Since I was job hunting for a DBA position for the first half of this year, I can say a few things from the other side of the equation.

First, job descriptions are, for the most part, way too vague. I'm a very experienced database developer, with some DTS/SSIS experience, but the network and physical server aspects of the job have always been done by others in the work I've done. I sawa hujge number of job postings that basically said, "we need a DBA" with no details, or "Duties: Build and maintain databases, must know SQL".

Another missing thing is the actual product name to be used. I read through numerous postings that were titled something like, "SQL Server DBA Needed", and then after six paragraphs of how exciting their company is, it finally mentions that the databases are on a Sybase server (my skills are currently all MS SQL 2000/2005).

There are other issues. I got to one interview, and got grilled for 3 hours on DBCC commands and recoving crashed databases, even though I said, in the first five minutes, that in the six years I've been a DBA, I've never had to actually recover a crashed database, and that I've mainly operated through various GUIs and automatic maintenance plans instead of memorizing DBCC commands. They kept saying they were interested in my DTS experience and my developer experience, but the only question asked on that subject was one about the difference between the command flow and data flow in SSIS. The main thing I gathered from the interview was that the current DBA hadn't the faintest clue about how to put together a database that didn't crash regularly, had never heard of automatic maintenance, knew nothing at all about DTS/SSIS, and could probably have been replaced with a few scheduled jobs on the servers. He also made the comment that they didn't even know where all the database servers in the company were (this was NOT a huge enterprise, it's a 10-million a year company with one building and less than 100 employees). Needless to say, I didn't live up to their standards and they didn't live up to mine and we mutually passed on the opportunity to work together.

I also ran into a lot of, "requires college degree or equivalent work experience", and with no degree, but six years as a DBA and nearly 20 years in IT, I got a lot of replies that said, "well, you qualify in all regards, and we don't have any other candidates, but we can't hire you because you don't have a degree", or replies that were very interested until they found out I don't have a degree (it said so right on my resume, which means they didn't even read it). If you won't accept "equivalent work experience", don't post the job that way. It wastes my time and yours.

(Yes, a college degree indicates a robotic ability to pretend to be awake in class and to eat what the prof vomits up for you, but I've met far too many people with computer science degrees who had to ask basic questions, like "how do I reboot", or who thought the CPU was "Windows" [yes, I've had both of those exact issues come up with people who had actual degrees]. Over the decades, I've come to the conclusion that computer science degrees are a sign of incompetence and are more of a red flag than a positive thing.)