Master of Some

In picking the title of this Blog i tried to find something to some up the nature of work a DBA will have to do in their lifetime. Having moved into this role after being an Oracle Apps Developer i suddenly realised that knowing about how the database works and how to patch/install software wasn't going to get me through the day.

I've found that i have had to learn the different operating systems ( more recently Oracle on Windows which given the number of years using Windows thought would be quite intuitive) , revisit my university days of networking and database theory; handle disk storage queries and make recommendations, backup and recovery with third party involvement and manage releases to the different environments. When you couple that in with taking ownership of issues/projects that may span many different internal/external teams, you also are developing relationships and your communications skills daily.

The saying 'They wear many hats" gets used a lot when talking about the skills of a DBA but i always thought that seemed a bit of a chaotic description, which it may seem like when a system is down and you have 3 people all phoning for an update/solution. I don't think though it does justice to the amount of learning both on the job and outside to keep up to date with the ever expanding product ranges and developments going on.

I like the term Jack of all trades but know that mostly its used in a derogatory tone when someones knowledge is good, but not good enough to give an in depth answer. Checking wikipedia i found that you could still use this in a positive way and counteract the negatives by extending it and that's how i came up with this title.




I may not know the answer or give enough information right now, but I've a good understanding on whats going on and I'll go and find out the exact answer or come up with options very quickly.