This is really so depressing. I have heard so many
stories about the dot com dba's under 2 much work
pressure and handling everything with minimum
resources. Ours is a diff case.. 11 freakin dba's to
handle 40+ prod databases. It was fine initially but
as the company pockets start drying and and our web
site subscribers only playing for free and not paying
.. looks like i have to start looking around .. going
by the state of things right now .. and what i hear
from all who have reponded 2 this thread subject, it
aint gonna be a pretty site .. ;
Deepak
- Don Granaman <granaman_at_home.com> wrote:
> I can sympathize with Yosi. I resigned my last
> position in June after
> four years of insanely intense activity. For
> example, being the only
> DBA in a two year period of 1500% growth, averaging
> 90+ hours a week
> in 1999, 80+ in 2000, etc... I was at the highest
> attainable
> technical level in a rather large internet-based
> company (3000+
> employees, 350+ in IT) - reporting directly to the
> VP of Enterprise
> Infrastructure as his chief technology consultant
> (emphasis on Oracle
> and back-end systems design & architecture). I
> won't go into all my
> reasons for leaving, but I decided to quit and take
> a break for a
> month or two. For the first month or so, I was
> ducking/deferring
> recruiters. Then things just dried up - totally...
>
> Since then, my situation has been similar to Yosi
> 's. I do a few
> technical presentations to the local Oracle user
> group, attend
> seminars, play around with 9i, read a lot of white
> papers, and do a
> (very) little bit of independent consulting. Not
> one of the three
> recruiters I've been dealing with have even called
> in over two months
> now. I went in for my first interview in three
> months yesterday - a
> small startup technology company - but they are
> really looking to hire
> a mid-range DBA at an entry-level salary. I've been
> doing nothing but
> Oracle on Unix for over a dozen years and have
> outstanding credentials
> and references. Its not exactly a perfect fit.
>
> An earlier post asked why DBAs should be more
> vulnerable than others.
> Rachel stated the essence of the problem - DBA isn't
> like development.
> If the job is done properly and everything is
> running smoothly, the
> attitude is "What does a DBA do anyway? Do we
> actually need one?"
> When things go bad, its often the DBA or SA that
> gets hit in the
> blamestorming - justified or not. Development is
> very visible when
> they do things - users see a direct result. When
> things go bad, they
> often blame the system or the database. (I've
> actually heard
> development managers and developers tell the CIO
> that "Application
> design and coding doesn't have anything to do with
> performance -
> that's the DBA's job"!)
>
> Just look at the posts here and on the Lazy-DBA list
> (much more so) in
> the last six months or so. A *LOT* more of them are
> of the type "We
> laid off our DBA two months ago and I was assigned
> to take over the
> DBA duties". Followed by "A disk went bad and now
> the database is
> down. What should I do?" or "How should I layout my
> database?" or
> "How do I do a backup?" or ... There are tons of
> very elementary
> questions from people who have taken over DBA duties
> from someone who
> was laid off or left and wasn't replaced. Many more
> than in the past.
>
> Too many companies are:
> 1) Not replacing DBAs that leave
> 2) Laying off DBAs
> (The rest are supposed to "work smarter, not
> harder."
> A statement from PHB that is often immediately
> followed with
> or preceded by with some decree that forces the
> opposite! ;-)
> 3) Trying to hire DBAs at drastically lower salaries
> (40%-70%)
> (monster.com and dice.com are interesting
> reads!)
>
> The demand for Oracle DBAs won't reach the extremes
> of 1999-2000 again
> for many years - if ever. The dot-com fiasco pushed
> it to artificial
> highs. However, there is still a huge difference
> between many years,
> perhaps even a decade or two, of serious experience
> and an OCP with a
> year that a lot of companies don't seem to want to
> recognize right
> now. The net result of this could easily be a
> frenzy of job shifting
> when the economy does recover and demand goes back
> up.
>
> Frankly, I'm almost ready to join Jenny and make a
> radical career
> change. My uncle wants to retire from his
> successful hardware store
> business. I'm considering buying it. (Hmmm... What
> about he
> Menards/HomeDepot/... effect?)
>
> -Don Granaman
> [OraSaurus]
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L"
> <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
> Sent: Monday, November 05, 2001 8:30 PM
> an Oracle
>
>
> > Yeah, been here, still here... (It's amazing, I'm
> busier now that
> I'm
> > unemployed, just not with paid work... Go figure.)
> Gotten some
> > (minor) contract work for a few weeks, but really
> nothing doing
> > here in New York. It's brutal, boys and girls.
> >
> > My friend's large bank was going to announce 5%
> job cuts
> > this week, but they pushed it off so they could
> figure out a way
> > cut more than the 5%. Did I mention it's brutal?
> >
> > That said, had my first interview in two, maybe
> three, months today.
> > Actually sounds promising, like there's really a
> position to fill,
> and
> > they're really hiring. Been out since July, and
> the kids would
> REALLY
> > like to eat again.
> >
> > Will keep you informed.
> >
> > Yosi
> ).
>
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ:
> http://www.orafaq.com
> --
> Author: Don Granaman
> INET: granaman_at_home.com
>
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Do You Yahoo!?
Find a job, post your resume.
http://careers.yahoo.com
--
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
--
Author: Deepak Thapliyal
INET: deepakthapliyal_at_yahoo.com
Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051
San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists
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Received on Sat Nov 10 2001 - 14:10:33 CST
