I am so glad to see this as the topic of your editorial today.

I am scheduled to do a presentation at SQL Saturday #161 that I titled "Yesterday I couldn't even spell 'DBA'..." 😀 I even have a post somewhere on here under SQL Server 2008 > SQL Server Newbies > titled "Enlisted or Drafted" where I hoped to get people to weigh in on the subject and maybe tell their own tales.

I definetely was drafted. Although I have been designing and coding databases ever since 1980, the days of the 6502 CPU, making the transition from developer to DBA is a bit jarring.:w00t: I had only started developing in SQL 7 when the development company where I worked decided to also do some SQL Server hosting. I was drafted and glad I did if for nothing else than to stop them from their normal backup plan. Their plan was to not use SQL Server backups but to let everything get backed up to tape without even stopping the services.

I quickly learned as much as I could and my boss was supportive, even allowing me to study and finish my MCSE then take the last two tests to get my MCDBA.

One problem I run into with developers is that they can't seem to wrap their minds around the concept of result sets (RBAR) or the concept of a database server. Some just thought that SQL Server was the same as having Visual FoxPro or Access available on a network share.

Please tell me more of what your experiences and what you found helpful and what you wish you had known when you made the transition!