Oracle DBA Testimonial -- a.k.a. Why DBA’s job skip

“Pay no attention to the person behind the curtain!”, shouted the Wizard of Oz. Oracle Database Administrators and Unix System Administrators are the people behind the curtain in today’s dynamic IT world. If you login to ebay.com, you are accessing Unix servers in an Oracle database.

These wonderful systems are a living entity requiring constant attention to provide the level of service that on-line customers expect. These 24/7 systems are extremely complex behind the curtain.

Many system modifications, upgrades, changes, bug fixes, etc. must be completed within a small weekly maintenance window (i.e. – Wednesdays 4:30 a.m. – 6:30 a.m.).

We are the ER Doctors of the IT world. The servers/databases get sick and we must fix them—many times Unix SA’s and Oracle DBA’s are up at midnight with the pager going off and by the time everything is settled down, it’s time to go to work. Normal work weeks are 60 hours—and paid for 40.

We do not crave notoriety—it’s usually sleep, vacations, and a reasonable amount of profit sharing from the company that depends upon highly skilled SA’s and DBA’s for continued success. Company Management jokes with us -- “don’t get hit by a bus because you are mission critical”.

However, should we ask for a raise in today’s competitive IT market, rarely will the appreciation come forth in bonuses or yearly salary. Thus, out of frustration, lack of appreciation and sheer exhaustion, we post our resume on monster.com. We like Unix and Oracle, but forget what our kids look like.

I started a month ago as a consultant Oracle DBA and work with a high-level Company-hired Permanent Oracle DBA who spent the last 6 weeks working 80 hours/week to ensure success of 5 Clients going into production. He was paid for 40 hours/week. He hoped the Company would at least give him a $500 bonus………he received 5 complimentary movie tickets………..later that day he was on the phone with an IT Recruiter.

ANONYMOUS