Advice sought on entering DBA career

Thanks for taking time to read this.

I would like to know how I may 'get into' database admin.

I have recently been award an unfortunately low-grade first degree in Chemistry from my local university and hence cannot continue with my first choice career, namely chemical research (organic). Having spent some time looking in depth at other employment path-ways DBA comes out on top each time. So I really want to get into this field.

What would you advise as my first step considering I have neither real-time experience nor an abundance of qualifications?

I do have some experience of course - Access/Oracle PE/mySQL on Unix/Linux and Winxx
I have some understanding behind the operation and 'theory' of DBs and a good grasp of SQL.

Any advice at all - whether positive or negative in nature would be very much appreciated. Received on Fri Jul 20 2001 - 07:24:24 CEST