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Re: Combo Oracle/SQLServer enterprise DBA Salary Info anywhere (or willing to share a range) ?

From: Robert Freeman <robertgfreeman_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:07:12 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <1316542032.40864.YahooMailNeo_at_web113201.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> 





So, I've hired people into positions like the one you are talking about. People with Oracle and SQL Server skills. I can tell you that those I hired with those skill sets, with some significant experience (7 years +) came in the low 100k range. I'd expect more experience (say 15-20 years) would come in at around the low to mid 100's depending on a number of factors. It's just a potent skill set and when combined with significant experience is very powerful. If you have the experience component, then don't sell yourself short. If you are negotiating with a company you already work for, you have a very powerful lever in your negotiating tool kit that you might want to pull out and use. That is to remind them of how much it will cost them to have to replace you. Recruiting is a very expensive process, and the results are never for sure. It's often far cheaper to throw a few extra thousand to a known quantity than to risk having to go out and hire.



When considering salary it's more than just about the average, or the range that you need to be concerned about. Considerations for salary should include:



    
  
  1.   Cost of living. It's far cheaper to live in Oklahoma than New York. Your salary needs to be commiserate with your locale. 
  
  2.   Benefits. 







What to they pay towards your health care? This can make a several hundred dollar a month difference and several thousand a year.




What do they match on a 401k? For example, if you make 100k and you contribute 6% to a 401k and the company matches dollar for dollar, then that's worth an extra 6 grand a year. So I'd rather take job for 100k and 6% 401k money, than one for 105k a year and no 401k money. Also, do they have a retirement plan.



Vacation? What are the vacation benefits? Leave of absence, sickness, disability benefits.



Work from home sometimes or always trudge to the office? Travel?




3. Environment... Who are the people you will be working with. Even small things like a cafeteria and the cost of the food there can be a consideration. Eating nicely at a cafeteria for $5 as opposed to eating lunch out at say $8 a day is worth about $750 a year. Sure, you can bring your lunch and save more...




4. Who will you be working with? As you are looking at being the Solo guy, your value should be greater. You won't have a team to collaborate with, so you will be spending more time doing outside research on issues, problems and the like. In my mind, who you will be working with is really a big consideration when I take a job.



5. What will you be doing? On-call, after hours, 24/7/365, just DBA, DBA and Sysadm, SAN Admin? What will you be doing. The more hats you wear, the more you should expect.



6. What is the market like in your area? Lots of companies base their salary ranges on local salaries and are fairly in-flexible. I've found this one-size-fits-all approach to HR maddening when I've tried to hire the best of the best. My approach to having a great team is to hire great people, all of them smarter than I am (which isn't hard). HR seems to be disconnected to the realities of the benefits of hiring the best people for the job and instead get entrenched in this archaic salary bucket mentality. In my mind, this is a marketplace. I have skills of varying degrees of benefit to a company that are worth a market price. If a short sighted HR department isn't going to recognize the market realities (or they simply are not going to care) then I'm going elsewhere (assuming I'm correct in my interpretation of the market price for my skills). As a result companies often loose out on the best talent and that talent goes into consulting, and the company
 hires the consulting company and that resource ends up at the company anyway. I've SEEN this happen and it just makes me shake my head. We could have had the guy at $40 an hour as a FTE and instead we are paying $65 an hour to some company and when he leaves all that body of knowledge will leave with him. Ridiculous in my opinion. 



 


Robert G. Freeman


Master Principal Consultant, Oracle Corporation, Oracle ACE
Author of various books on RMAN, New Features and this shorter signature line.
Blog: http://robertgfreeman.blogspot.com




Note: THIS EMAIL IS NOT AN OFFICIAL ORACLE SUPPORT COMMUNICATION. It is just the opinion of one Oracle employee. I can be wrong, have been wrong in the past and will be wrong in the future. If your problem is a critical production problem, you should always contact Oracle support for assistance. Statements in this email in no way represent Oracle Corporation or any subsidiaries and reflect only the opinion of the author of this email.






From: "Taylor, Chris David" <ChrisDavid.Taylor_at_ingrambarge.com>
To: "'mark.powell2_at_hp.com'" <mark.powell2_at_hp.com>; "'oracle-l_at_freelists.org'" <oracle-l_at_freelists.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 10:10 AM
Subject: RE: Combo Oracle/SQLServer enterprise DBA Salary Info anywhere (or willing to share a range) ?



Thanks Mark.



Chris



-----Original Message-----



From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org [mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of Powell, Mark
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 10:48 AM
To: 'oracle-l_at_freelists.org'


Subject: RE: Combo Oracle/SQLServer enterprise DBA Salary Info anywhere (or willing to share a range) ?




Both Information Week and Computer World compile and publish annual IT salary lists.



With Information Week I think you have to take part in the survey to get a copy of the results.



Computer World published theirs in the April 4, 2011 edition.



Database Administrator    avg $86,808.  No information given on range, experience, or product in the published article.





-----Original Message-----



From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org [mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of Taylor, Chris David
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 11:23 AM
To: 'oracle-l_at_freelists.org'


Subject: Combo Oracle/SQLServer enterprise DBA Salary Info anywhere (or willing to share a range) ?



Anyone have a link to salary info for a combination for combo Oracle and SQL Server DBA?  Or, might be willing to share a salary range (with me, not the list) if you are responsible for both? :) Looks like my job is changing in that I am _the_ database administrator moving forward with someone who can backfill as needed except in emergencies.



Any help is much appreciated.



Thanks,


Chris



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Received on Tue Sep 20 2011 - 13:07:12 CDT












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