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Re: The demise of the Oracle professional?

From: Oracle User <spamspamspam_at_ntlworld.com>
Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2002 01:16:36 +0100
Message-ID: <F7xM8.5902$tm.896442@news6-win.server.ntlworld.com>


I'd rather be a DBA in a depression than most other things... Learn to enjoy the time off, it's inevitable these days.

"Roger Redford" <dba_222_at_yahoo.com> wrote in message news:a8c29269.0206081606.1cf62331_at_posting.google.com...
> Hi all,
>
> Often I wonder about the job market. In particular,
> the job market for people with my Oracle skill sets.
>
> When I started in the mid 90's, and client server
> was the technology of the day, it was not unusual
> to have a number of Oracle developers and a DBA
> in the coveted DBA position. All the developers knew
> both the GUI tool, and Oracle.
>
> Now, I am working in a big company. The IT department
> in my division experienced layoffs recently. Most all of
> the layoffs were Oracle people. But there were no
> layoffs of java people, or business analysts.
>
> In my unit, there was only myself and another. Now I have
> to do all his work too. He just found a job after about 6
> months of searching. He is working in a company that has
> 40 java developers, and only 4 database people! He is
> outnumbered 10 to 1.
>
> And I now work with 10 others, as the only dedicated
> Oracle expertise, so I am also outnumbered 10 to 1. I
> maintain 4 legacy systems that I didn't develop, and
> work on the development of 2 systems. And I am slated
> to also work on yet another big upcoming project as the
> only database expertise. There is a LOT of work to do.
> There is really too much work to do for one person, and
> still do a great job.
>
> The management does not want the other java people
> or analysts to learn Oracle. The analsyts are
> supposed to come up with something; I am supposed
> to then figure out how to implement it. So, systems are
> designed by beginners who do not develop in Oracle,
> or study database design. It's like they consider Oracle
> an extension of the operating system, that can
> be modified with their mouse.
>
> I remember the Novell CNEs. In 1995, these people
> were highly demanded. But now, they are lucky to
> be working, the market has been taken over by
> Microsoft networking.
>
> Since early 2000, I have been the only Oracle
> expertise in the entire organization. No more
> teams of Oracle people. Just me singlehandedly
> trying to keep it all working.
>
> The new 9i supposedly makes Oracle administration
> much easier, so I expect that there will be
> even less demand for a DBA.
>
> So, I wonder about the future as an Oracle
> professional.
>
> What is your experience? What is your ratio of
> Oracle expertise, to those with none? (By expertise,
> I mean someone who does use sqlplus, writes their
> own queries to the data dictionary, and writes a
> stored procedure or function at will.) Are you
> increasingly expected to do more and more work?
> Are backups never looked at, because you have
> too much development to do? Does management see
> no value in having any other tech people learn
> Oracle? Do you no longer have time to read or
> answer the newsgroups?
>
> Thanks a lot.
Received on Sat Jun 08 2002 - 19:16:36 CDT

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