Re: dba mentor

Niall,

briliant :) Did coaching for three "generations" of new DBAs in my career, and you hit 180.

One thing I'd like to add (or clarify) is teaching self-organization under pressure. Often new guys enjoy the blessing of having no ancient burdens, but stabilizing our own personal performance under various pressures is a very useful skill from the beginning. Just to mention: system down, manager pressing, half-true facts rolling in. How to keep your head above the waves?

Stay safe

-- 
Martin Klier | Performing Databases GmbH 
Managing Partner | Senior DB Consultant 
Oracle ACE Director 

martin.klier_at_performing-db.com | https://www.performing-databases.com 



> Von: "niall litchfield" <niall.litchfield_at_gmail.com>

> An: "Backseat DBA" <backseatdba_at_gmail.com>

> CC: "Oracle-L Freelists" <oracle-l_at_freelists.org>

> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 22. August 2018 18:02:12


> Betreff: Re: dba mentor





> Hi Jeff

> Like many of the other respondents, I never had a mentor (and the closest I had

> was, er, not very good). I have however seen mentoring take place and it's

> definitely a highly useful approach for a short while (say 9-18 months).


> Probably the key skills a mentor can help with are the soft ones.





>     * dealing with customers

>     * knowing when and how to say no (and yes)

>     * knowing how other departments/silos work and who the key contacts are

>    * knowing how to judge the reliability of a source (no-one seems to teach that

>     these days)

>     * a healthy scepticism that new software releases work as intended

>    * a healthy scepticism in one's own ability. (the easiest person to fool is


>     yourself)





> Technical skills *can* be taught and/or picked up from good online resources.

> Like the others here online communities (this list, Usenet, Oracle forums,

> serverfault, twitter) have proven invaluable to me for this purpose. The

> quality of the answers you get back definitely increases as you contribute

> yourself - which can be a catch-22. If you have a good local usergroup (i.e not

> one that's all Oracle speakers or vendors) or meetup then those are pretty


> valuable as well.





> It's also very valuable to have a lab/laptop environment of your own to break, I


> mean experiment in.





> On Tue, Aug 21, 2018 at 8:53 PM Jeff Chirco < [ mailto:backseatdba_at_gmail.com |


> backseatdba_at_gmail.com ] > wrote:



>> Did any of you have a mentor to help you along your DBA career path? Someone to
>> coach you on what is right/wrong, offer advice for various projects, etc… I was
>> the first DBA for my company and never had someone to go to for advice and
>> such. I learned completely on the job besides going to some classes at the
>> beginning and a couple conferences recently. And then some consultants over the
>> years. I’ve always reported to a Programming manager, and they understand some
>> of the job but not everything that needs to be done. Although I have been a DBA
>> for over 10 years I feel there is still a ton for me to learn and be better at.
>> I was alone for many years and did a lot of database development in addition to
>> DBA duties. Kind of a jack of all trades expert at none. I am a lead now, we
>> have one other DBA and maybe a third in the near future, but I know I can be a
>> better leader and hope to advance that further.

>> Did any of you have some kind of mentor during your career? For most of you it
>> probably was someone inside the company but what about outside? How did you
>> find this person and was it helpful? What did they do for you?

>> Another other details or advice?

>> Thanks,



> --

> Niall Litchfield

> Oracle DBA


> [ http://www.orawin.info/ | http://www.orawin.info ]



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