June 29, 2009 at 9:25 am
Try the life of a consultant. The pay is a lot better, although you will have to learn how to market (whore) yourself but if you pay attention to market trends, work is plentiful. If you make enough money, 5 weeks of vacation is not unreasonable, however you can easily have 5-10 weeks of unplanned vacation as well (they call it being out of work).
After years of working for companies, I eventually started my own, because I realized I was never going to get anywhere or be happy so long as someone else was "the man". While starting your own company is expensive, stressful and generally the scariest thing you can do, it is also the most rewarding experience you can have.
June 29, 2009 at 11:53 am
GSquared (6/29/2009)
I have a simple list: Enough to do to keep me engaged, enough pay for my plans and goals, co-workers I can get along with. I'm easy to please.
I agree! Also, I think anyone trying to pressure for more perks or advantages in this economy should be careful. If you are truly unreplaceable, fine, otherwise watch out.
June 29, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I am delighted to see that the responses thus far have been very reasonable and thoughtful. I guess I should have expected this, as most DBAs I have met are very practical people.
I have also been very fortunate in my DBA career, and I get/have about 90% of what's on the list. A large part of this is because I work for a U.K.-based company (which has been listed as one of the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Small Companies to work for 2007, 2008 & 2009 in the U.K.), and thus get many European-style benefits, although I live in the U.S.
Given that I am 51, I won't be able to retire like my parents, who both retired at age 50 and have been retired 23 years now. Given that I have a daughter to put through 6+ years of college, starting 8 years from now, who wants to become a veterinarian, I will probably be working until I am at least 65, if not longer.
Brad M. McGehee
DBA
June 29, 2009 at 3:25 pm
While I fully agree with most of the posts in this topic already, I do have a off the wall wish for the idea DBA job.
It would be working as a statistics analyzer for either City of Heroes or World of Warcraft. Mind you the perfect scenario would be where I could work from home (Test playing on state of the art platforms included of course). I am in awe of the amount of data that is accumulated in these programs.
Well, back to the real world of boring educational databases.
Joe 😎
June 29, 2009 at 3:45 pm
At first i thought the wish list is unreasonable, but by looking at the replies seems like lot of folks are already enjoying most of the wishes if not all. That's really good to know 🙂
Cheers,
Amol
Senior SQL DBA
Amol Naik
June 29, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I am only 32, but I don't see myself retiring. I just hope to be able to work remotely from any location in the world, by the time I am 50. I rather enjoy what I do and I honestly don't know what I would do if I wasn't working at least part time.
June 29, 2009 at 7:43 pm
As now I'm working in one of the company in Jakarta and even though the facilities that I get is OK but still I'm just a human being still want more than that 🙂
My wish is that I want to have a corporate culture not just managers who knows our work but the directors as well. Then the job duties and the last one of course is the salary where it will be enough by the time I retired.
June 29, 2009 at 9:07 pm
The wish list is nice, but in the end is probably unrealistic. The basis of a job is to get you to do something that you wouldn't do if you weren't getting paid for it.
If a company actually needs someone to work nights or weekends, they probably won't be willing to hire someone who won't, as long as they can get someone who is willing for a salary they can afford.
"Working Hours: 32 - 40 hours a week. No more overtime or working nights or weekends."
I doubt if you can find many organizations of any size where this is true, human nature being what it is:
"Amiable Co-Workers: Everybody gets along well with everyone else, and everybody tries to help each other."
My experience is that most companies prefer that I focus on the areas that interest them the most:
"Job Duties: You can pick and choose what you do every day, focusing your efforts on those areas that interest you most."
In most companies, you will be lucky if ANY managers understand the value of DBAs or even know what a DBA is:
"Corporate Culture: A place where all managers understand the value of DBAs."
This probably is not realistic, especially since there is no guarantee that the company will even survive:
"Stable Company: A financially strong company that values its investment in its employees and never lays them off."
July 1, 2009 at 4:32 pm
All I want is when there is a "production issue" they would not blame the DBA team first. You would think after all the times we found the issue to be faulty application code they would "look before they leap"
:hehe:
July 1, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Kurt linke (7/1/2009)
All I want is when there is a "production issue" they would not blame the DBA team first. You would think after all the times we found the issue to be faulty application code they would "look before they leap".
I fully agree with this point!
Brad M. McGehee
DBA
July 2, 2009 at 5:56 am
From slashdot yesterday, here's someone who does not have an ideal job. In addition to working a 12 hour shift, this person lives 1.5 hours from work.
http://ask.slashdot.org/story/09/07/01/190236/Staying-In-Shape-vs-a-Busy-IT-Job-Schedule
July 2, 2009 at 9:33 am
I have been in that guys position, I was lucky enough to have two 24h gyms within a mile radius of where I was working. I would go work out for half an hour, twice a day. I actaully find it harder to go to the gym when I have more time on my hands then less. The current President and I, share a basic workout philosophy, that it is as important to your mental health as your physical (I am just not as committed). Like the guy in the slash dot post, I have a slow metabolism and I have to work out like a fiend in order to see any results, however most people can just get on a treadmill for 30 minutes and be fine.
I suppose the ideal job would have a gym on the premise, if I was to flesh out the "perfect" job.
Viewing 12 posts - 16 through 26 (of 26 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply