RE: RE: Career Advice

Ryan --

I agree with a lot of what you said, but there are points that I really must disagree on. Firstly, you should *always* study what you love, but know that there are varying degrees of applicability to your chosen field, and certain areas will always be more lucrative than others. Furthermore, as you alluded to, the most lucrative technical areas are constantly in a state of flux. Where VMS was more lucrative than Unix in the mid-80s, the two switched positions in the mid-90s, and VMS is, quite unfortunately, largely dead now.

The best thing one can do with a technical career, as you and others have said, is to diversify; but, when one adds breadth, one often sacrifices depth. If, for example, you choose to diversify and become a SunOS System Administrator or Powerbuilder programmer in addition to being an Oracle DBA, as time goes on, you will generally wind up giving one or both short shrift or sacrificing your free time in order to stay on top of both. The more additional responsibilities you add, the less depth you tend to keep. While you lower your exposure to vulnerability due to changes in the technical world or the caprices of the corporate world, you may also lower your overall value in both. Of course, you can market it that you have a bigger picture view of things and steer yourself career towards management; but, again, the higher the bird's eye view you have, the further you tend to be from the keyboard, and if the keyboard is what you love, that's what you need to keep doing.

Now that I've been in the field for 25+ years, the best career advice I can give is to stay on top of current trends and be willing to gain competencies as various technologies wax and ditch areas - even of strength - as they wane. The other piece of advice I can give is that hot technology trends have a fixed shelf-life before new technologies replace them; try to stay with products that continue to evolve, or, if you are change-averse, stick with technologies that change very slowly but have proven their staying power (IBM, CICS, Unix).

Finally, let me share one of the philosophical cornerstones of my life. Your life is delimited by two points in time: your moment of birth and your moment of death; you can do with the time in between largely what you will, and it is your use of time that defines you. Time is only currency with intrinsic value. If you wind up hating what you do for a living, you will wind up having wasted your life.

HTH,
Bambi.
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 1:19 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

your goals should tie into the job market. you might absolutely love Pascal programming, but I dont recommend studying it.

Right now(and I dont know how it will fluctuate), there is far, far, far more demand for Software Engineers who specialize in Java or .Net. Far, far, far, more than people who specialize in the Oracle database. I think there has been a fundamental shift in database development. In the past you would hire mostly Oracle specialized people to do most of your development. They would use forms or powerbuilder to do your GUIs.

These days, a growing number of teams hire a large number of java or .Net experts and only a handful of database people. is this the best way to go? I dont know. I do see a trend though. How long will the trend last? I do not know.

The biggest problem for IT workers is that we are so tied to one specific skillset and vendor. If Oracle prices themselves out of the market, our skills become far less valued. Employees today want super specialized skillsets. If you have them and they are hot, your set, but they wont be hot forever and its very hard to switch since people want experience in the specific skillset before hiring you.
>
> From: "Thater, William" <William.Thater_at_carrier.utc.com>
> Date: 2003/12/18 Thu PM 01:44:37 EST
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
> Subject: RE: Career Advice
>
> DENNIS WILLIAMS scribbled on the wall in glitter crayon:
>
> > Saira
> > I think you have to decide what your goal is. Then you need to
> > decide how to best accomplish that goal. One tool that can lead you
> > toward a goal is self-study. I have used that tool many times myself.
> > However, with experience you learn the self-study tool has its
> > limits. To consider self-study, consider the following questions:
> >
> > 1. Is this an area that I can gain significant knowledge with a
> > reasonable amount of effort? For example, are there good books
> > available? Is the area well-defined enough for self-study?
> > 2. Since I'm trying to substitute self-effort for work experience, is
> > this an area where there are few people with real work experience?
> > 3. Are there credentials that can be earned?
>
> i'd like to add one more...
> 4. is this something where getting it right will still give you a charge
> after doing it for 10 years or more?
>
> [and yes DBA and programming still do for me. but i'm finding the chances
> of being allowed to do it right are becoming few and far between.]
>
> --
> Bill "Shrek" Thater ORACLE DBA
> "I'm going to work my ticket if I can..." -- Gilwell song
> william.thater_at_carrier.utc.com
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so. - Douglas Adams
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
> --
> Author: Thater, William
> INET: William.Thater_at_carrier.utc.com
>
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