All, Thank you for your very good suggestions. Yes, personal contact is best, but when that person is in a remote land and has a language barrier, that inhibits personal contact. Just trying to make the best of a problematic situation. Peter, thank you for your excellent suggestions. Dennis On 9/25/07, Peter Barnett <regdba@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > We have trained a number of DBAs with varying degrees > of success. A couple of thoughts based on this > experience. > > a. Make sure that the trainee really knows what s/he > is getting into. Many people are not prepared for the > fact that weekends, nights and holidays are prime time > for DBAs. On call or being perpetually lashed to your > cell phone are just part of the job. To most on this > list this is just the job. To a trainee it can come > as a real shock. Three trainees did not survive this > shock. > > b. Degrees and certifications do not equal a > successful trainee. Scratch two more with Master's > degrees who found the day-to-day stress of production > support and the demands of developers to be too much. > > > c. Do not end the training/mentor program too soon. > Most will be able to pick up the routine work in > fairly short order. Usually, they are on call within > six months of starting their training. Make sure that > they have someone specifically assigned to back them > up when they are on call. Also, when that first > production recovery call comes to them, have a plan to > make them successful - even if it is two years after > they are 'trained'. > > d. Notes without context do no one any good - make > sure that they take good notes and then make sure that > they read and use the notes that they have taken. > When you tell someone for the third time exactly the > same thing and they diligently write it down you know > that they are not using the notes that they have taken > or do not understand either the question, the answer, > or both. Start asking them questions. > > e. Patience, patience, patience.... > It took me five years to become a decent DBA, ten > years to become really good. Doubtless, there are > many people on this list smarter than me but expecting > a trainee to be fully ready for everything in less > time is probably not realistic. > > > --- Stephane Faroult <sfaroult@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > --------------------------------- > I fully subscribe to this. There are tons of things > you do when you know well a topic that are not laid > out very explicitly in docs, you don't waste your time > on many details, and a beginner who watches an old > hand operating learns must faster than by reading docs > or trying things alone; especially when he asks > questions and forces the old hand to explain things > done more or less intuitively in the light of > experience; even the tutor benefits from this type of > question. When I started on Oracle (technical support, > good grief) I was lucky enough to share the office of > someone who was 15 years my senior, had a lot of > experience on databases (not necessarily relational > ones because that was long ago) and explained to me a > lot of things that any amount of RTFMing wouldn'd have > taught me as fast, even if the volume of Oracle docs > was far, far less daunting then than it is now. After > all, whenever you go to a course and are happy with an > instructor, it's usually because his or her teaching > style is more like tutoring than lecturing - it's > always the voice of experience that appeals. > I have bought some time ago "Teach what you know" > by Steve Trautman, there are very interesting things > in it about organizing tutoring; no magical recipe, > but very good guidelines. There is a chapter in it > about learning styles which is probably the one I > liked best (free ad :-)). > > HTH > > Stephane Faroult > > > > On Tue Sep 25 3:56 , "Rumpi Gravenstein" sent: > > In all things training the time tested apprentice > method should not be overlooked or under-appreciated. > I've found that what works best is beginner working > with expert, (think watered down extreme programming > --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_programming) > with both working together on the same projects and > tasks -- expert guiding the work, parceling out > sub-tasks, and reviewing everything that is done. As > the novice comes up to speed there's less and less > supervision. While this is an intensive approach, > when done faithfully you should come close to cloning > the best around while avoiding those bad habits that > can develop with guesses that seem to work but don't > account for all that is possible. > > To recap, don't put beginners in an environment by > themselves, where they can, mind you this is the best > of circumstances -- relearn all the hard lessons by > themselves. Better, pair them up with your best > preferably someone with a gentle hand, and watch what > develops. > > On 9/24/07, GovindanK <gkatteri@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > How about putting beginners to Development db's to > start with and then move on to QC / UAT etc? That > would give you some breathing time to arrive at the > criticality. > > Govindan > > > > > -- > Rumpi Gravenstein > --//www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l > > > Pete Barnett > > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > Got a little couch potato? > Check out fun summer activities for kids. > > http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=summer+activities+for+kids&cs=bz >