DBA Career Moves for Next 5 Years!

  • [font="Verdana"]After working in DBs (DEV - DBA) and specialized in SQL SERVER product for last 8 years, I tend to have expert opinion from board members that in wake of IoT (Internet of Things) and data analytics, what should be proposed plan for next 5 years for a mid-level technical career.

    Also if the pure DBA track (literal) is been submerged by Microsoft into Business intelligence or other literals; officially!

    [/font]

  • There's only one thing to do... do whatever your passion truly is and the next 8 years will be a cake walk.

    As for IoT, big data, this new shinny object, that new shinny object... some have come and gone, some are new, but no matter what happens, being able to work really well with SQL Server and T-SQL has provided a good living on interesting jobs for the last 20 years and it just keeps getting better. No matter the job, it seems to me that if you're a bit of a Ninja in T-SQL, you'll be in demand, especially since some that claim 10 years experience can't even tell me how to get the current date and time.

    --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)

  • Jeff Moden (5/3/2016)


    There's only one thing to do... do whatever your passion truly is and the next 8 years will be a cake walk.

    ..........

    ....

    [font="Verdana"]Jeff, thank you!

    Also from last year or so the DBA track is been titled some else by MS. Do you suggest to go for new titles as well? BI + DBA = Business Intelligence? or old principal stand of strict DBA activities are far enough? :-)[/font]

  • Titles are meaningless. My current title is "Technical Lead". Doesn't tell you a damn thing about the technologies I work with.

    Microsoft doesn't set titles, they create technology.

    The DBA job (and by this I mean pure DBA, jobs, backups, provisioning, monitoring) is changing. Cloud, hybrid, document databases, relational databases, etc, etc, etc. Keep up to date with the way the wind is blowing, and get familiar with everything around the DBA job, as well as the DBA job itself.

    Or, if your passion lies elsewhere, move to a different part of the field.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • No matter the job, it seems to me that if you're a bit of a Ninja in T-SQL, you'll be in demand...

    +1000

    "I cant stress enough the importance of switching from a sequential files mindset to set-based thinking. After you make the switch, you can spend your time tuning and optimizing your queries instead of maintaining lengthy, poor-performing code."

    -- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001

  • Abrar Ahmad_ (5/3/2016)


    Jeff Moden (5/3/2016)


    There's only one thing to do... do whatever your passion truly is and the next 8 years will be a cake walk.

    ..........

    ....

    [font="Verdana"]Jeff, thank you!

    Also from last year or so the DBA track is been titled some else by MS. Do you suggest to go for new titles as well? BI + DBA = Business Intelligence? or old principal stand of strict DBA activities are far enough? :-)[/font]

    In the classic sense of the term "DBA", "strict DBA activities not enough". You need to be a bit of a hybrid and to do that you need a very deep understanding of T-SQL, table design, indexing, and constraints. You should also have a handle on DOS, WMIC, ETL methods through T-SQL, and the occasional sprinkle of PowerShell (although I rarely ever need it to do anything because most of it can be done through SQL Server).

    Getting into BI can be good but not so much without the deep understanding T-SQL. It seems that BI tools come and go like the wind.

    --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)

  • Abrar Ahmad_ (5/2/2016)


    [font="Verdana"]After working in DBs (DEV - DBA) and specialized in SQL SERVER product for last 8 years, I tend to have expert opinion from board members that in wake of IoT (Internet of Things) and data analytics, what should be proposed plan for next 5 years for a mid-level technical career.

    Also if the pure DBA track (literal) is been submerged by Microsoft into Business intelligence or other literals; officially!

    [/font]

    First, don't allow yourself to become too specialized in any specific area of database technology at the cost of not expanding your learning into other areas, and also don't allow your employer to pigeonhole you in a job for which you find boring. Don't become deeply involved in anything professionally unless you really love it, your learning something useful, and/or you are paid well above industry average. Watch SQLBits and PASS video conferences online, attend local SQL Server user group meetings and SQL Saturday events, and even go through the process of interviewing for job positions that interest you (even if you're not entirely earnest about changing jobs). Why? Because, this does a lot for expanding your horizon about what's out there and also it gives you an opportunity to measure how you stack up professionally with your industry peers. You may be the smartest database guy in your office, but having personally gone through the process of interviewing new hire candidates, I can tell you that most of the folks in our industry are seriously self-deluded about the breadth of their technical expertise in at least one major area. For example, if you don't know the fundamentals of how SQL Server locks, blocks, and deadlocks data, then you are not a real DBA. If you don't know how to analyze execution plans and take corrective action, then you are not an real T-SQL developer. You simply can't perform the job at the level that high-end employers expect.

    With databases getting ever larger as a result of things like IoT and data analytics, the bar will be raised for the level of expertise that employers expect from a DBA. You'll be expected to architect database that can scale gacefully to multiple terrabytes, both on premisis and in the cloud. You'll be expected to have expertise in things like dimensional modeling, ETL, and continuous integration. That's what high-end employers expect from a SQL Server DBA or developer today.

    Going forward, I expect relational database architecture (ie: SQL Server) to still be very relevent. They'll continue performing the same role they have today, serving as the back end data store for CRM, financial, and line of business applications. For years now, it's been common for SQL Server to work in conjunction with NoSQL databases like Hadoop or MongoDB. The crazy stuff people may have asked you to do with SQL Server in the past (ie: logging telemetry data from devices or persisting the session state for websites) will be offloaded to a NoSQL database solution that's more specialized for that data storage/retreival use case. Over time SQL Server will adapt many of the features found in NoSQL databases (ie: federated partitions across multiple data servers, in-memory databases, and non-transacted bulk loading), and "NoSQL" databases will become more like SQL Server (ie: SQL instead of MapReduce and transacted DML operations). SQL is simply a relational abstraction layer stacked on top of a storage engine; it's been proven as the most popular method of how users want and need to query databases, any database, even "NoSQL" databases. So your investment in knowing the SQL language is still valuable, even if you eventually move to a different database platform.

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

  • I thank Eric M Russell and all others comments; with much appreciation!

  • Did you check how many job positions in (Internet of Things) and data analytics posted in you area?

    I found that in my region (Montreal, Canada) jobs related "Internet of Things" is close to 0

    However if I found "pro bono" project related to "Internet of Things" I would enroll into it immediately, just to get real case experience

  • ebooklub (5/6/2016)


    Did you check how many job positions in (Internet of Things) and data analytics posted in you area?

    I found that in my region (Montreal, Canada) jobs related "Internet of Things" is close to 0

    However if I found "pro bono" project related to "Internet of Things" I would enroll into it immediately, just to get real case experience

    So, Internet Of Things (IoT), that's just a new label describing an system where internet enabled devices (ie: sensors, biofeedback, RFID chips) are networked together.

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

  • in "Internet of Things" I include Hadoop and other Big Data "cool" technologies, Data analysis, Machine learning since they all related.

    Montreal is IT "outsource" for many NA and Europe bank/investment groups (companies pay less taxes and salaries...), but no innovation projects..

    Currently on local market all job openings related to "Internet of Things" / Big data coming from startups.

    Startups will not pay 100K+ to analyze data

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply