Want a promotion? Find yourself a junior DBA
If you want to get ahead in your career, and if you want to move up in the same company you’re at, somebody is going to have to do your job. You can’t get promoted if you’re irreplaceable. (And frankly, if you think you’re irreplaceable, your boss is probably already planning to replace you.)
Look around your office and find somebody who would love to have your job. If you’re a DBA, maybe it’s a developer who’s tired of learning new languages every 3-4 years and would like to stick with one (T-SQL) for a while. Maybe it’s a network admin who’s tired of fixing desktops and servers and wants to make more money. But either way, make sure it’s someone that you enjoy working with, because you’ll be training them for a while.
Approach them and start by saying, “Have you thought about becoming a DBA? I’ve seen you in action, and I think you’d make a good DBA. One of the toughest things about becoming a database administrator is getting your first job as a DBA, though, and I’d like to help you by getting you started with training. One or two days a week, I’ll show you what I’m doing, and you can take over some of the basic tasks over time if you want.”
If they clap their hands and offer to wash your car, they’re your new junior DBA. Even if YOU are a junior DBA, there’s somebody who wants this training, and they’ll be thankful for the opportunity.
If you’re paranoid and you’re worried that they’re going to steal your job, relax: we’re not going to give them the fun parts. Give them the basic, day-to-day keep-the-lights-on tasks that you don’t particularly enjoy - things that won’t get you promoted. Knowing how to check all of the backups isn’t going to make you famous, and every hour that you free up out of your schedule means an hour you can spend learning the latest & greatest tools and tricks.
Training this person will mean extra time initially on your part, so focus on training them on things that will pay off for you. You don’t want to train them on something that you only do once a month, because it won’t free up your schedule and it won’t be useful to them either. Train them on things you do all the time, like:
- Interpreting sp_who and sp_who2 to find out who’s blocking queries
- Reading query plans to improve a query
- Indexing tables or removing unnecessary indexes
- Backing up and restoring databases
- Installing the client tools
Or whatever else you find yourself doing more than once a week.
If this concept sounds crazy to you, ask yourself: how many times has your boss come up to you lately and said, “You’re doing a great job. How would you like to take on this cool new tool we got in?” Or is he handing you the crappy stuff that nobody wants? If you’re getting the short end of the stick, or if you’re never getting to play with cool toys, it’s probably because your manager sees you as too overwhelmed with your current responsibilities - and only you can fix that.