If that’s not the academic version of a controversial headline, I don’t know what is…
Kendra Little finds a C# developer who wants to become a database administrator:
I’ve been a C# developer since year 2000. I want to move to be a DBA. I’ve started getting involved at user groups and SQL Saturdays but nobody wants to hire me as a DBA.
I have been trying to move to other companies but my resume is strongly inclined to show my C#, front end experience. I know for a fact that I’m really good on SQL as I keep solving problems in every other project but no one seems to pay really attention to the DB. I have noticed that when applying for positions I get called for my C# experience but not when applying only to SQL jobs.
Should I find a Junior DBA position and take a pay cut?
That transition can be difficult, but I think Kendra’s answer is a good one.
On the opposite side, Daniel Janik looks at developers who shouldn’t go down that track:
I recently helped out with a .NET MVC project running on SQL Server 2016 where I found some pretty interesting stored procedures. I’ve seen a lot of really creative SQL but these were completely puzzling.
The database included many to many tables for customers who have addresses and phone numbers. A “mapping” table was created for the tables so they could map to a customer.
Normally you’d think a simple JOIN would suffice to get a list of addresses or phone numbers for a customer. These was done a way that I’ve never seen before.