Can YOU Pick a Good DBA?

I’ve tried to get off this topic, but I keep getting dragged back in. Our own Tom Yager wrote a few weeks ago about companies not respecting the IT talent they have in-house, and it got me going again.

Here’s a quick list of my recent posts that are on the same topic:

Outsourcing IT Staff

Database Apprenticeship

Important Apprenticeships

It is a problem that companies don’t recognize their key talent. My last company had several excellent members in their IT staff and systematically dropped each one of them for the cheaper, less experienced models. I think the problem is two-fold. First, companies just don’t care. Most companies still view their IT staff with the same eye they use for their janitorial staff. They really don’t see the difference. To them, IT is simply a fancy form of record keeping that pretty much anybody could do. One DBA is just as good as the next. And if you get one that’s certified, then he’s surely better than all the rest. I originally started getting certifications because there were several companies who wouldn’t even look at me unless I had the MCDBA after my name. This is a lot like the company about 3yrs ago who wouldn’t hire me because my degree was in French linguistics instead of IS. The sad part is the hiring manager wanted me. I outshined every candidate they had, but he couldn’t get the company to lift the restriction that every IT job had to have a degree in IS…. umm, OK. I even had those nice little Microsoft letters after my name. Other companies still won’t hire you unless you have any kind of college degree. This is the one I’d like someone to explain to me. Like I said, my degree is in French linguistics. Can any of you guess how many times that skillset comes up in my DBA work? Go ahead, take a guess. I have a friend who does very well for himself in IT as a Cisco guy. His degree is actually in horticulture. And yet, he tells me that often times, his degree is the first thing that companies look at.

So it appears that ANY degree is all that most companies need. Because a degree in horticulture certainly means that you’re qualified for a Cisco job. Just like French linguistics easily qualifies me for DBA work. This is the same mentality that made them think Michael Brown would be a good choice to lead FEMA. I mean, why not? The guy did after all run horse shows.

OK, getting away from degrees for a minute, let’s look at certifications.

I’m going to tell you something that may come as a BIG surprise, but I want you to listen. This is especially for hiring managers and CIOs. Certifications don’t mean a thing. In fact, they’re practically worthless.

Let me tell you something about the MCDBA cert. It’s so incredibly easy to cheat it’s not even funny. There are several sites out there where you can download every question on the exam and ace it without any trouble. You don’t even have to understand the question. All you have to do is memorize the answers. This is what a lot of MCDBAs have done. Hell, every developer I know has his DBA cert… big deal. They still don’t even know the basics. I honestly can’t count the number of times someone bragged to me they were certified, and then couldn’t even prove the simplest of skills.

Trust me on this one… the only thing a cert means is that the guy had an internet connection and $100 burning a hole in his pocket.

The 2nd part of the problem is that companies don’t know how to spot good talent. My last company hired me after what amounted to a very simple, rather pathetic tech screening. It didn’t take me long to see that the guy interviewing me really didn’t know that much. To him I was the best DBA on the planet, and they pretty much hired me on the spot. The tech screening lasted all of like 10mins and we really only talked about basic backup and restore ops. And the problem is he said I was the only one who answered those question right (that’s a topic for another post). The problem here is that these managers simply don’t know what makes a good DBA. Actually, a lot of DBAs don’t either, but again, that’s for another time.

It’s not entirely their fault though. They’re doing the best they can. They don’t know anything about DBs, so how do they pick a good DBA? Think about it… what would you do if you were in charge of hiring a new accounting manager? What questions would you ask, and how would you verify that the answers were even right? Sure, they can sound right on the surface, but how do you know that he has good judgement? Hiring managers have the same problem with hiring IT staff. They have no idea whether or not their candidates really know Cisco or are just fresh out of class. What can they do, look at the resume? What good is that? It’s easy to fake a resume, so that doesn’t mean anything either. I don’t even look at resumes anymore. I just give my candidates a tech screen and that’s all I go by. I don’t care if their certified, degreed, or have experience on paper. All I care about is whether they know SQL or not.

It’s basically those two factors that lead to companies not having any respect for their IT staff’s abilities. They consistently fail to recognize where the true talent is, and throw away people who have worked hard for them, and who have concistently produced for them.

This also leads to the next insult bestowed on IT. There’s a huge movement for professional development where IT staff is encouraged, and in some cases even required to go back to school and get a business degree. Apparently, we’re so useless that we now have to be experts in both business and in IT. And all of this while the business user is allowed to remain as stupid about technology as he likes. I have seen some companies offer computer training for their users, but I’ve really been hit in the face recently with the real solid push for IT guys to become business people too.

I’ve been asked easily more than a dozen times how much I know about the business of a prospective company, yet I’m sure it wouldn’t go over very well for me to ask a hiring manager how much he knows about SQL because I don’t want to be plagued with stupid questions and unreasonable requests. For some reason, it’s necessary for me to know the company’s business but it’s not necessary for them to know mine.

Anyway, I guess what it boils down to is companies really need to start looking at who’s important in their IT staff and try to do what it takes to keep them. These are the people who know your business model and the histroy of your servers and applications, and you can’t just throw them away for someone cheaper and expect to keep doing business like you have been. Change your mentality about IT. Once you start seeing us as the viable part of the business we are, then you’ll not only start keeping us around longer, but you’ll start recruiting better talent to begin with.

Good Luck.