Junior or Senior DBA - Which are you?Junior or Senior DBA - This is a general discussion around what skills are expected of a DBA, depending on the stage you think you are at in your career. So for example if you were to apply for a junior DBA position you would need the skills listed under the Junior DBA description below. I am not a fan of pigeon holing people and I am fully aware that the skills one person posses may fall into all of the categories below. Also SQL Server is large product made up of many components, it is possible to be a senior or expert in one and have little or no experience in another. Junior or Senior DBA - Junior DBAJunior DBA roles are typically for people starting out in their career as a database administrator. They are usually found in companies which operate a DBA team and they can be guided and mentored by more experienced DBAs.Junior database administrators are typically starting their careers as database administrators. They are typically found in larger companies that have a staff of DBAs, and are usually mentored by and assist the more experienced DBAs. They are responsible for routine tasks, such as checking automated backups, scripted/scheduled tasks such as data extraction, transformation and loading (ETL), maintaining user accounts and some security, and routine storage tuning and housekeeping. Junior or Senior DBA - Senior DBASenior DBAs are responsible for all the tasks of a junior DBA, as well as installing and configuring new instances of the database, restoring the database from backups after a failure, designing and writing maintenance scripts, and monitoring performance. They design the database's physical layout, and help development teams with the database's logical structure (or "schema"). They may be responsible for more databases and/or instances than junior DBAs. In smaller companies, there may be only one database administrator that performs all DBA functions. Senior DBA - have years of experience with a particular platform. In addition to full DBA duties, they mentor junior staff, carry out capacity planning and participate in design discussions with development teams. They are responsible for the overall integration of multiple database instances.Personally I think it is possible for a person to be Senior in some aspects of SQL Server and not in other. For example a DBA may work at firm for ten years looking after the database engine, performance tuning, designing the physical and logical layout of databases but not have any experience of Reporting Services. In that case I guess that person is senior in some aspects but not in others...would he still be classed as a Senior DBA? Personally I think so, just not in reporting services. If you are currently looking for a new DBA opportunity why not use one of our consultants to review your CV and give you some tips and advice on how to improve it? It could make the difference between getting an interview and missing out!
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