Re: ***newbie*** How do I become a DBA??

Michael Gulbin wrote:
>
> Hello everyone!
>
> I'm enrolled in IST at Penn State University. Over the past few
> semesters I've fallen in love... with databases!!! lol
> I've been doing development work with Oracle and I've decided that I
> want to be a DBA, but I really don't have any experience. Can a few of
> the seasoned
> DBAs in the group give me some advice on how to get enough experience to
> at
> least become a Junior DBA?? If I was to look for say, an internship, I
> wouldn't know
> where or how to look.
> Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks in advance,

Run away screaming while you still have a life and a chance!! :)

Most dba's I know started as developers and worked their way up from there. A good knowledge of SQL and PL/SQL goes a long way. However, if you're lucky (as I was), you'll be given a break in a development shop that needs someone to take care of the database as well as do development. This will give you a good foundation and understanding of how Oracle works without the heavy responsibility that a large production system brings. With a small development db, if you blow it up, chances are nothing major will be lost (just recreation of the objects from backup and sample data population). If you blow up a production system, things aren't quite as easy to slap back together.

I'll probably get flamed for this, but if you have no experience yet as a dba or developer, I recommend you get your OCP certs. They won't teach you everything (or a lot of things) you need to know, but they will show potential employers you at least have the initiative to plan your career path.

Hope this helps,
GC Received on Thu Feb 08 2001 - 14:18:39 CET