I constantly get new career articles in my inbox and am always interested in how the job market is doing. I think some of that is my own personal paranoia about being without a job and wanting to be prepared in case something happens.

Much of what I've seen written has been conflicting, with the IT job market either being short of supply or demand on almost alternating weeks, but overall things seem to be going well for data professionals. At least from what I hear from most people, things are good in the DBA world. There are always people struggling, but that's not the general impression I get this year.

However we are now a third of the way into 2008, so I wanted to get your opinion. This Friday's poll is:

Is the outlook for DBAs better or worse in 2008 than 2007?

If you had to look for a job, for whatever reason, do you think you'd have a better chance of getting one this year than last year? Would you make more money? Would you have better benefits?

For me it's a pretty easy answer. I was awarded the MVP this year, I had lots of stuff published, and I think I'd do better this year than last. I might be wrong, but based on what I've seen with job ads, surveys of salary, and more contacts in the industry, I think 2008 is a better year for me. There's certainly more news, though a new version of SQL Server always help get things moving here on the site.

But I'd like to hear from more of you, wherever you are in the world. Let us know where you are and what you think of the job market for a SQL Server or database related job.

Steve Jones

The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.podshow.comto get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.

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My apologies to everyone for missing a second podcast in a row, at least on the video side. I'm traveling in Seattle and my webcam has been acting up, sometimes working, sometimes not. With my daughter in a play this week at home, I was out of luck with the camera, so you'll have to live with audio only (MP3). We'll get back onto a good video schedule next week..

• MP3 Audio Podcast - 2.3MB

Today's podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don't like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you'd like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.