RE: Oracle DBA future

I very rarely have a worrisome technical problem but have people problems all the time. We are in the recruiting process right now and focus on how a potential candidate would fit into the team. I am quite happy to train the right candidate. Other people have mentioned "ability to learn" as a requirement. I would also mention "judgment" as a requirement. I don't want DBA's who are so cautious they are paralyzed or so over-confident that they are reckless. I ask a lot of what-if questions. At some point I want them to say, "I'd stop and call for back-up." or "I'd call Oracle and open a TAR."      

Donald Freeman
Database Administrator II
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Department of Health
Bureau of Information Technology
2150 Herr Street
Harrisburg, PA 17103
dofreeman_at_state.pa.us    

From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of kathy duret Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 12:56 PM
To: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: RE: Oracle DBA future

If you are a db in a small organization you absolutely have to have people skills!
And I would argue you still would need some people skills in a large organization.  

You need to ask people like System Administrators for things. You will need to interact with HR for benefits Your boss - you need to have good skills there or your review, etc will suffer.  

You might technicall be able to do all the right stuff but one slip of the tougue could kill you!  

My 2 cents.  

Kathy

Srinivas Chintamani <srinivas.chintamani_at_gmail.com> wrote:

        People skills Vs DBA         

        I have heard this opinion voiced a lot of times in my career, that most DBAs are not inclined to dealing with people. They'd rather spend their time tackling complicated TECHNICAL issues than deal with people.         

        Is that something that anybody else on this list has experienced?         

        Is it ok for a very talented DBA to be stunted in their people skills? Why or why not ?         

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