MySQL DBA

[Trent Shipley]

The major downside being that it involves getting up on a Saturday morning.

Where are Installfests being held these days?  What is the last Saturday
in August 2009?  Installfests last for several hours, so when would we
want to start the consulting co-op discussion?

Jason Spatafore wrote:
> Sounds like a good discussion to take place during the next Installfest
> since there's really no "agendas" at those. Plus, you may find those
> "diamonds in the rough" of people that may be able to enlighten you on
> the actual need in the market for such a venture.
> 
> 
> On Thu, 2009-08-20 at 19:40 -0700, Eric Shubert wrote:
>> I agree Trent. I'd be interested in hashing it over.
>>
>> Trent Shipley wrote:
>>> 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>
>>>
>