Re: Contemplating career switch to DBA. Advice?

On Wed, 09 Dec 1998 22:40:42 -0600, Randy Hunt <rlhunt_at_pdq.net> wrote:
>I am currently a geophysicist employed with Texaco, with a Master's
>degree. I love what I do, but get tired of the boom/bust cycle, and the
>limited opportunity. Thinking about retraining to be a database
>administrator or something related. I have written scientific
>algorithms in the past in fortran, pascal, and a little C, but am very
>rusty. I have a family so time is limited for taking college courses,
>etc., so here's my plan: I purchased the "Oracle": A beginner's guide"
>book, and am looking to buy Personal Oracle for my PC. I plan on making
>some databases, and messing around with them to learn SQL, etc.. Once I
>learn enough to be dangerous, I was going to try and take the Oracle
>certification test, and then get some entry-level consulting jobs
>locally, to increase my knowledge and get some experience.
>
>Am I deluding myself, or is this plan workable? Having no knowledge of

Probably more of a problem is companies deluding _themselves_ over the whole DBA thing. I've seen errors ranging from companies thinking they can hire someone and train them to be a DBA (so I would get a support call "Hi, I'm the DBA but they haven't trained me yet, and I have to install Oracle"), to companies that know they need a DBA but don't really know what one is, to companies that don't know the difference between development and operations, to companies that think if a title has "admin" in it, it is a glorifed secretarial position, to companies that have been burned by opportunists who just want to skim some training so they can get the big bucks, to companies that have an explicit org chart including a range of DBA positions. Implicit in this is, of course, lots of opportunity.

>what it's like to be a DBA/database person, I have no idea. I would
>appreciate advice from any DBA types, especially those who have switched
>from other careers. Thanks..

The idea of a DBA came from the mainframe world in the glass-house days. Originally, it was a more experienced programmer who would design the database. Nowadays, the term has both broadened and gotten some sub-specialities. Naturally, there can be a lot of debate on what exactly a DBA is (each IOUG conference usually has a couple of papers on that), I tend to agree with the view that there are development DBA's who design db's, perhaps working with CASE tools, and operations DBA's who backup, tune and so forth. In the real world, the fact that Oracle runs on "mini" computers also creates positions that require multiple hats - one guy or a small group designs the db, programs it, runs it, writes reports for it and so forth.

As to what it's like to be a DBA, that can vary as much as the positions (you might use dejanews to search on comp.databases.oracle.misc for some of the old threads about how to test a prospective DBA). Many places have very high expectations, to the point of causing some people to expect their DBAs to be anal-retentive personalities. As with any stereotype, there may be some truth to this. I wouldn't go so far as to maintain this (I sure wouldn't describe myself that way!), but certainly a desire for ordering the universe in a certain way is a plus. That way is called the relational model, and I would definitely recommend taking a college level class in the theory before holding yourself out as a DBA (or doing any serious SQL programming, for that matter).

There are many paths toward being a DBA, and serendipity often plays a bigger role than trying to find a company that will hire a green DBA (although it does happen). More shops are looking for developers, an easier path might be to learn the C derivatives and web stuff just to get into an Oracle shop.

By the way, before you buy personal Oracle, look into linux and that oracle.

>
>Randy Hunt
>Houston, TX
>

jg

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