Re: Should DBA have access to sar and top?

Daniel Morgan <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote in message news:<1080617002.946274_at_yasure>...
> Joel Garry wrote:
>
> > Sounds like that person had the people skills to do the job. :-)
>
> Actually what they told me led me to believe that having their prime
> candidate turn them down caused them to rethink what they were doing.
> There aren't a lot of people that turn down jobs ... I do.

I have, but not lately. The mode is, suddenly everyone wants me, I pick one place, eventually everyone forgets about me, place ends suddenly, 3-6 months to get another job from scratch. I think of it in Corvette equivalents - 6 months pay = new Corvette (about $50K US).  The frustrating part is I know how many places need my skills, but I can't keep them all on the line for long, and can't (well, won't) compete with new grads. And between commuting and the intensity of projects, I can't multitask.

>
> > But seriously, many large organizations are as Hans described, and
> > taking a hard line up front simply isn't the correct approach.
>
> If you are looking for a job I agree to a point. Unless you need that
> next paycheck to survive though ... why take on a job where the best
> you can hope for is mediocrity and frustration.

Most people where I live can't even handle missing two paychecks. I'm better off than most, but the last two Corvette equivalents were a bitch. Almost downsized to a paid-off average house the last time. Average house is 8 Corvette equivalents here. I would much rather keep my conspicuous consumptive house. Can't do it on university pay (depending on campus, quite a wide variance, untenured lecturers get crap), at least until kids are old enough to allow wifey to do it full-time (she's done that [in clinical psychology], doesn't want to either). I don't want to teach, anyhow, I don't have near as much patience as you and Howard. :-)

>
> I am lucky to be in the position where I can live off what the
> university pays me. So additional projects are only accepted if I
> choose to accept them.

Of course, I meant to redirect the comments to the OP.

jg

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