Re: Is Sr. DBAs afraid of not be able to pass cert exam ??

Tom Dyess <tdyess_at_dyessindustries.com> wrote in message news:pfW58.167682$_w.25696938_at_typhoon.tampabay.rr.com...
> Keith,
>
> You didn't get much out of your first year of DBA work, did you? You
> remind me of the poeple who claim to know 'everything' there is to know
> about computers. I ususally run away when I hear that.

I didn't claim that you would know everything after a year, but I do claim you should know everything you need to know. By the end of a year, you will have encountered almost all the problematic situations that are likely to arise in that environment, you should have a good understanding of how the database works and you should be able to resolve new problems. This is why I said "in a single job."

This is different from the level of knowledge that might be preferred (although rarely found) in a troubleshooting consultant who might be expected to have both a broader and more detailed knowledge than is required for most permanent DBA jobs.

In my opinion, it is not knowledge that is important to be good at a job in this industry, but rather the ability to adapt to new tools, software releases, development methods, hardware platforms and user requirements.

To take an example, I've never used advanced queueing. I know advanced queuing exists and I've read the manuals about it. I'm confident (possibly incorrectly) that it would take me a very short time to get up to speed - I've used other message queueing software. The most important thing I've learnt from experience however is that you can never trust something to work as expected. You have to devise usage and load scenarios and test them before committing to a production architecture - even if you've used the particular tool before it may have changed between releases or your previous usage may have been been in a sufficiently different environment so as not to be comparable. If AQ didn't fit my particular needs, I'm quite happy to use another queueing mechanism or write my own. I believe this attitude to be more desirable than particular knowledge of AQ. I have often worked with people who are knowledgeable but don't test their approaches before committing to a design. I've also often worked with people who force the requirement to fit their knowledge - ie if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. What I'm saying is that attitude and aptitude is mostly more important than detailed technical skill for recruitment to a permanent (or even long-term contract). Obviously for a 2 day consultation contract, the criteria must be different. Received on Wed Jan 30 2002 - 13:22:34 CST