How to become an exceptional DBA?

Today I have attended the webinar by Brad McGehee titled 'How to become an Exceptional DBA' which was an inspirational talk about why and how you need to be exceptional. Following are the learnings from this webinar.

Characteristics of an Exceptional DBA:
Enjoy Technology, challenges, problem solving, eye for detail and embrace change, trustworthy, accept responsibility, maintain professionalism, dependable, manage time well, be patient, good listener and most of all self confident.


Honing your skills

• Having a 4 year degree differentiates you from the crowd and this degree need not be in IT or CS.
• Boosting your technical skills is a self taught process by attending seminars, conferences, code camps, online training etc.
• Mastering related technical skills like virtualisation, operating system, hardware, clustering
• Practical experience is the key to be an exceptional DBA.
• Mastering soft skills like people skills, teamwork skills, project management, leadership skills, time management, writing skills, speaking skills, knowledge of legal responsibilities. These can be done by volunteering.

Specialising as a DBA:

Choose one or more of the following:

• DBA Adminstrator
• DBA Developer
• DBA High Availability/Disaster Recovery
• DBA Database Designer/Architect
• DBA BI SSAS specialist
• DBA BI SSIS specialist
• DBA BI SSRS specialist
• DBA Trainer
• DBA Consultant

• Professional certification helps you differentiate from other DBAs
• Volunteer and participate in the SQL SERVER community. this is mainly to help yourself as participating develops your soft skills, make new contacts, increases your bdepth and breadth of knowledge, building your network etc.

Manage your internal brand

• Understand business goals of your company, and focus on how to help achieve them.
• Be a leader and take the intitiative.
• Accept responsibilty for your actions
• Have a "Get it done" attitude
• Don't abuse your power
• Actively participate and contribute in meetings
• Help others be successful
• Most importantly avoid office politics
• Be proactive by keeping all the stakeholders in the loop

Manage your online brand

• Seperate professional and personal online presence
• Don't post anything negative
• Online conducta and content should be professional, and

Last but not the least, you should take control of your career by deciding what you want from your career, set realsitic, short term goals in order to reach major milestones in your career plan. Most importantly follow through your goals.