I've been doing Oracle for over 25 years and I'm really shaky on loads of it.
It's a massive subject and nobody can be an expert on all of it. I mean, I have
just spent an hour looking at some TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE stuff before
working out why the implicit conversion was just a little wrong when compared
to the explicit fix I was coding. At least it wasn't WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE.
I don't recall any individual mentors, but I do recall the revelation of going
to user groups, special interest groups, meetups and conferences, seeing rules
of thumb and now well known myths** being destroyed and excellent knowledge and
methodology being imparted. Much better than any one individual teaching you
their biases and limitations.
The few last times I mentored someone, I gave them a copy of Practical Oracle8i
by Jonathan Lewis (it's cheap 2nd hand and still very good) and asked them to
ignore the "8i" and read it. The successful ones did, came at me with questions
from it every day (which were surprisingly rarely answered with "that's not
relevant any more"). It helps separate the keen to learn and progress from the
keen to simply to get a better salary by being a Google DBA.
Neil Chandler
Database Guy.
**some are only dormant and are hard to kill, with an unfortunately large
number of examples out there in the wild after injudicious googling and
implementation-without-thought.
________________________________
From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf
of Sheehan, Jeremy <JEREMY.SHEEHAN@xxxxxxx>
Sent: 22 August 2018 14:33
To: backseatdba@xxxxxxxxx; oracle-l-freelist
Subject: RE: dba mentor
I went from Super PC Technician to Junior DBA at my previous company. I had a
mentor for about 6 months then he jumped ship at the first sign of trouble in
the company. That left me to fend for myself for about 2 years. I learned a
little from him, but most of what I learned I had to learn myself. Fortunately,
I moved companies and was placed on a team where I had a number of people that
I could ask questions, but never got any real kind of mentoring. I’ve got 10+
years of experience now, but still feel kind of shaky on certain topics.
Thanks,
Jeremy
From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf
Of Jeff Chirco
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2018 3:51 PM
To: oracle-l-freelist <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: dba mentor
CAUTION - EXTERNAL EMAIL
Did any of you have a mentor to help you along your DBA career path? Someone to
coach you on what is right/wrong, offer advice for various projects, etc… I
was the first DBA for my company and never had someone to go to for advice and
such. I learned completely on the job besides going to some classes at the
beginning and a couple conferences recently. And then some consultants over
the years. I’ve always reported to a Programming manager, and they understand
some of the job but not everything that needs to be done. Although I have been
a DBA for over 10 years I feel there is still a ton for me to learn and be
better at. I was alone for many years and did a lot of database development in
addition to DBA duties. Kind of a jack of all trades expert at none. I am a
lead now, we have one other DBA and maybe a third in the near future, but I
know I can be a better leader and hope to advance that further.
Did any of you have some kind of mentor during your career? For most of you it
probably was someone inside the company but what about outside? How did you
find this person and was it helpful? What did they do for you?
Another other details or advice?
Thanks,
