Which is better dba or developer

Presently am working for an organization as a Senior DBA, can you pls let me know what questions can I expect in interview as a senior dba. Because I am bit confused while answering questions like what ur expecting frm us? In next one year what you want to be? How you will resolve the issue being the db owner etc I have workedout many critical issues but unable to present at the time Can you please suggest me what can I reply such questions.

I know there are lot of variables to this question, but in general, should a DBA jump around for better opportunities or make an effort to stay with one company. Assuming you are better awarded financially with each jump, and probably gaining more or different SQL skills quickly by working for different companies, what is the downside?

Thanks Brent, I enjoy your blogs and your sessions, they are very entertaining and informative at the same time. Ed — the problem comes later. Please suggest after finish this what kind of job roll i have to handle…. Mentoring someone along their career path takes a great deal of time and dedication. I have a engineer degree in computer science and currently working as tech support associate.. Scroll up, read this post in its entirety, and then read the related posts that are listed right under it.

Mainstream database administrators fall into one of two categories: production and development. Other Thoughts about DBA Roles Database admins can cross those borders and know pieces of both sides, but generally, they fall into one of the two camps.

Developers become one kind of DBA, and network administrators or sysadmins become a different kind. I explain why. Recommended Books for DBAs — the books that should be on your shopping list. Ask for a List of Servers — DBA candidates need to ask as many questions as they answer during the interview. I explain. Becoming a DBA — my list of articles about database administration as a career.

David Stein. Seth J Hersh. Brent Ozar. Kirby L. Personally I have found that a lead developer is the best person to talk to. Just as with DBAs, the path to becoming a lead developer is not a short one. These positions are relatively senior within IT and are the product of hard won and often and bruising experience. When a lead developer asks for a compromise they have almost certainly considered a number of alternatives and their need is genuine. The worst thing that a DBA can do is to argue with a team of developers.

It can put the lead developer in an untenable position with two unpalatable alternatives. If a conflict occurs during a meeting or daily stand-up, then by all means state your case but suggest that a more technical discussion take place in a less confrontational forum. The more that DBAs and developers interact with each other the better for all concerned. It is simply that there is occasional need for mediation and more senior roles have a wide enough perspective to fulfil that role.

If DBAs or developers find themselves under pressure, it is vitally important to let each other know that the pressure exists.

I can think of one particular situation that, with the benefit of hindsight, two disciplines working together would have produced a better balanced and robust solution. All DBAs were summoned to the board room and we were told in terms that would be recognised by anyone familiar with the gory bits of the Old Testament what would happen to us if such a situation ever occurred again.

We were told that no excuses would be tolerated and that we were to prevent such an occurrence by any means necessary. The steps we took were undoubtedly Draconian and caused resentment in the developer community.

If we had explained that to the development community we could have had allies instead of creating adversaries. I know that only the DBAs received the fire and brimstone treatment. Senior management were more interested in extermination rather than root cause analysis. Conflict in this context simply means that the needs of the different disciplines pull them in different directions.

This is simply a fact of life, so conflicts are inevitable but can be ameliorated by negotiating a mutually acceptable compromise. His book is short and easy to read; I heartily recommend it. Remember, you are not trying to win an argument; I must emphasize that you are trying to reach the best compromise that both parties can live with. I believe strongly that the agile community have got it right.

A multi-disciplined team is more effective than trying to get teams of specialists to work together. Functional silos encourage separateness and not cohesiveness. My experience is that this separateness leads to a breakdown in communication which results in misunderstandings and conflict in the negative sense. Each silo adopts defensive processes and functions to protect it from unwanted effects of external interactions.

In total the effect is much like scar tissue. Instead of speed and suppleness, scar tissue gives restrictive movement and slow progress. I believe the answer is to build cross-functional teams aligned to the products that the business sells. This should mean that the coordination between such teams is part of a commercial strategy and more likely to be coordinated at a more senior level within the organization. Whether I am correct in my beliefs or not, I do know that a poor choice of borders leads to conflict.

What is the better Career Path? DBA vs Software Engineer? Optional 'thank-you' note:. What is a better career path in your opinion. This topic came up because a co-worker of mine recently has a couple of offers on the table at other firms.

He's been at ABC Company for around 2 years, before that he had around 1 year of experience someplace else, and before that he was in college. Not sure how he became a DBA straight out of college, but he seems talented enough. Not a genius, but decent. Well the company we are at now seems to be dumping people and who knows where that will lead in the future. So while I'm on a contract, he's a FT employee, so he decided to start looking for what's out there. Well he had a couple of interviews face to face and he had one offer that was definite.

Good for him. He missed a couple of days work and then came in saying he had another interview at the last moment and has another offer. He was happy but not sure what to do. One is for a DBA position for a big corporation. The other role is as a Program Manager for a smaller newer company. Well, i got to thinking, maybe a DBA is a better career path than a programmer.

I mean this kid who has at most 4 years of real world experience has an opportunity to make more money as a DBA somewhere else or maybe even move farther up the chain as a Program Manager.

It's good for him, but i started feeling down because as a contractor, i always need to look for new work and I've rarely been offered new jobs that quick.

I don't know , maybe I just don't interview well. I've had tons of interviews in the past, and never heard anything back. And that was before any tech interview. But what do you think? I have seen during the course of my various jobs as a contractor and then as full time employee that it is the DBA position that commands more respect in an organization. They have the data at their finger tips. While software engineers are doing heads down coding and leading a solitary existence in their cubicle, it is the DBA who is always surrounded by people.

Henry Wong. I like To be fair, the reason that the DBA is not very accessable to the developer is because they are at the mercy of production. They have SLA requirements that must be met, in throughput, response times, and downtimes. When they upgrade a database, it must be done at night or on weekends. A DBA is not exactly a career without any downsides Jay Dilla. Jeanne Boyarsky. Henry so would we agree that operation jobs are easier then development jobs?

How did you come to that conclusion? Absolutely not. I do not agree with you. If a programmer makes a mistake, it will be found in testing if he is lucky. If he is unlucky, it will be found by QA. If he is really unlucky, the operations people will have to mitigate any damages the problem causes. If an adminstrator makes a mistake, it will cost the company a little time, money, or customer satisfaction if he is lucky.

If he is unlucky, it will cost a lot of time, money, and customers and maybe his job. Any upgrades must be done at night or on weekends. There also have to be a plan to reverse the operation, if it fails.

Think about it -- when production goes down, some companies loses millions per hour or even per minute. If you can find someone who can keep your DB up, even a few percentage points more, over an average person, is an extra k worth it? And one other point.