Hello,

I hope I'm posting this in the right place. I am interested in starting a career in database administration. I want to know if anyone out there can give me any advice. What are some good schools? I live in Florida and would like to find something near me.

Also, would you say this is a good field to get into. Right now I do web design, but it seems like there is a lot of money in database admin and programing.

Any thing you guys have to say would be greatly appreciated!

get close to it and study for the rest of your life. i need to take this advice. also all solid DBAs are masochists.

Thats encouraging!

I'm going to go with:

Do it for the money = bad DBA.
Doing it because you secretly enjoy it (yet will never admit that to anyone (you know who you are )) = good DBA.

might i suggest that the transition from web design to database admin should have an intermediate stop in database design

understand normalization and sql well enough to do both "naturally"

once you can build effective databases (especially effective web databases), then you can consider moving on to database admin

learn to drive the car before you undertake to tinker with the engine

thanks r937. I am really trying to figure out how to make this a career. I do web design on my own, but I have no formal training in it. I would like to get established with a solid company. I do know a little about SQL and MySQL. I am genuinly interested in it. Every thing I know I learned from reading and by example. I never went to school.

My goal is to do what it takes to actually be employable in this field. I'm not sure if I need Degrees or Certificates. It seems like most employers are more interested in degrees.

I'm really trying to figure out what courses I will need to take, what certifications to go for, what degrees to go for, what schools to look at, etc...

thanks

ok, this may be odd advice, but I've recommended to people I work with who want to learn more about dbs. Go get the postgres manual and read through it to get an idea of what a db does. It is one of the best manuals I have looked at. (not that i've looked at a lot hehe)

You can get a basic idea of table creation, sql, admin..etc by skimming through it. And its free If you are still interested after looking through that then you could look into learning db theory more formally. The ideas are going to help you with whatever system you end up using.

And I will comment similarly to georgev... if you do something just for the money then you will probably not be happy. Ive never met anyone that was just happy with money, only people that thought that they would be but still didn't have any :P

Other may have some great books/resources to recommend

thanks I agree that you need to be happy. Thats why I'm interested in this at this point. I've been exposed to DB and I think I like it.

Forget about quals for now - paper qualified DBAs are getting found out now - I saw an article about this somewhere pretty recently.

Totally agree with Rudy. Many DBAs were past architects\ database developers. Apart from anything else, the DBA should be approving (or not) all changes to code and database schema so if you want to be able to do that you need to know what you are talking about. No shortcut there - you've get to get a few years of practical experience under your belt. I believe some really big companies hire more specialist DBAs who don't necessarily know SQL too well but by definition they are specialists (e.g. in high availablity).

HTH

Actually - if you go on any course then learn about relational database design - that would be useful even if employers might not value it too highly. It is cross applicable to all RDBMSs

hmmmmmmmnnnn.... I do not want to start some message board thing but I really love it when people say they do not do it for the money. So I assume that everyone here in addition to waisting time on the web everyday goes about the world donating their above average problem solving ability to people with software problems.

ok it's not the highest paying job in the world, but we do pretty well and if you are good, you end up on the right side of that bell curve. part of the reason we get compensated as we do is that this thing is hard, people expect a lot from us, the demands on our time can be substantial, the price of a mistake stacks up real quick in real dollars and so there can be a good deal of pressure. would i do this for half the money I am making? absolutely not.

this is not to say that the money is the only reason I am a DBA, SQL Developer, SQL Analyst or whatever they call me this year. I enjoy the fact that I get paid to use my brain. the people i work with are generally bright, talented, stimulating folk and I get to listen to music whenever i am not in a meeting.

I like that post. Thanks for all the replies. I get that I have to start at the bottom and learn SQL first and become a DB engineer. I'm just trying to find the path to the top of the db ladder.

it isn't a ladder, it's a maze, with lots o' cul-de-sacs

That's easy! Third door to the left on your way up the fire pole.

Stop and introduce yourself to Mr. Murphy, you'll become good friends on your trip. The answer is 42, and don't forget your towel!

-PatP

So you're saying the whole db career makes no sense. There goes a sure thing!