle Applications DBA
DBSoft Inc
(W): 408-970-7002

Fear is the darkroom where Evil develops your negatives. Wanna break free of fear? Click on 'http://www.needhim.org'

• The opinions and statements above are entirely my own and not those of my employer or clients **

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