• Any or all of those things (except just stay a DBA for ever). I don't believe in specialising too much. Once a DBA has become a capable generalist (including competence as a developer, QA/QC manager, Support manager, and tester) he should be aiming to become eventually director (VP in left-Pondia) of R&D or of IT, or even CTO, CIO, or CEO.

    Tom