April 27, 2002 at 2:01 am
Hi,
I want to canvass opinion. I am a middle and back end developer, and have recently been offered a position as a DBA at a huge company. They have hundreds of servers each wih multiple databases, spread across the country.
Whilst I appreciate that no-one can tell me what is right for me, I am just wondering about leaving behind the COM stuff etc and concentrating solely on being a DBA ( I have only designed and developed dbs to date). Is there a strong career path? Will I be limiting myself too much for future roles?
Like I say, I know only I can decide if it is right for me, but any thoughts on this as a career move in general will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
April 27, 2002 at 6:58 am
I've gone back and forth in "career paths" from developer to sysadmin to developer (again) to dba to sysadmin (again). So keep in mind that any current choice of the career path along those lines doesn't lock you in.
With that said, I think most of us here would consider the DBA career path a very good one. Quite honestly, I love being a DBA, more so than solely being a developer or a sysadmin. But while I prefer being a DBA, another friend of mine who has a similar skillset to mine loves being a developer. He's knee deep into .NET now. So it really is a personal preference. Both are rock-solid paths.
Also, don't think for a second you'll be leaving that programming skill set behind as a DBA. Having that skillset is a valuable asset. Understanding COM/COM+ and ADO gives you an insight to how developers may be trying to do things. It also allows you to assist and troubleshoot application development a whole lot better and faster than a DBA who isn't strong on the application development side. We've solved several problems with both third-party and in-house built apps because several of the DBAs came from a mixed background.
Here's an example. A developer where I work (who is really a DBA in denial) took a SQL/VB app and reduced processing time from 13 hours to < 1 hour. How could he do this? He was strong on both sides of the fence. He knew how to maximize the database performance to complement VB and the COM components that had been built.
His experience and knowledge of both skillsets saved the day on a mission critical application. When I came in on a Monday and heard he made the changes to the architecture over the weekend and got such results I wasn't surprised (nor were any who have worked with this guy). He makes it his business to stay strong on both the development and DBA sides. So broadening is always good!
K. Brian Kelley
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/bkelley/
K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley
April 27, 2002 at 1:51 pm
I think I agree with Brian. Only caveat - sometimes a broad range of skills makes sense, sometimes you need to specialize - look at the medical market, GP's vs specialists. Hard to be both. I like being a DBA, but I try to spend enough time developing so that I have something to fall back on, lots more developer jobs than dba jobs.
Andy
May 18, 2002 at 4:07 am
Hi again,
Thanks for taking the trouble to reply. I have decided to accept the position, after weighing things up.
However, I was a little alarmed when, reading another thread elsewhere on this site, when the DBA role was described as tedious!! Hope that won't be my experience.
That said, I find front-end developement (forms & web pages) tedious, so maybe it's just a case of horses for courses.
I'm the sort of saddo that gains great joy from getting a complex query to return the expected results, quickly. (Maybe I should get out more).
Anyway, thanks for all of your help, I'm sure I will be a regular visitor here, dumbo questions at first, for which I apologise in advance!!
Cheers
R
June 16, 2008 at 12:11 am
hi rootman,
I am also a newbie in Datawarehousing .we are using SSAS and SSIS for backend,proclarity as frontend.I had two years of experience in developing applications in .net.I found itslef difficult and now shifted to this new job, because i like to write queries in sql server.Now for the past one month i haev been working i this Business Inteliigence area.I found itself interesting when compare to development in .Net,But here no seniors in our company to guide.Thats a bit difficult for me..Not much articles in web also for this technology....Am wondering why so.....Also i having a query that whether the transforamtion of technology enhances the resume or degrades it...Any seniors clear me out.
Thanks & Regards
vijay
June 17, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I went throught the same job change and struggled with the decision for quite a while. It was hard to leave the development behind and I do miss it from time to time, but I am very glad that I decided to become a DBA. I hope it works out as well for you as it did for me.
Tim
June 17, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I made my own career path and I wear many hats including DBA, Developer, ETL monster, performance monger, developer mentor, reality checker, etc, etc. If your new job will have over 100 servers, you'll need to sharpen some of your SQL Developer skills to make monitoring the herd a lot easier. No reason why you can't continue to wear other hats... working with designers and managers to do proof of principle work is always exciting and very worth while... I never tell someone "NO" without being able to whip a little code on them to show them why. I also take time out to teach developers things... teaching ahead of time is easier than beating them in a schedule crunch... gotta "let them see it your way". 😉
See the recent series of articles and the ensuing discussions based on the "Exceptional DBA". Those are some really good guidelines... Like the ol' Navy commercial... "Being a DBA isn't just a job... ITS AN ADVENTURE!" 😀
Go for it and good luck. 🙂
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
June 19, 2008 at 8:18 am
Blimey!!! I was surprised to see this thread 6 years after posting!:w00t:
Well, I took the DBA postition, and I learned loads! It was a great experience, and I worked with some fantastic paople!
I have now moved on to my first DBA architect/lead developer postion with a much smaller company. I now feel I am confortable doing DBA type things as well as developing. In fact, one of the reasons I got my current job is that I can now bring all my DBA experience and improve the performance of my current employers product, as well as move it forward!
Thanks for all the replies, heres to the next 6 years!!
June 19, 2008 at 11:23 am
Heh... I end up doing that all the time... someone responds to a really old thread and I just don't go back to the beginning to look when it started. 😛
Anyway... that's great feedback! Very happy that your decisions have made you so successful... and, I agree! Here's to the next wonderful 6 years of computational heaven! 😀
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
June 19, 2008 at 11:54 am
Congrats as well and glad it worked out!
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