RE: Definition of Top Class DBA
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 17:52:21 +0000
Message-ID: <85D44D05C4C24C40AFDED6C1FC0E1BDF3F614D96_at_SNSLCVWEXCH02.abl.cda.navy.mil>
I threw out my word, "judgment" and you threw out your word "trust" as key factors in identifying a "Top Class DBA." I would point out that both qualities are internal to the candidate and need to be evaluated separately from technical skills. I think they are closely related. When you use bad judgment you are generally going to have to answer for it. What you do then is very instructive to your co-workers and superiors.
I've been asked the question, 'What's the worst thing you've ever done" at an interview. That's not the trick question. The next question, is, "What did you tell your boss/customer?"
-----Original Message-----
From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org [mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On
Behalf Of Seth Miller
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2014 12:16 PM
To: oracledbaquestions_at_gmail.com
Cc: ORACLE-L
Subject: Re: Definition of Top Class DBA
Really great points here. I'll add another one that is very important but nothing to do with knowledge.
Every one of us reading these emails has done something to disrupt business; dropped a production table, compressed a live data file, rm -rf on the wrong directory (yes I've done all of these). This is part of the learning process and inherent in the nature of what we do. The important part comes afterward.
The professional owns up to their mistakes, regardless of the consequences or even if the problem can't be traced back to them. It only takes one time of someone blaming a colleague, another group or just outright lying about an incident to make that person unreliable and untrustworthy.
There may be blowback at the beginning but people will respect someone who takes the more difficult path. Fortunately, this is the exception so those that do the right thing and own up to their mistakes stand out among their peers.
Seth Miller
On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 10:34 AM, Dba DBA <oracledbaquestions_at_gmail.com> wrote:
People often leave out something important... personality, willingness to share information, being articulate, and learning more than just the DB.
I have worked with some excellent DBAs who I didn't want to even talk to. They cause drama and send out these emails with massive lists of people on it whenever they decide for someone reason they don't like anything. Cause drama. (its not just DBAs that do this). Really good people don't cause unnecessary drama. Not that many people do this... however, there is a real popular fantasy writer who put it like this. Patrick Rothfuss gets occasional hate mail from fans because he is a slow writer. Its not very often. He says its like having a turd in your rice crispies. You can't exactly eat around the turd.
Willingness to share info: Sending people a link to the doc and saying RTFM is not real helpful. For people who are not experts reading the docs is tough. When I need to look at something new I actually look for blog entries first because someone else dissected the blogs. If people didn't do that, there would be no point in good DBAs writing these blogs...
More than Just the DB: if its all the DB, then you don't know that much. One thing I have seen from Oak Table members is they know alot about unix and operating systems. Quite a few of them have clearly read algorithm books. I have read a few myself. I know some C (not alot) from school. I find it helpful. I also try to listen to the developers and sometimes I read their code. If you just know the DB, then developers will often blow you off, but if you can speak their language they are more responsive. I see alot of that from Oak Table members.
Articulate: It takes a lot of practice to explain technical issues to people who don't know it as well as you or don't know your discipline. If you are very good you can explain things without using oracle jargon and simplify. It takes alot of practice to do this... Again, I point to the Oracle blogs. Jonathan Lewis and others are very good at this.
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