Re: Only a sennior DBA would know

In article <362FEE2F.2434_at_concentric.net>, cljones_at_nospam.concentric.net wrote:
>I bet a senior DBA would have enough experience
>to double check the spelling in the title of the
>news message (s)he was about to send off. Regardless
>of specific database knowledge, the problem-solving skills
>make the difference.
>
>
>Fred Pierce wrote:
>>
>> satar_at_my-dejanews.com wrote:
>> >
>> > I never understood why it matters if you have 7 -10 years of experience to be
>> > considered as a Senior level. Oracle's technology has changed dramatically in
>> > the past 2 years alone. Sure you might have 10 years of experience with
>> > Oracle Ver. 5,6 or even 7, but a company who uses Oracle 8 won't benefit any
>> > different from an junior level who has the same year experience as the senior
>> > level guy with Oracle 8. With the latest technology with Hardware and OS,
>> > backup and recovery, tuning and Administration theories and procedures
>> > changed from 3 years ago. I believe Oracle is an on going learning process,
>> > and those of us who spend 5 years behind a desk in the same company as a DBA
>> > without keeping up with technology deserves no better pay because he is
>> > considered "senior level". I am open to any comments in regards to this
>> > topic, and invite the Older guys to contribute to this discussion.

OK. I'm an "older guy" (can you say UFI?) and I think that understanding is far more important than knowledge - in every technical field - quantum physics, auto mechanics, Oracle database administration, farming, ad infinitum.

I entirely disagree with your statement about a rookie with a total of one year experience, entirely with Oracle8, being as good as someone with 10 years of Oracle 5,6,7 and a year of Oracle8. . By this same reasoning, a mechanic with one years total experience working exclusively on '98 Fords would be just as good as one with 10 years of experience with all makes of autos - plus one year experience with the '98 Fords. It just doesn't work that way. Every new release includes some new features, but the main theme continues - the similarities between Oracle7 and Oracle8 (or between the '97 and '98 Fords) are much greater than their differences. And experience in serious relational database design and in code tuning are preferable to any amount of training.

I would even go so far as to say that those familiar with only the latest releases are often quite naive. I have seen a number of Oracle7 "DBA"s (to use the term loosely) who had no idea how rule based optimization works or how/when to use hints. I would venture a guess that most developers who wrote a lot of Oracle6 code (Pro*C, SQL, PL/SQL in SQL*Forms, whatever) would routinely write far more efficient code than those with only Oracle7 experience - even if the total years experience and apptitude are the same.

>> Always an interesting topic. What about the same number of years RDBMS
>> experience but different platforms? I often wonder how much I benefit
>> from different perspectives, in my case Ingres, Oracle, Sybase, vs the
>> lesser depth of experience on any one platform. Likewise the "1 year
>> experience 8 times" phenomenon - what sort of environment and activities
>> was the DBA involved with? The field includes so many diverse
>> specialties and tools it's not difficult to go for a couple of years
>> without touching on many of them.

Same theory applies. I've seen good Sybase DBAs become good Oracle DBAs almost overnight (a few months). And I've seen poor DB2 DBAs become poor Oracle DBAs - in a matter of years. Many of the principles are the same. Coming up to speed on a different system is non-trivial, but much of the "core" knowledge and experience transfers intact. Normalization, for example, is largely independent of the RDBMS.

And another thing... Not all years of experience are equal. A year of being systems architect for a major product at a database software vendor is worth much more than being a rookie DBA/developer/operator tasked only with keeping the underlying platform for 3rd party accounting system running at the local bank. The first role covers much broader ground and requires greater technical sophistication at every level. In the same vein, experience as a Navy SEAL is more impressive (justifiably) than experience as a seaman on a merchant ship or in the infantry.

As far as that goes, there ought to be a multiplier for all information systems experience! Kinda like dog years... A 40 hr/week executive learns a lot less about their discipline in a year than a 68 hr/week DBA battling Dilbertesque management!

-OraSaurus (experience counts!) Received on Mon Oct 26 1998 - 00:24:58 CST