Re: Trajectory of a [Pg] DBA

On Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 6:44 AM, Thalis Kalfigkopoulos
<tkalfigo(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> Is it an easier and more common entry point to be a part-time DBA e.g.
> perform DBA duties as part of being a U**X sysadmin?
>
> Is it more common to start as a developer and change focus to DBA?
>
> In particular how does one go about starting as a Pg DBA? Is the most
> common case by migrating from another DBMS?

I work for a (very) small company, so by nature we're all generalists.
I basically got the DBA job charlieocratically[1] - that is, I was
pushed into the position, having been the primary apologist/evangelist
for Postgres. My main job is software developer, but of the team who
write database access code, I'm the one who generally (a) is the go-to
guy for schema advice, and (b) gets asked to ensure that the database
will perform adequately under crazy load on crazy hardware. (And just
FYI, everything said on this list about Amazon EC2/EBS performance is
right; a mid-range Dell laptop can outperform an Amazon Micro
instance, and the fatter instances still don't do all that well,
bang-for-buck.)

Be good at databasing, then get any sort of IT job, and you'll likely
end up being or helping the DBA.

[1] See my blog for a definition of that term:
http://rosuav.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/world-is-full-of-charlieocracies.html

ChrisA