Hi Olufemi

I work as a contractor here in the uk so I'll do my best to give you some "lay of the land" advice.

Frankly, it echoes much of what Beatrix has said but I'll try to be a bit more specific.

The phrase "you have to be in it to win it" applies here.

In other words, you may not get very far if you aren't actually working for a company within IT.

You need to leverage what you have to get what you want.

If you have experience in Testing then I would suggest you look for backend testing jobs that will allow you

some kind of access to Sql Server to write Sql. This way you can continually hone that skill. I will also encourage you to install, if its allowed, a local sql server on your machine. Restore a database or two to it and have a play. I get that you are certified and that's all good but the certifications, and frankly, most courses will teach you the basics so you need to read as much as you can on the job and gradually become a "go to guy" at least within the Testing team for minor Sql related tasks.

Stick to places like this site as it's a great pool of talent and resources to turn to for help if you need it.

Become friendly with people on the database team and ask them to let you know if anything were to come up.

It is possible to get a junior dba job from cold (no experience) but why leave it to chance. Strategically place yourself in the right places and your chances of success dramatically increase.

All that said, however, don't actually stop applying for junior dba roles even when if you were to follow anything I have said above as, well, you never know 🙂