October 29, 2009 at 5:19 am
I work for a large multinational company, been there via contrating and full time for almost 5 years now, basically since graduating from college.
My role used to be a Tier 2 role, and involved a lot of functions such as:
Support of production databases and applications.
Building UAT envrionments.
Applying patches to production.
Basic/intermediate database administration tasks.
Debugging code, finding workarounds, advising on permanent fixes for bugs.
It encompassed a lot, and was challenging but interesting.
Over the last 18 months there has been a major upheaval in the org structure and now all I do is investigate potential production bugs, identify workarounds, log the bugs and try to get them fixed by dev in a patch within the next 50 years!
This, along with monitoring production jobs and what not encompasses all my current responsibilities. This is due to many buggy releases and way too much debugging work to do. All the envrionment building, dba tasks are now gone to newly formed teams.
Because of this I feel im now stagnating in a job that is not yielding much new experience or room for growth in a technical sense.
I have the SQL Server MCTIP for 2005 and 2008, and am always trying to learn more about sql server. I dont get to use any newly aquired knowledge day to day though so it falls out of my head eventually.
I have publicized my cv online and received quite a few calls on it. I thought I'd be happy, but Im just really reluctant to leave a comfortable position. I think I've become institutionalized! My current company pays a very good salary for the job I do, great benefit's (Health, phone/Internet paid for, bonus's, huge discounts on software etc) and this makes it all the more comfortable.
Also, in today's economy, going fresh into a new company, being on probation again, and being the new kid is not something i relish.
My question is, reluctance to move aside, am I doing damage to my career by staying in my current "safe" yet boring role? My aim is at best to become a full DBA, and at least get into a position where I am learning new techy skills.
Have any of you experienced this and how did you deal with it?
October 29, 2009 at 5:33 am
I suppose it depends on what you are trying to achieve, Are you working as a SQL DBA, or just doing dba duties. Is your experience and knowledge sufficient for you to be considered for senior dba roles, senior dbas in most full time organisations get to play with more technology and have more freedom. Moving to other organisations IMHO is all about confidence in your ability. if you can carry it off, then you will be able to work anywhere. Having the CERTS is all well and good, but if you dont leverage that knowledge on a daily basis, as you already know, you will lose it.
It does sound like you have a comfortable position, I would review the requirements of your role and see if you can ask for additional responsibilities or opportunities to help the business, and that in turn will help you learn more.
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October 29, 2009 at 6:45 am
Silverfox (10/29/2009)see if you can ask for additional responsibilities or opportunities to help the business, and that in turn will help you learn more.
I have tried this, but the organization is based on teams. even regards administration, there are teams who control backups, teams who controm monitoring, teams who control db layout and SAN allocation, so there is no one job to do DBA work.
Also, most of those positions are either in India or in other locations in the US, meaning a major uprooting for me.
Regarding getting more duties, there is no way we can do this, as we are swamped with our debugging responsibilities. I spend my days walking through sproc after sproc after sproc, often many levels nested, each consisting of up to a few thousand lines of sql. Its tedious, but there is no getting away from it. They say they are trying to outsource it to India, but i heard that twice in the last 12 months.
Regarding my abilities, I know enough to be an intermediate level DBA, but dont get enough chances to practice and this is a big issue. As long as i am placed on a team where im comfortable to ask questions i will do ok (this may seem like a small ask, but ive been on teams before where you are scoffed at, and assumed to be an idiot for asking anything).
October 29, 2009 at 7:53 am
Unfortunately no one can really give you an answer to this question, but we can offer advice.
Are you married or in a serious relationship? Do you have children?
If the answer to either of these is yes, be sure you consider the impact on these relationships and the other people.
If the answer to both those questions is no, then I'd say that this is the time to make that kind of move. If you don't like what you are doing and want to grow and can't then you need to move on. It's a scary decision to make, and yes, you may regret it later (the grass is always greener), but if you don't make a move you may regret it even more.
Remember this too, you have a job in a tough economy, at least in the US, but there is never anything wrong with looking and interviewing. You don't have to take a job just because it is offered. If you do interview, make sure you interview the company as well.
Jack Corbett
Consultant - Straight Path Solutions
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October 29, 2009 at 7:58 am
Good advice. Thanks all. Im gona start doing a few interveiw's, if for nothing else, for practice. If Something very tempting comes up in the interim then all the better!
Il provide an update on this thread if there are any updates, in hope that this thread may help other folks in a similar position.
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