looking to get first sql job

  • i was wondering, whats the typical hours worked for a dba and a developer?Also please include your years of experience.thanks

  • Depends a lot of the type of industry you're in, your clients and their business operation hours, how much they are willing to spend on overtime, and whether they see a server down as a priority, or something that can wait until tomorrow.

    From experience:

    A good day will be 9 hours, with maybe 1 hour overtime 3 times a week.

    Bad day:

    12 Hours work, another 4 overtime, sometimes 24 hours and more straight through.

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    This thing is addressing problems that dont exist. Its solution-ism at its worst. We are dumbing down machines that are inherently superior. - Gilfoyle

  • a typical day is start at 08:00 finish at 16:30, but then i'm on call 24/7/365 so technically i could work every hour of every day all year if there is a major problem, but typically no more than 10 - 12 hours a day

  • are you a DBA or a developer

  • DBA at heart, but I do all things SQL related so development of DB objects and SSIS/RS/AS stuff as well as well as everything DBA

  • It up to you how much you love the technology, as a DBA there are lots of learning lots of new thing where you can dig, the best way to spend time is (WORK HOURS+NEW LEARNING (Practicing the thing)+READING BLOG, books) at least 11 hours.

    Otherwise work in routine job 8-9 hours is OK, but think where you would be in next 6 month, or next 1 year?

  • As a developer you are more likely to work a consistent 40 hour work week. Of course that doesn't mean a developer won't put in OT to get a project completed or to be available (maybe present) during a move to production.

    As a DBA, be prepared to work anywhere from 40 hours to 60 hours or more. You will most likely be on-call off hours to support system failures (whether database related or not).

  • In Financial industry I typically work 12 hours Mon-Fri, plus Wknds when you are on-call, so wknd can easily add another 10 hours...

  • kareemking (3/11/2012)


    i was wondering, whats the typical hours worked for a dba and a developer?Also please include your years of experience.thanks

    My answer would be "whatever it takes". If you're looking for a 40 hour workweek, then being a DBA or SQL Developer will probably not be your cup of tea.

    Yes, the goal is to limit things to 40 hours... it rarely happens even after you get the systems all squared away, etc.

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • Thanks everyone for the responses, my main reason was i am looking to move away from tech/app support position and typically i put in 9 hrs per day so i didnt know how much different of a workday it is

  • Jeff Moden (3/12/2012)


    kareemking (3/11/2012)


    i was wondering, whats the typical hours worked for a dba and a developer?Also please include your years of experience.thanks

    My answer would be "whatever it takes". If you're looking for a 40 hour workweek, then being a DBA or SQL Developer will probably not be your cup of tea.

    Yes, the goal is to limit things to 40 hours... it rarely happens even after you get the systems all squared away, etc.

    Aaaah, the joy of being a BI developer. Consistent 40 hours per week.

    At the client that is, as I work as a consultant. I do not count meetings/trainings in the evening, self-study, watching webinars, reading books/articles...

    Need an answer? No, you need a question
    My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
    MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP

  • i am lucky i work in an environment that really doesn't run 24/7 (education) - i typically work 40 hours (though i sit at my desk during lunch due to a lack of a decent lunch room). I am a production DBA.

    the risk you run in jobs that are regularly 50+ hours per week is losing balance in your life. spend too much time at any task, and the other areas of your life will suffer. that is rarely worth a few extra $$$ in your paycheck.

  • michael.albert (3/22/2012)


    i am lucky i work in an environment that really doesn't run 24/7 (education) - i typically work 40 hours (though i sit at my desk during lunch due to a lack of a decent lunch room). I am a production DBA.

    the risk you run in jobs that are regularly 50+ hours per week is losing balance in your life. spend too much time at any task, and the other areas of your life will suffer. that is rarely worth a few extra $$$ in your paycheck.

    I worked in K12 public education for 5 years. We weren't a 24x7 shop either but our systems were expected to be up 24x7 and before I left we had numerous processes running at night that needed to run successfully transferring data to 3rd party systems. Sometimes when those failed, depending on the reason for the failure, they may not have gotten fixed until the next day but if we could fix the error we did and reran those failed processes.

    I was the Senior DBA and we did both production and development work.

  • i've moved into a new role around 6 weeks ago now which is in the education sector too providing educational resources to schools for use on our companies whiteboards, as we are a global operation we are required to be online 24/7/365, I'm the only DBA in the company for this particular sector of the business so I am expected to be available by phone 24/7/365 incase the worst does happen

  • I worked in K12 public education for 5 years. We weren't a 24x7 shop either but our systems were expected to be up 24x7 and before I left we had numerous processes running at night that needed to run successfully transferring data to 3rd party systems. Sometimes when those failed, depending on the reason for the failure, they may not have gotten fixed until the next day but if we could fix the error we did and reran those failed processes.

    I was the Senior DBA and we did both production and development work.

    similar deal here. lots of nightly extracts and transfers, etc. i am in K12 public as well.

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