MySQL DBA

[Trent Shipley]

I just finished the Master of Science in Information Management at ASU.
 I guess there's nothing wrong with hiring a junior level JOAT to run
LAMP, and there's certainly nothing wrong with doing this early in your
career.  The main downside is that unless the customer/employer gets
VERY lucky, they won't get the expert service a large firm would get
through specialization.  In theory what these little companies should do
is outsource the IT department. This is especially true of non-profits
and small government departments where IT isn't strategic.  Outsourcing
is more problematic for something like a b2c business where the IT is
strategic.  Then you need a way to reconquer IT if your company grows.

What this indicates is a need for professional, multi-disciplinary IT
consulting targeting small and medium sized businesses, non-profits, and
government units.  The big guys don't want it.  You can charge enough
and the meals are too small.  The little guys, like Red7 and Data
Doctors, started as repair shops and may have trouble getting into the
consultant/contractor rent-an-IT-department mindset.

I think there's definitely an itch here.  I think it would be fun to get
together and discuss it.  I'm thinking maybe a professional cooperative
as an organizational structure.



<with snippage>
Michael Butash wrote:
> In my experience in big enterprise to small offices, either you have
> "the dude that kinda dabbles with everything", or you have quite
> separate roles.  Primarily you would have a SQL Admin/Engineer (just sql
> performance/operations/engineering), Linux Engineer (os, apache, sql),
> and a Web Dev/Admin/Engineer (php coding, cms, site management).
> Usually you also have Security and Network folk in the mix too to keep
> things sane.  Sometimes you have one person that likes to dabble in
> each, and can varyingly admin them all as so to *get by*, but they're
> subsequently "jack of all trades", and typically "master of none" kind
> of people.  
> 
> Finding an environment where you can "dabble" professionally in
> everything is typically going to be a low-pay, thankless job I would
> say, as a company wants 1 person to do *everything*, but will pay low
> because they don't know what they really need.  They're often trying to
> find their magical unicorn employee that will do everything for little
> pay.  Government agencies tend to be fond of these roles, but pay low
> enough they really have no expectation of finding someone close, so they
> settle for the closest that will actually apply.  They learn and cope as
> they can, and move on once they pick one of those skills to focus on in
> bigger companies that have already learned the value of the separate
> skill sets among employees.
> 
> -mb
</snippage>

> 
> 
> On Thu, 2009-08-20 at 16:27 -0700, Trent Shipley wrote:
>> I am used to seeing jobs involving MySQL as part of positions being
>> advertised for a LAMP generalist.  I never respond.  Not only am I not
>> particularly competent in any of the components, I have a hard time
>> seeing myself as competent to manage that kind of stack.  I actually
>> doubt many people are really competent at managing a LAMP stack all by
>> themselves.
>>
>> However, I was recently looking for jobs on DICE and I saw
>> advertisements for dedicated MySQL positions -- with more emphasis on
>> DBA that development.  I can imagine being a competent DBA.  I taught
>> myself to work with Oracle and I like database work.
>>
>> In the early 2000's Oracle was complex, DB2 somewhat less complex, SQL
>> Server was almost friendly in comparison, and MySQL pretty simple to
>> administer -- almost a toy compared to the big boys.  How much more
>> complex has MySQL gotten in the last five years or so?  What would be
>> involved in gaining competence.  Do you think you could read up on
>> MySQL, then find people stupid enough to let you work on MySQL
>> databases, preferably for money so you could get experience?  How would
>> you encourage such stupidity?
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