At the 2009 PASS Community Summit, I have gotten the opportunity to talk to many DBAs, and to find out about what it is like to work for their organizations. In my book, How to Become an Exceptional DBA, and in many of my presentations, I highly recommend DBAs get as much training as they can so that they can stay at the top of their game; and to also get involved in the SQL Server Community as much as possible, such as posting in forums, speaking at user group meetings, writing articles, blogging, or whatever most interests them. I feel these two activities, among many others, can help enhance one’s career.
Today, at the PASS Summit, I had two discussions with DBAs that left me a little sad. One DBA, who was really interested in sharing his knowledge of SQL Server with others, told me that his company banned him from doing anything outside of work, including speaking at his user’s group, participating in forums, or getting involved with the SQL Server Community at all. The company was afraid of any potential liability they may have if one of their employees might say or do anything politically incorrect.
In another conversation, a DBA told me that they had the opportunity for three days of free SQL Server training, but the DBA’s organization would not let the DBA off from work to attend it. The DBA even offered to take the time off without pay, but the organization still said no. The DBA was told that if they made an exception, that other employees of the company would also want to follow suit and take off days without pay for training, and that would be a problem for the organization.
This is a terrible attitude for employers to have. Organizations need to support their employees in their career development, not hinder it. Unfortunately, these DBAs have no choice but to cooperate, or to look for another job. In fact, each of these DBAs told me that they were looking for a new job, and I wish them the best of luck.
If there is any lesson to be learned from these two DBA’s experience, is that when you are interviewing for a new job, be sure you find out what the organization’s policies are for training and career development. If you discover an organization won’t support your career, then you need to keep on looking, until you find an organization that believes in cultivating its employees.
If you have had a similar negative experience with an organization that doesn’t support its employees, please share your story with us (anonymously, of course).
Yes these issues are online in many locations with many DBAs, the same thing is also in my country as I have information! Sure it is terrible and for that reason no quality DBAs! Technology changes every (day, month, quarter, year...), but in this case DBAs stay with oldies knowledge!!! ...Yea it's terrible!!!
This is an unfortunate situation. In my case, my manager is such a proponent of training that he incorporated a training budget(?) right into my compensation package at the time I was hired. The very wonderful thing about this is that I get the salary I want and this other element which forces me to go get trained every year - so I don't cause myself to get a pay-cut. I can keep up with new developments (in my field or anything else that might be useful to my career/employer) and there's no tug of war with the employer about training budgets/time-off, etc.
I agree, it is very sad that some employers have such a bad attitude about employees who are trying to advance their careers.
What seems to be more common is an attitude of "benign neglect" by employers, where they don't support or assist their people's development efforts, but they don't prevent people from taking the initiative themselves.
I have also seem some employers who are afraid to invest in their people, because they think that it increases the chances that they will leave for greener pastures once they have increased their skills and knowledge.
Obviously, I think this is a mistaken attitude for a manager to have. In reality, a pretty high percentage of people in the workforce view their job as "just a job", that is mainly an unfortunate interruption of their other activities. If you have an employee who is trying to improve themselves, you should not stand in their way...
I agree with Berry, when he said:
"I have also seem some employers who are afraid to invest in their people, because they think that it increases the chances that they will leave for greener pastures once they have increased their skills and knowledge."
Fortunately, I have seem only some cases in Brazil like that.
The biggest problem in Brazil is about Language training, there are only few professionals that really speak in English to keep a technical conversation going.
The employers don’t invest money in this area, but they want to hire an employee fluency in English.
So, speak in English here is a big deal, but in another hand can be considered a little bit hard, because we need to study/invest by ourselves.
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Alex Rosa
www.keep-learning.com/blog
