Good post, in respect to drama, I might rephrase that as confrontational, direct, or problem-facing. Two people can look at that email you are describing in different ways. I might call it "Highlighting a Problem' and you might call it "Rocking the Boat." Hiring authorities have run out of ways to say...."Team Player" and "Great Communicator" when they mean, "Don't make people cry." I've been fired from a development team for pointing out architectural and structural deficiencies in the app we were developing. You can't get a coat of paint to stick to a turd either. I am more suited to production sites where you can't really sugar coat your way out of a problem. I don't think I have a reputation for drama. I email people directly and use "CC" and "BCC" very judiciously. It's really all about judgment right? I find myself at the high-end of mentoring/sharing. I get very frustrated at people who blow off a junior DBA or developer who needs help. Especially when it comes to "local" knowledge about the specific implementation on the site that I'm on... the info that you can't possibly get by RTFM. As far as learning about things outside the database you are facing a bit more of a problem. At least here, there are some pretty strong boundaries between admin and database groups. I expect an extra heaping help of resistance and obfuscation when I cross that domain boundary but, hey, it's part of the job. Don Freeman -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dba DBA Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2014 11:34 AM To: ORACLE-L Subject: Re: Definition of Top Class DBA People often leave out something important... personality, willingness to share information, being articulate, and learning more than just the DB. I have worked with some excellent DBAs who I didn't want to even talk to. They cause drama and send out these emails with massive lists of people on it whenever they decide for someone reason they don't like anything. Cause drama. (its not just DBAs that do this). Really good people don't cause unnecessary drama. Not that many people do this... however, there is a real popular fantasy writer who put it like this. Patrick Rothfuss gets occasional hate mail from fans because he is a slow writer. Its not very often. He says its like having a turd in your rice crispies. You can't exactly eat around the turd. Willingness to share info: Sending people a link to the doc and saying RTFM is not real helpful. For people who are not experts reading the docs is tough. When I need to look at something new I actually look for blog entries first because someone else dissected the blogs. If people didn't do that, there would be no point in good DBAs writing these blogs... More than Just the DB: if its all the DB, then you don't know that much. One thing I have seen from Oak Table members is they know alot about unix and operating systems. Quite a few of them have clearly read algorithm books. I have read a few myself. I know some C (not alot) from school. I find it helpful. I also try to listen to the developers and sometimes I read their code. If you just know the DB, then developers will often blow you off, but if you can speak their language they are more responsive. I see alot of that from Oak Table members. Articulate: It takes a lot of practice to explain technical issues to people who don't know it as well as you or don't know your discipline. If you are very good you can explain things without using oracle jargon and simplify. It takes alot of practice to do this... Again, I point to the Oracle blogs. Jonathan Lewis and others are very good at this.
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