Re: Daniel morgan and other DBA's ur advice on oracle carrier path

Comments in-line.

hrishy wrote:

> Hi Daniel
>
> I have been following your replies on some of the threads here..I
> noticed that you have huge amount of experience gauged by your replies
> to the answers you have posted.I am curious to knwo what your thoughts
> are on couple of topics
>
> 1)DBA's becoming redundant

Not at all. In fact more important. But not doing what most of them have been doing for the last 5-8 years which is sitting on their version 7 knowledge and viewing their job as consisting of: backup and recovery (praying they never need to recover), managing users, and keeping ill-mannered developers out of production so they don't trash everything.

The DBAs 5-8 years from now had better now UML, Java, XML, LMT, UNDO, OAS, and an alphabet soup 90% of them don't understand.

Those that know it will be gainfully employed. The rest will follow the trail blazed by many COBOL programmers in 2000.

> 2)Most shops adopting multiple DB's (postgre sql oracle,mysql
> sqlserver db2 etc)

Many are, I'm not sure if most but it could be, and it makes sense.

> 3)Merging of the sys admin and the DBA roles in organisations

Not likely to happen. The skills and expertise are very different. That is not to say some organizations don't mix positions but I see the skill sets as being different and not overlapping anytime soon.

> 4)Market exepectations wherein sometimes the jobs demanding Java asp
> skills from DBA's

Absolutely. If today a DBA needs to be able to read and understand PL/SQL in the future that same ability level will be required for Java and other tools.

> 5)DBA's with knowledge of managing packaged applications like Baan SAP
> Peopelsoft etc or DW market

I think that demand has been there and will continue to be there.

> I am from india and so my experiences are limited to the indian
> market..The indian market is very very demanding and they squeeze a
> lot from DBA's here.(cheap outsourcing you see dont have anyone to
> balme..thats what the market wants..who doesnt want to have huge
> profits)

I disagree. The companies like Tata are making a fortune. It is the people working for them that are getting taken advantage of.

> My exp have been like this
>
> 1)sometimes the management has seen me sitting idle..so thy really
> think that they dont really need a DBA at all..and they can do away
> with DBA activites.maybe they think that everything can be done
> through OEM and GUI.

Traditionally ... a DBA that was doing something was a sign of a bad DBA. That is changing as the DBA's job responsibilities change.

> 2)some interviews i attend they bluntly ask me that they need oracle
> DBA's with sybase or Db2 DBA knowledge too i am sometimes
> awestruck..so i was in two minds for a few days and then i started
> learning Db2 and sybase too atleast baby sit them.

No doubt they will find them. And also find mediocrity except in very few cases.

> 3)many a times i have backed up as a sysdamin on digital unix sun and
> linux ssytems..just becoz management thought that they cannot afford a
> seperate sysadmin.

I have too. The last time that happened I built a Sun E450 from scratch and I can tell you for a fact they were ill served having me take a week to do what a good SA could have done in one day.

> 4)Again i see advt where the position is DBA but with java skills..at
> first i couldnt help stop laughin..many senior DBA"s i had talked to
> knwo perl not java..and again since i am money minded(who is not :-))i
> used to think is perl really worth a place in my resume..when the
> market demands java..

Java is far more important, looking forward, than is Perl. Shell scripting (usually KSH), however, will be with for quite some time.

> 5)well these ares is i beleieve is still grey..after all sap does not
> give away its erp for free..so entry barriers are high and if i
> somehow can make a breakthrough..it would be great ..
>
> just wunderin what you guys thing esp when you are comming from
> different geo-graphical location..your thoughts would be higgly
> appreciated.
>
>
> regards
> Hrishy

Well there are my thoughts. I too write from my perspective in the Pacific Northwest and likely reasonable people will disagree.

-- 
Daniel Morgan
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/oad/oad_crs.asp
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/aoa/aoa_crs.asp
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
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