There’s a kind of empathy you get after you’ve walked the cliche’d mile in someone’s shoes. After you work fast food, you know what it’s like. so you don’ make a huge mess on your tray, you throw away your trash, you don’t leave your straw wrapper on the counter. Once you work groceries, you tell someone if your kid makes a mess, and you put your cart back in the carrel, instead of leaving it at the intersection of four parking spaces.
A lot of us DBAs never work true full-cycle application development, and most certainly not all the end user positions of the specific show we’re servicing. I was a DBA for a pharmaceuticals company, but I was never a pharm sales rep, or nurse, or doctor. I was a DBA for a security company, but I was never a customer service rep, or an installer, or a alarm systems monitor.
The point is, we have to work at understanding what the users and devs need out of a database, because the position of DBA doesn’t come with that “other side” experinece built in. The next best thing is to get exposure to as many people as possible that your database services. Then maybe you’ll start putting the lid back down after you pee.
Happy days,
Jen McCown
I have to agree with you, but then I have worked in a few second-tier escalation and “sales engineering” (which is one of my favorite terms) positions.
So I remember how hard customer service can be, and how hard it is not to over-promise. I also really believe that good customer service and sales people learn early that it’s not in their best interest long term to promise what can’t be delivered. Although mileage on this in a start-up environment varies a lot!
Thanks for the great post. This is something it always helps to be reminded of.
I totally agree with you. It’s part of that “big picture” concept. I feel each job is vital–important gear(s) in the machine. However, we must keep in mind that although vital the goal isn’t any one particular gear but rather the end result of the ensemble cast. The “goal” of the company maybe selling widgets, and the sales database is part of achieving that goal effectively. Having that “big picture” in perspective then helps making any single gear the best it can be. Awesome post!
Thanks for the comments, guys!
Kendra, the little sales experience I’ve had has been invaluable to me for perspective on a number of things. Sales is sort of universal – we try to “sell” ourselves in interviews, sell people on ideas, etc etc.
Wny… “Having that “big picture” in perspective then helps making any single gear the best it can be”. Nicely put!
-Jen
Agreed. I’ve found in the tech world that getting a good handle on what the company/agency is doing, sometimes even more so than the reps, helps me to better understand how my role can positively influence the overall mission.
It’s actually kind of weird that this is somewhat of a revolutionary idea. You’d think they would cover this in DBA school, but I never saw that chapter in the book 🙂
-Jen
Great point. This is the difference between being just a DBA and being a true knowledge worker. I can’t be the best DBA I can be unless I know, or at least understand, what’s going on further down the pipeline.
I’m quite fortunate from that point of view in that I have worked in pretty much the full range of IT jobs – Programmer, Consultant, Administrator, all the way up to IT Manager. This experience helps with prioritising work, identifying points where I can make improvements early in the project lifecycle, and (most importantly) in being able to communicate with the rest of the team & even clients.