Have you ever visited your public library and used their computers to search
for a book that you are looking for? Or have you run a search at an online
bookstore to find that same book? If you have, you have used a database.
The people who design, develop and maintain databases are highly trained
computer professionals called database administrators, or DBAs.
Of course, databases are not used only to search for books. They can be
used any time you have to keep track of a large collection of records.
Robert Feehan is a database administrator. He usually works from home for
two days of the week, and drives to his job site in Boston for the other three.
His work involves doing set-ups, security, maintenance, tuning and back-ups
for various Oracle and Ingres databases that are running on an assortment
of computer systems. "A lot of what I do is troubleshooting and solving problems,"
he says.
"Oracle folks work with systems that are all over the world. You have to
be well rounded and able to work with all of them."
Feehan did not start out his career as a database administrator. "I kind
of fell into it," he says. Feehan's background is in computer science.
In 1988, Feehan was hired as a programmer at an electric company. While
at that job, he began performing database administration tasks. He taught
himself from manuals and books. At that time, database administration was
a new field and was just starting to grow.
Now, Feehan loves his work. He was always attracted to the digital field
in general. "Sometimes the deadlines are stressful, but stress was a bigger
factor when I was inexperienced than it is now," he says.
Feehan believes that database administrators must have certain personal
qualities in addition to the technological skills. For one thing, the databases
that he works with contain classified information because his company manufactures
fighter planes for the U.S. military.
"Database administrators often have access to confidential information,"
says Feehan. "We must be able to observe confidentiality."
Communication skills and people skills are important too. "We are a bridge
occupation," he says. "We must communicate with the public as well as with
the computer people. Computer people speak their own language -- they talk
in very complicated technological terms and jargon.
"Database administrators have to be able to understand that information
and communicate it to the public using everyday language. We also have to
communicate with customers and help them solve their database problems."
If you want to become a database administrator, Feehan recommends getting
a bachelor's degree in computer science. "Take courses in data architecture
and data administration. It will be very valuable if you can get exposure
to Oracle while you are in college," he says.
Audrey Kaersenhout is a database administrator. Kaersenhout initially planned
to be a teacher. However, after graduating from university, she realized that
she was no longer interested in teaching, so she studied computer studies
and Internet management.
The course provided a broad range of computer training. Database studies
were included. After graduating, Kaersenhout worked as a self-employed web
designer. Then she accepted a job with an online search firm, providing tech
support to users.
"People do searches for specific topics. They can pull articles from books,
magazines, newspapers, maps and so on. It is database-driven," says Kaersenhout.
After a while, Kaersenhout noticed that the database that runs the organization
wasn't working properly. She began investigating and took it on as a personal
project. "I decided to get it working," she says.
Although Kaersenhout had some training in database software at school,
she had no work experience with databases. "I have gained my experience on
the job and improved my skills by participating in online newsgroups, by contacting
a consultant and by taking courses that come up from time to time."
As Kaersenhout investigated the technology, she discovered that the company
needed its own server (a computer that is used for networking purposes).
She realized that people in the company needed to be connected and to see
one another's work. Kaersenhout also learned that the existing fields (type
of data) in the database were providing information that wasn't relevant to
the company's business operations.
She contacted many people and found out what type of information they really
needed. Then she customized the database accordingly. In large companies,
database architects are responsible for designing the database. The database
administrator does the implementation. Kaersenhout did both.
"Then the database needed to be realigned. I did the transfer on Jan. 1,
2000. The next step was to populate the fields properly -- that is, enter
the data and information. It turned out really well."
Kaersenhout's initiative paid off in two ways. First, she found it was
a wonderful learning experience -- it piqued her interest and drove her to
learn more and more. Secondly, the company made her their official database
administrator. Essentially, she created a job for herself by finding a problem
and solving it for her employer.
Kaersenhout enjoys the challenge of database work. "Here was this project
that needed to be accomplished. I wanted to get everything working properly,"
she says.
"I had to learn more and do a lot of planning. You have to be able to see
the big picture. You can't just go and design a database without planning
it first. It was a lot of thought. You have to say, 'Where will we be a year
from now?' and you have to be sure that the data will be accessible to people
who need it."
Kaersenhout spends a lot of time helping people and coaching them to use
the database. "It's the teacher side of me coming out. People come to me with
questions. Right now, I am designing training modules for everyone."
Like Feehan, Kaersenhout stresses that communication skills are very important.
"You have to explain things to people in a language they can understand. And
you have to be patient and understand that a person might know a lot about
a computer in one area but not know much in another area. Don't assume they
know everything."
Kaersenhout advises anyone interested in pursuing database work to stay
in school and to study a wide range of courses, not just courses related directly
to databases. "Study networking, using different servers, back-end programming,
and fill it out as much as possible. Enhance your knowledge as much as possible."
And always remember that this is a rapidly growing industry. You will need
to keep your skills up to date.
Surendini Pathmanathan has been doing database development and administration
since 1994. She started by getting a degree in mathematics. "I studied some
computer science as well," she says. "They don't teach database administration.
That is taught at community colleges."
After graduating, Pathmanathan found a contract job working for a company
doing work that was not related to database development. However, like Kaersenhout,
she discovered that the company's database didn't work properly, so she began
tinkering with it at home.
"I got some books and used them to learn databases. Since I have a programming
background, it was easy for me to follow. I learned to design the database
and to manipulate the data."
This experience sparked Pathmanathan's interest in database development.
"You can't do much with a mathematics degree. I thought about going into programming,
but I found that work wasn't very interesting," she says.
"However, database work is very interesting. It is very challenging. If
you make one little mistake, it can throw off the whole database. Then you
might have to spend hours looking for the error. But when everything works
right, it makes you so happy."
In the beginning, Pathmanathan worked as a contractor. She expanded her
skills by studying MS Visual Basic (a programming language used in database
development) and Oracle (popular high-end database development software).
"Because I have a background in 'C' [a programming language], it was easy
for me to pick up MS Visual Basic. The more skills you know, the better it
is."
Usually, Pathmanathan works from home, then takes the work to the client
on a disk. So far, she has worked on seven databases, and she is pleased that
every client is happy with her work.
"One of the databases was huge. It used 200 tables," she recalls. (Tables
are classifications of records. For example, you could have a table containing
client addresses, a table containing purchases that each client has made and
so on.)
Now, in addition to her contract work, Pathmanathan works part time for
the Young Entrepreneur's Association. YEA is a nonprofit membership organization
providing networking and support to entrepreneurs under the age of 35.
The database contains about 50 tables and has records for 7,000 members.
Pathmanathan worked with the web administrator to create an online version
that matches the office database. Every day, she updates the offline database
with records from the online version.
A typical day is very busy. "I sit in front of the computer," she says.
"If I want to finish something, I don't take a break. I just keep working
until it is done. With high-tech companies, you don't have to work 9-to-5
hours. You can come in when you want and leave when you are finished. It is
hectic and busy, but I like it. There is a lot of variety. You always want
to do more and to learn more."
Of course, there are some stresses. Like many people in her field, Pathmanathan
finds that continued computer use creates eye strain. She also finds that
it is difficult to stop thinking about the work in her free time. "I go home,
and if there is a problem with the database, I am always thinking about it,"
she says.
If database work is your goal, Pathmanathan recommends that you first get
a degree in mathematics or computer science. "You can take a college course,
but you will have a greater range of skills if you have the degree first,"
she says. "University will give you the basis, the foundation,
that the work builds on."