October 23, 2013 at 6:56 am
Beatrix Kiddo (10/23/2013)
Grant Fritchey (10/23/2013)
I mainly took the job because it paid more. Flat out. When I was offered the job, I said no... until I was told the raise that went with it. Then... I developed a love for it in order to keep that gravy train running.Good answer! Was there a stage you can pinpoint when you moved from accidental to 'real'? (Actually, I'll take a look at your blog.)
What makes you assume Grant has already moved on to "real"? 😛 😉 😀
Need an answer? No, you need a question
My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP
October 23, 2013 at 7:00 am
Koen Verbeeck (10/23/2013)
GilaMonster (10/23/2013)
Koen Verbeeck (10/23/2013)
Even hardcore DBAs like Gail, Jeff and others have gaps in their knowledge.I am not a DBA. I have never once had a DBA job. I'm a developer, specialising in database development (and design, performance tuning)
Sorry to have offended you 🙂
Yet you have a session on PASS about database corruption, which seems like a DBA thing to me 😉
Oh I'll talk and write about DBAish things, but I'm a developer. A developer who dabbles and plays with the admin stuff but would never ever want or take a DBA job.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
October 23, 2013 at 7:01 am
Koen Verbeeck (10/23/2013)
Beatrix Kiddo (10/23/2013)
Koen Verbeeck (10/23/2013)
Even hardcore DBAs like Gail, Jeff and others have gaps in their knowledge.
I utterly refuse to believe this :-D.
Ask them about SSIS 🙂
What's SSIS?
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
October 23, 2013 at 7:03 am
GilaMonster (10/23/2013)
Koen Verbeeck (10/23/2013)
Beatrix Kiddo (10/23/2013)
Koen Verbeeck (10/23/2013)
Even hardcore DBAs like Gail, Jeff and others have gaps in their knowledge.
I utterly refuse to believe this :-D.
Ask them about SSIS 🙂
What's SSIS?
That thingy you had to know for that pesky MCSA exam 🙂
Need an answer? No, you need a question
My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP
October 23, 2013 at 7:14 am
Beatrix Kiddo (10/23/2013)
Grant Fritchey (10/23/2013)
I mainly took the job because it paid more. Flat out. When I was offered the job, I said no... until I was told the raise that went with it. Then... I developed a love for it in order to keep that gravy train running.Good answer! Was there a stage you can pinpoint when you moved from accidental to 'real'? (Actually, I'll take a look at your blog.)
I'd say that occurred on my second job as a DBA. I worked about 6 months as a DBA for the first start-up when I was offered a "Senior DBA" position at another startup for ridiculous amounts of money. Hell, I took it. I readily acknowledge that, to a degree, I'm going where the money is. But, I wasn't really a DBA when I took it. I became one on that new job. Luckily, the company didn't know what a real DBA looked like, so as I figured it out, I let them know what I was doing. We hired a couple of other DBAs who knew a little more about the traditional aspects of the job. Between the three of us we sorted it all out and I learned what I needed to know to really do the job right.
I'm not sure I have that story on my blog. May be time for a blog post. I do believe in the "follow your passion" arguments, but I also think that MUST be tempered with "follow the money" unless you're living on a trust fund (which I most certainly am not).
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
October 23, 2013 at 7:15 am
Koen Verbeeck (10/23/2013)
Beatrix Kiddo (10/23/2013)
Grant Fritchey (10/23/2013)
I mainly took the job because it paid more. Flat out. When I was offered the job, I said no... until I was told the raise that went with it. Then... I developed a love for it in order to keep that gravy train running.Good answer! Was there a stage you can pinpoint when you moved from accidental to 'real'? (Actually, I'll take a look at your blog.)
What makes you assume Grant has already moved on to "real"? 😛 😉 😀
My current position is most definitely not doing what I would call DBA work, so you got me. But then again, I haven't been on call for almost three years, so to quote a movie "I wouldn't say I've been missing it, Bob."
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
October 23, 2013 at 7:24 am
Grant Fritchey (10/23/2013)
I'm not sure I have that story on my blog. May be time for a blog post. I do believe in the "follow your passion" arguments, but I also think that MUST be tempered with "follow the money" unless you're living on a trust fund (which I most certainly am not).
I believe that once you have found your passion (BI in my case), it's OK to follow the money.
Why wouldn't you? The main reason you work is still to provide for your family.
Need an answer? No, you need a question
My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP
October 23, 2013 at 8:17 am
i also started at accidentally Sql development.
In my first company when i was on .Net developement side.
but how i started that is funny. there was one of my friend who was not good in sql. and i flaunted myself infornt of him that i can crack any logical in sql. so what he did, he started sending me his job part (build sql script) to me. and i cleverly with the help of DBA stared doing his job(where DBA actually was doing everything 😀 ). but one day DBA left the company and i was in trouble as my friend sadly complaint that earlier u used to do my work very fast but now you have stared ignoring me (totally unware the really reason)
so just to save my reputation i started struggling with sql and gradually gained interest in it
-------Bhuvnesh----------
I work only to learn Sql Server...though my company pays me for getting their stuff done;-)
October 23, 2013 at 10:20 am
Kind of accidental.
I started as an economic consultant.
I was pulled into working on a crude oil transaction database, Sybase 4.X on NextStep.
After few years of T-SQL coding and very lite DBA stuff, I did some QA moonlighting,
recast my resume and got my first DBA job.
Switched to SQL Server 6 years ago and am now getting pulled into MySQL and possibly VoltDB.
October 23, 2013 at 11:05 am
Life-long techno-nerd, started with computers in college on a Univac 9300, programming in FORTRAN on 80-column punch cards. Stayed with computers as they developed, wound up in a museum's IT department doing general-purpose computer work, gradually started developing all sorts of odd things in Microsoft's Office package, over time mostly narrowed down to collection tracking applications in Access. One such application outgrew what Access could handle, so I made the switch to SQL Server, and since the museum has nobody else, I wound up becoming the de-facto DBA for the server.
So I'm not a 'real' DBA, but I have to perform some of the functions of one, because if I don't, they just won't get done. Several new projects have grown out of that and database stuff is my primary source of beer money now. Most of my education (both formal and self-taught) as well as work experience is as a developer, but I'm having a great time learning about the care and feeding of SQL Server.
October 23, 2013 at 11:30 am
Since no one would hire a DBA with zero experience, I'd say that ALL DBAs start via the accidental route. When do you become a REAL one? I suppose that's at the point where you never get called off hours because nothing goes wrong anymore.
October 24, 2013 at 8:44 am
Grant Fritchey (10/23/2013)
so to quote a movie "I wouldn't say I've been missing it, Bob."
I love Office Space. Even though it's painfully close to the bone sometimes.
I find these stories really interesting. So many different ways in. It's funny how it can really polarise people, too- a developer I know says you couldn't pay her enough to be a DBA, but I personally would never want to be a developer. (This is just as well really, given my ultra-basic 'skills' in that regard.)
VoltDB is a new one on me. I had to look that one up. This is what I mean about seemingly never being able to learn enough :blink:.
October 24, 2013 at 8:47 am
Add one more "accidental-because-I-can-create-nifty-databases-sorta-kinda-DBA" here.
I began playing with PCs in the 8-bit days, later on managed to create a useful application in Access for a private social service agency I was working in. Learned some SQL basics dissecting Access queries in SQL View and tweaking them manually. They offered me a tech position, which later translated into a full-time IT service technician job. Then I got my current job and got turned loose on SQL Server. Though most of what I do is development work, since we maintain our instance locally and there's just me and the boss, I do some DBA work by default. Though there's a fair amount of overlap, they really are different skill sets.
Frankly, when I got my current job, I flat out told my boss I'd never worked on SQL server but was familiar with SQL through developing in Access. They hired me anyway and I've been learning as I go (got my copy of The Data Warehouse Toolkit, Third Edition from Amazon yesterday - yippie!).
There is ALWAYS something else to learn.
Not to sound trite, but in my mind that's the quality that makes a successful DBA (or DB developer). Applies to many IT specialities, but seems particularly apt for this line of work.
____________
Just my $0.02 from over here in the cheap seats of the peanut gallery - please adjust for inflation and/or your local currency.
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