The Evolving DBA

  • I see a day coming, and soon, where the work that today is done by a junior, or even a mid-level, DBA, will be readily replaced by AI. My concern is a simple one. If there's not a simple progression from junior to mid to senior, how on earth will we get senior level people who can do the advanced stuff that will very likely be beyond AI for a much longer period?

    Think about it. A lot of us are quite old farts. I already don't see a lot of replacements coming up (mind you, I do see absolutely brilliant younger people who I am actively learning from, just not many). I do see this problem getting worse, and I don't see an easy path to a solution. And please, this isn't a "kids these days" statement. Kids these days are fine. But, AI is going to be doing a lot of the work that we used as a learning pathway in the past. We're going to have to build new pathways somehow.

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

  • I have been thinking about that..

    I think its going to be a bumpy transition (from present systems to AI centric systems) but what I hope is that there will still be people who are just naturally inquisitive and they will still study despite the fact that technically it may not be necessary.

    It is my hope that some of those will take an interest in databases.

     

    cloudydatablog.net

  • David.Poole wrote:

    I'm coming to the end of my career and every day brings a new feeling of Deja Vu.

    Me, too, though probably not as close as you.

  • I recognize some of you from the Chicago Redgate thing this week. The DBA community is an old-crew but I would say young-at-heart.

    As for my real comment...just yesterday I spoke with a young new guy at our company...can't be more than 23. I noticed over the couple months he's been here, that he really gets it. He's in a data analysis and support group of low-on-the-totem-pole people. But he thinks in sets, extends his TSQL knowledge, solves problems, and just generally soaks it up.  He needs to think beyond his current place...and I bet he is.   So I said to him as much...."you should think about becoming a DBA...you have a mind for it".   I left the brief conversation feeling good about helping him in the right direction. But did I?

    Monday, I'm going to tell him to forget about "DBA" and think about "Data".  The DBA role has changed enough that I think the term itself just isn't right.  "Administrator" feels wrong now.  Let automation administer all that stuff I've done for 25 years.  Many of the comments I noticed of DBAs who are now called or doing something else.  I'm at the end and "DBA" for 5 more years is fine. But for the kid....its a new world.

  • The new kids prefer the term data engineer over DBA. Work & responsibilities are the same, but they really don't like the DBA moniker for some reason.

     

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

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