" In Toronto, from where I am, lots of my good DBA friends have changed careers or graduated to managerial role where career path is progressive. The only left behind are those who can't switch roles or who love technology for the sake of technology. I would like to hear more what others have to say." It's fairly normal to graduate to a managerial role if you are successful as a DBA. I chose to devolve from a managerial role back to a technical role. I had a successful but unsatisfying career as a manager but after finishing an interesting 17 month "out-of-band" non-manager/non-dba contract decided to dive back into Oracle instead of putting the noose (neck-tie) back on. I like technical problems. They keep the mind nimble. And, as a development DBA I'm not on call either. No longer a big fan of air-travel I'm not likely to attend anything I can't drive to. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l