Next logical step in working towards DBA?

For the last year, I've been Linux sys admin'ing for an MSP and had great opportunities to deal with a very wide variety of issues. As is inevitable though, I've plateaued in terms of what I can learn. Given that my eventual goal is to play with RDBMSes full time (and my customers don't tend to use my RDBMS of choice), all of my work with my junior DBA hat on isn't 100% transferrable to what I'd like to be doing eventually. I was thinking maybe I could search for a database-focused dev job to hone the code side of database knowledge and fortify my resume for my eventual assault on Fortress DBA.

Bearing in mind that this job is the only IT/Computer-y job I've had, does this sound like a logical next move or should I stay on the systems side?

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Comments

NotHackingYou

It's pretty hard to get into a DBA gig without DBA experience. The trouble is that one mistake in a DB can really hose things up, so companies are usaully pretty tight with who gets such access.

I would try to get some education and/or certification in your DB of choice. If that's SQL server then the MCTS in SQL Server, if it's Oracle then go for any Oracle ones. Either one of them will help you if you want to use other systems since they all base on ANSI SQL.

Jackace

DBA stuff from what I have seen and heard is a lot like Network stuff. There is a bit of catch 22 in getting a job and getting started because everyone wants you to have experience but you need a job to get experience. The trick is finding a way around that catch 22. For networking it is mostly certifications and experience at the lower levels to prove you know the technology and you have solid troubleshooting skills. I don't have a lot of experience with the DBA stuff but I can't imagine it being a whole lot different.