Re: OT: Oracle + Other DBMS's

Lisa,

I think it depends on your perspective.
I personally find it very challenging to stay on top of Oracle and it's latest
releases and ever-burgeoning new
functionality. I find it's hard to find the time and energy to focus on Oracle
when you're drawn in so many other
directions.

In the last few years, I think the Oracle has been a more marketable skill
than other database DBA skills. At
least here in Minneapolis. While I
was consulting, marketability was always a major factor in my choice of assignments.

However, some people really enjoy
expanding their skill sets and learning
new things. My brother is a big advocate of know how to do a variety of things.
He thinks that makes you more marketable. Many of the places that I worked in the past had two or even more databases that they used in-house and that had to be supported by their staff. So it was a plus to know multiple databases.

One other thing I guess I'd have to mention is that pay scale for DBAs is highest for Oracle around here. One reason is supply and demand. There just aren't enough Oracle DBAs to meet the need. And I think another reason is that Oracle is a deeper, more complicated animal to set up and administer so higher caliber technical people are better at the job. Those people command a better salary. I realize this is a biased view and I'm sure that some people will chime in and say that other databases draw good DBAs too. However, that's just my Received on Thu Jan 18 2001 - 07:42:00 CST