Replies so far

From the responses so far here is what I have found...

A programmer is never a DBA, no matter how much experience they have, unless they are placed in the situation of being one.

DBA's need no experience as long as they have the initiative to read the books and have the funds to attend classes.

And to think that I spent 4 1/2 years in technical school, and have been learning about Oracle, creating basic/complex SQL scripts and views, creating tables, dblinks, becoming a project leader and so on for the past 4 years. I could of gotten that degree in philosophy and been a DBA, or a jumbo jet pilot.

A DBA needs no experience...then Is the test to be a DBA is "Can you spell SQL?" If it is, why then is there a perceived shortage of DBA's? I'm sure there are a lot of people that can be put in a training program and then give them access to the SYSTEM tablespace and watch them go. Why then when I applied for several DBA positions about 15 months ago, the general reason why I was not hired was that I needed MORE years of "PRACTICAL" SQL experience.

I guess I was given the wrong impression of what a DBA does. I was told that a DBA needs to know what Primary and Foreign keys are; to know what constraints do; be able to read a DFD and be able to point out potential problems; know how to create complex views; that developing in Oracle for a few years is important so you have an idea what people are talking about and when problems arise you have an idea where to start looking and so on. I guess I was wrong.

I guess the only way is for a person to become a DBA is to push their way into the role or fall into it.

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