Getting that first job

Dear Ng,

        Well, now that I've finished some classes in Oracle( 7.3, Dev. 2000 Forms 4.5 and Reports 2.5) the question is what sort of jobs should I hope, or expect, to get?

        There seem to be 3 levels of jobs out there: Help desk, Developers and DBA. Reality tells me not to look for the DBA jobs. If know anything, I know what I don't know and I believe DBA requires lots of on the job exper. and more.

        So that leaves Help Desk and Developer. My goal is DBA with a medium to large firm, by Full time or contract. But what about Help Desk? What I mean is this: How likely is it that my first job will be Help Desk? Also, Is the Help Desk to Developer to DBA path realistic? Will I end up "stuck" at Help Desk? Or should I hold out for a Developer position?

        By the way, I should say that I have no job exper. in databasing. Just school work and P.O. 8/ Dev. 2000 trial versions on my home box. This is a career switch for me. I expect that if I'm a newbie I may be paid like a newbie, but I want to follow the career path that will put me the surest way to my goals.

        Time for more questions? When do I stop only studying and take a job when the offer comes? That is, I also took courses in C/C++ and Visual Basic. Should I really try to be an expert in everything? And what about java? Should I go back to square 1 and learn some java? I know you can never learn too much, but sooner or later I need real world exper. if I'm to go anywhere?

        A lot of questions, I know. But I've asked for and gotten great help here before. I respect you guys and would welcome your opinions one and all. My thanks in advance,

                                                Andrew Received on Mon Feb 22 1999 - 20:52:08 CST