VeeshanVault

Well, after dealing with the same company for 4+ years, it is time to move on to better pastures. I have submitted my resume to one of the surviving .coms for the Senior Database Administrator position. I will be pitching 90k/year, which is a huge jump, but after researching, etc, I think I can swing it!!!

Holy shit that would rock!!

Hell, even 60k/year would be a jump for my ass...

It seems my company does not have table-level security on the AS/400 so I saw everyones salaries during a routine data conversion....this pissed me off BIGTIME. I did not want to know what everyone else made. Now that I do, I see I am being royally screwed.

The median DBA salary for LA county is ~75k....so, I make close to 30k BELOW that, and I serve a dual role as a webmaster/asp programmer/project manager. Holy shit, 75k would make my life easier, not to mention 90k. Ok, ok, I do not like CA at all, but those $$ would make life easier....at least to save some cash for an exodus.

Sorry for the ramble, but this is a pretty monumentous moment in my life and I figured I would share it with my fellow bitches and bitchettes.

GL Bro! I have felt that pain before and it's not an easy one. I do a little even now but not as much.

Marb

Ya everytime I see the median DBA salary I feel sick.

Unfortunately I deal with Access instead of Oracle, SQL, or like AS400 stuff....and I don't see much need for Access DBA's.

I think I make about what you make now....and yeah I do the webmaster stuff etc as well. Albeit maybe not as well...I dunno. Plus some other stuff like all the networking, software support, etc.....the company I deal with is small so I have to cover like everything lol. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to specialize in anything, well except Access...but not many large companies use access, or if they do it's not thier main database or source of income.

I'm debating getting out of tech all together. Last time I scoped the job market all I saw was a bunch of small time companies asking people to know like 15 computer languages for a 25k salary, it's ridiculous...the DBA's do alright but I'd have to learn so much to go to SQL, Oracle or AS400 it would be like a total career change anyway.

Access is a good step to MS SQL Server, believe it or not. Obviously, SQL Server is much more robust and has shit that I still am just a beginner at (OLAP, advanced DTS, etc), but it is indeed a good step.

Best thing to do Pils, is start working with it--if you know all about RDBMS shit, you will be fine no matter what platform you work off of...

Also a little hint on DB2 (which is the basis for IBM mainframes, AS/400 midsize workstations, etc)... lot's of whitespace...just parse with RTRIM/LTRIM and it will work wonders...

Pils if I were you I would get an MSDN license and write it off for your business (didn't you say you worked for yourself?) With that you will get ALL the Microsoft Software. Once you have it throw 2003 and SQL on a box and just play with it. After a while grab a book and gain a little more ground.

The company I work for houses VERY large databases, 10TB plus easily. For those we use Oracle. However for everyting else, and believe me there is a LOT of web, scheduling, Help Desk, monitoring etc... we use SQL. It's really not that bad once you get the hang of it. That way if you did decide to work for a big corp. you would have a good jump on getting a phat DBA job.

Marb

Yeah, I probably dont want to know what everybody else makes either. good luck bro.

I would need at least a 6 figure salary to work in California. Cost of living is just too high there compared to Wisconsin. I make 20k less a year at my current job than my previous one yet I am saving a hell of a lot more faster by not living in a big city.

The jump from Access to SQL is not that hard and Oracle isn't that big of a step either once you get the SQL language downpat. I work with all three and I personally like SQL best. Oracle seems a bit better than SQL for really large recordsets but SQL is so much easier to use.

Goood luck dude...I'm sure it will work out. And hey, why stop at 90k, go for six figures. Try it on, the phrase "six figures" just seems to roll of the tongue with ease!

I now have a contact at Intel in Portland, so I am really hoping for something to pop up there, she just got my resume yesterday, so will have to see... the cost of living in Oegon is very small compared to CA--not to mention Oregon is one of the nicer states to live in. My brother works at Bose up there and has a bunch of contacts that he has been throwing my resume at.

Keeping my fingers crossed..

I'm debating getting out of tech all together.

If I were to lose my current job, I definitely wouldn't bother looking for another one in the tech industry. Right now there's simply too many people in this field that are out of work, and grotesquely more qualified than I am (CCIEs, PhD's.. etc) looking for the same work. I know people that have been layed off from where I'm working that are still looking for a job a year later.

If you want something stable, get into the medical profession. You'll never run out of old people in the world.

Oh, and be careful about how much you try to shoot for in pay.. these days, it's a fortunate person who even has a tech job still.

Starting salaries for nurses right out of school is pretty damn high at my hospital. Conversely, the systems people's salaries aren't.

Move to Oregon. I can only imagine how much better the quality of life must be. You can buy a mansion for under $400k out there for crying out loud

I was offered just under six figures to move out there and I turned them down. Nasty traffic, huge COLA, and earthquakes: no thank you.

Dammit Cane, I thought you were leaving the funny farm!

Odd to hear you spending time on the AS400 platform. Can't be more than two-three years ago everyone was telling me it was dead, no more development would occur there.

GL to ya!

Heh, if I do find something here, which is obviously my last choice of a place to live, it would only be for a short term in order to save more $$. Oregon is where I want to go, but having a job first, is a requirement.

GL Cane

I'm all ears (eyes?) for posts about becoming a DBA. I'm an analyst working with l a r g e DB2 databases using SAS for data mining and reporting. Unfortunately, our DBAs are contracted and offsite, so I'm about as high as I can get at my company doing this stuff. I see the paychecks of DBAs though, and never a day passes that I am not trying to figure out how to make the leap from analyst to admin.

Definitely open to advice!

Mippy

For DBAs, Analysts, Programmers, etc... In order for you to make more cash, unless your company knows how to keep employees(which is rare). FIND A NEW JOB!!! I am a damn good DBA and my company has failed to see that time and time again. These paltry 4% "raises" can suck it.

Want a better salary? Get your resume a'rockin and leave those dumbfucks who can't see talent if it was cockslapping them in the face.

Damn shame it took me 4 years to finally figure it out.... goddamn

Anyway, I am just using my contacts and keeping my fingers crossed I didn't get into this DBA stuff just to sit on my hands, that is for damn sure. It may not be the most difficult job on the planet, but it does require OMGIAMRETARDEDCAUSEALOTISTWOWORDS.


EDIT: To any DBA's out there: I have many docs and scripts that I have written if interested. My DB standards doc is actually pretty decent... For DBAs, the more reference material, the better

Hell, I was happy just programming ASP....figured the DBA thing to be super-boring... I was wrong, I actually enjoy this shit!

EDIT: For you DBAs out there, check out: http://www.sqlmag.com - great resource!