From oracle-l-bounce@freelists.org Thu Mar 3 03:54:11 2005 Return-Path: Received: from air891.startdedicated.com (root@localhost) by orafaq.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id j239sBl4006778 for ; Thu, 3 Mar 2005 03:54:11 -0600 X-ClientAddr: 206.53.239.180 Received: from turing.freelists.org (freelists-180.iquest.net [206.53.239.180]) by air891.startdedicated.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id j239sAem006774 for ; Thu, 3 Mar 2005 03:54:10 -0600 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by turing.freelists.org (Avenir Technologies Mail Multiplex) with ESMTP id 9C8A37C773; Thu, 3 Mar 2005 03:52:44 -0500 (EST) Received: from turing.freelists.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (turing [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 16659-09; Thu, 3 Mar 2005 03:52:44 -0500 (EST) Received: from turing (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by turing.freelists.org (Avenir Technologies Mail Multiplex) with ESMTP id 251127C83E; Thu, 3 Mar 2005 03:52:44 -0500 (EST) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:reply-to:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:references; b=rWqOkiNa++Z69DzBp+IwCtePIHjwR2oZm2vfe/9w0moa/mJHnbXXIbmyPEw/X/p1+eNpmDufmFJi95KMcuNPSbZCVcn/XabPxPrXId1QjDhUvghcBLoidL4ZcVj0y0ZzKSj7s6Zd60GTgZ9t94MRwul9T8eH8bOiO64vTYYzBrY= Message-ID: <7765c897050303005047deb3f6@mail.gmail.com> Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2005 08:50:19 +0000 From: Niall Litchfield To: joelgarry@anabolicinc.com Subject: Re: Case study for interviewing Oracle DBA Cc: Oracle-L In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit References: X-archive-position: 16856 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: oracle-l-bounce@freelists.org Errors-To: oracle-l-bounce@freelists.org X-original-sender: niall.litchfield@gmail.com Precedence: normal Reply-To: niall.litchfield@gmail.com X-list: oracle-l X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new-20030616-p9 (Debian) at avenirtech.net X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.60 (1.212-2003-09-23-exp) on air891.startdedicated.com X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=5.0 tests=AWL autolearn=ham version=2.60 X-Spam-Level: Hi Joel come here for a bit more sanity than cdos? On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 15:55:21 -0800, Joel Garry wrote: > Niall Litchfield wrote: > >In fact I'd argue that if you really, really just want skills then you > >aren't after an employee but a contractor or consultant for a short > >period of time. > > Far too many companies have figured that out, to the detriment of many. > Overuse of that sort leads to loss of institutional knowledge. Also > called "bad strategic planning." And I've personally observered that > you often wind up with large values of "short period of time." :-) I tend to agree, especially with the last observation though there are often mad budgetary reasons for that. In general though I'd say that you get those sorts of decisions when people *say* that they want skillset X for a while, but really they want employee Y with that skillset who will contribute to the success of the business. > >Understanding when to rebuild indexes is really rather uninteresting. > > #$%#!@#%! Isn't that a recipe for institutionalized myth-making? Or at > least, "badly distributed resource usage." ("Sorry honey, I have to > spend Saturday rebuilding indexes, 'cause [some useless tool] told me > to.") When Ault published his old "what to look for in a DBA," I didn't > agree with some of what he said, but his characterization of a good DBA > as being intellectually curious was not merely verisimilitude. I probably didn't make myself clear, I think what I was trying to say was that specific technical issues are rather uninteresting *to the business*, not that we should not be curious, rigorous and (mostly) correct technically, but that our value derives only partly from our technical bent, but mostly from what are probably called soft skills or innate knowledge or some other buzzword, from the ability to use the knowledge that we do have specifically to achieve the aims of the enterprise. A CEO doesn't hire an accountant for their ability to choose the appropriate depreciation formula for each class of asset, but for their ability to manage the finances and make the place more profitable, less costly in the non-profit sector. It is, or should be, the same in IT. Anyway if I gave the impression that one shouldn't be curious about how Oracle works then I misrepresented my views. I personally want to understand how Oracle, how the OS and how the app work. (Networks are just electric string though so I keep failing to get interested in them). -- Niall Litchfield Oracle DBA http://www.niall.litchfield.dial.pipex.com -- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l