Okay, I read this article and its predecessor, read about 100 posts related to it, and no one yet that I've seen has made this point yet. So, here goes...
Imagine this: You're a PC tech, replacing toner cartridges, swapping video cards and such. But you're interested it databases. So, you spend hundreds of hours, thousands of dollars, and get your MCDBA certification. You're just getting going with your database career, when ... you guessed it ... the company folds and you get laid off.
After licking your wounds (and blaming dozens of other people for your former employer's demise), you open up Monster.com. To your joy and amazement, you see the following job opening:
Employer: Blibnibitz, Inc. (My apologies if anyone is actually using this name!)
Position: Database Administrator
<st1
laceName>Salary</st1
Experience: 0 - 3 years
Education: None necessary, will train on job. But an MCDBA or degree would be really nice, though.
Details: Need someone to make databases from our Excel spreadsheets for us. Must be willing to back them up once in a while, and is willing to take a stab at it if they ever need to be recovered. The ability to drag-and-drop the fields to a Microsoft Access form is a big plus.
If only it were that easy...
It's usually more like:
Employer: Blibnibitz, Inc.
Position: Database Administrator
<st1
Experience: 40+ years experience with RDBMS systems
Education: MBA or BS required. Must have thorough programming knowledge in T-SQL, PL/SQL, VB.NET, C#, HTML, XML, Java, VBScript, JavaScript, Perl, SQL Server 6.5, 7, 2000 & 2005, Oracle 8i,9i and 10g, MySQL, Sybase, MS Access, FoxPro, Windows Server 2000, 2003, Unix OS, Linux OS, Data warehousing, OLAP reporting, Query performance tuning, Embarcadero ER Diagramming tools, Hyperion, etc., etc. etc....
Details: Enterprise wide back-up and recovery of replicated databases on 1,000's of company servers. Responsible for multi-tier deployment including execution of system analysis and design for database systems. Apply critical security patches and perform database upgrades. Provide information by collecting, analyzing, and summarizing database performance and trends. Creating and executing DTS packages. Etc., Etc, Etc...
On one end of the spectrum, there is the true senior DBA. You know the type, the ones who seem to have had their brain surgically replaced with a multiprocessor clustered RAID 5 server at birth, and have retained every piece of programming knowledge that has crossed their path over the last 30 years.
On the other end of the spectrum, there is the "Tommy Lee goes to College, Part 2: Tommy Lee learns SQL Server" crowd...
"Tommy, what's a clustered index?"
"Uh ... huh, huh ... the black book where I keep chicks' phone numbers in?"
(...and he's a multi-millionaire ... go figure!)
However, most of us fall somewhere in between...
Now, of course, most businesses are reluctant to trust development, administration, and disaster recovery of their business-critical data to someone who has "done it once in a lab environment." It doesn't sit well with managers and investors. I understand that. However...
The moral of my story is this: Until there are some sort of job openings, from companies that are willing to take junior DBA's and train them to get them up to speed, then junior DBA's will continue to lie on, or otherwise artificially inflate their resume's, just to get their foot in the door. If you're in the situation of the guy in the first paragraph, as many are, you aren't God's gift to SQL Server yet, but you need to put food on your table until you get there.
Thanks for humoring me.
P.S.: Experience: 40+ years experience with RDBMS systems? E.F. Codd released the DB relational model in 1970, which was only 35 years ago. Did you catch that first time through? Something else to watch out for!