In the aftermath of the internet gold rush of the late 1990s, just as the venture capitalists and shareholders who lost billions of dollars were declaring the imminent demise of web based business, many of those in IT, particularly systems administrators, were doubtful of finding another gig in a depressed job market.

While many left the industry to take up jobs elsewhere (ironically there was a rash of geeks seeking alternative careers in public relations) some considered the harder option of becoming a DBA. He’d always been interested in databases, so he immersed himself in reading up on the subject and getting qualified.

Money he admits was a motivator and so this and a passion for databases made his future career an obvious one.

Chuck now works for Demand Media, the American content and social media company that operates online brands such as eHow, and Cracked.

He is responsible for identifying and implementing key architectural components, training, and improving the performance of many applications and in 2009 was nominated for Red Gate’s Exceptional DBA Award. He says being recognised by his peers is the highest honor one can receive.

RM:

What made you decide to become a DBA?

CL:

I have always been interested in databases ever since my dad created his own database program in BASIC on the Commodore 64. I picked up Microsoft Access 1.1 in college where I created an inventory database with the help of a mentor. Over the years working as a Systems Administrator I created a few Microsoft Access databases and loved the power and simplicity of creating such a useful tool that benefitted my company. During the tech fallout during the early 2000’s I found myself as an unemployed Systems Administrator competing with hundreds of others for very few openings.

I decided I needed to get into something with more opportunities and chose to get my Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDA) in SQL 2000 with in-class training. Once that was completed, there was nothing that could stop me from becoming a DBA, other than getting hired, but that is a whole other story.

RM:

That sounds like the beginning of an interesting story. Why was becoming a DBA so important to you? What is it about managing data that draws you in?

CL:

Money was a strong motivator in a down economy and the dot com boom was a dot bust for me as well. I researched the salaries of top DBAs and found them to be about three times higher than what I was making, plus my passion for databases made this an easy decision.

I love the logic involved with figuring out the best schema design, optimum data structure, and indexing that will meet the needs of the solution now and in the future. It is like putting together a complex puzzle; there is great satisfaction when you complete it successfully.

RM:

Is the accidental DBA still the most prevalent path to becoming an admin hood or do most others have it thrust upon them?

CL:

I think the DBA path was commonly thrust upon people who were asked to create sophisticated Excel or Access databases and had to scale to the next level. Sometimes this was pushed on to the IT department to support and therefore created a breed of accidental DBAs. I think we are in an early shift from the accidental to the intentional DBA brought on by the hype of the Cloud and BigData. I think this is good for our industry as every time I hire DBAs it is long and difficult process as there are too few skilled and experienced people to choose from currently.

RM:

Can you tell me a little about your job and this differs with other DBA work that you know of?

CL:

I am the Database Operations Manager for Demand Media with a small team of DBAs that support over a hundred Microsoft SQL Servers. Because of my past experience, I am the SharePoint and Team Foundation Server administrator also. My tag line in my email signature used to read, “DBA + SQL developer + SharePoint guru = busy guy” and then when I was promoted to manager I put, “DBA manager = focused guy”. But, in reality development time went down, I had to add management skills and duties, and I was still a DBA and SharePoint administrator. So, I wasn’t that focused after all. Just like learning to become a Sr. DBA, management mentorship is crucial and I didn’t have that, so struggled to learn on my own. I love learning and the challenges it brings on so I took it all on. My softball team used to try and make fun of me reading SQL books during tournament breaks, but I enjoyed it and no amount of razing would stop me from doing it.

My latest challenges have been with reducing the licensing cost of all our SQL instances, which usually means moving towards open source for some of our database instances and creating a heterogeneous database platform environment. Microsoft in SQL 2012 has changed the licensing structure and doesn’t offer a product that would be useful for read-only secondary servers. Because of this, companies like ours are being forced to shift to cheaper RDMS systems even if the TCO is higher as what affects the budgets the most is the capital expense (hardware and licenses) and the operational expense (employee burden) is just forgotten about as we are forced to work longer hours to meet the current needs without affecting any budgets.

RM:

Are there things in your career that you would have done differently?

CL:

I wish I went into SQL Server earlier in my career, but didn’t have the opportunity. Overall, looking back I have had a wide breadth of technical skills that makes me a powerful DBA that can solve problems quicker than the average DBA who just knows SQL Server administration only and not development, server, security, and other application support experience.

RM:

So, what achievements would you say you’re most proud of?

CL:

Typically, I shy away from contests and popularity, but it was really cool to be selected as one of the top 5 finalists for the  Exceptional DBA of the year award in 2009. My self-accolades usually come in the form of solving difficult issues rather than being the most popular DBA in the twitterverse talking about much of nothing and convincing others how good a DBA I am. My favourite recollections are of changing a consulting company’s data aggregation process that made for my company from eight hours to less than one using very cool dynamic set-theory code concept that I was introduced to the same week and our Sr. DBAs at the time were impressed.

RM:

And what aspects of your career excite you and are there any that depress you?

CL:

I am always excited about learning new things and SQL Server world always provides many new things every 2-3 years. BigData and data visualization are two big trends that interest me a lot and am excited to learn more. Also, in management, people are usually much harder to manage than computers, so that is exciting at times. We are social beings, so we must work well with others, impress our bosses, impress future employers, and still be competent DBA. Unfortunately, it is easy to be one of the best DBAs, but still be under appreciated by your boss or employer. In IT, there is a lack of good leadership and management, so if you don’t do what they perceive is the right thing for a DBA to focus on in the time period they feel it should get done, you are looked at as a mediocre performer. This depresses me. It is not about what you have learned, overcome, kept from breaking, fix at the last second, or a hero to your employees and customers, it is all about what have you done for your boss lately?

RM:

How would you make money from your skills if you weren’t in the job that you now?

CL:

Troubleshooting skills are top notch, so any job requiring that would be ideal and if it involves using a computer, I will excel at it. Also, I am a very analytical thinker, so I can break down a process into smaller parts to achieve a big picture vision of my own or someone else’s idea.

RM:

What would you say are the main characteristics of an exceptional DBA? Why do you think these qualities are so important?

CL:

You must know what you know and ask questions or research on what you don’t know when trying to solve problems pertaining to DBA work. Too often I see IT people find something on the Internet that on the surface seems like a solution to a problem at hand, but upon investigation I usually notice that it won’t solve the current issue. Or, people will just grab at straws and start to panic and do things that make the situation worse or would not solve the problem at hand. Panic is not good during a service outage. If you are confident in your knowledge, your team will notice and will use you as a resource in the future, if you are not confident and admit that, you will gain trust as being real. But, if you are egotistically driven and think you know everything and make a key mistake or take credit where credit is not due, your reputation will be tainted for a long time.

You also need to be an expert task juggler. 8 AM Monday usually comes with 100 or so different tasks that require you to prioritize, communicate, execute on, and delegate. You may also have to do something totally new, like install latest SQL Server for the first time. If you don’t like this frequent task switching, being a DBA is probably not the best choice for you.

DBAs must work with people to be successful, and that relationship better be a good one, not one that developers hate every conversation. Because, when times are tough, they will either help you or hinder you based on your relationship. And when you make a mistake, they will cover your back, or send you to the wolves.

RM:

Have you had someone mentor you? Your Zen master if you like?

CL:

Early on in my career I did mentor under some Sr. DBAs. And when not being mentored, I would learn from others, books, and conferences like SQL PASS conferences. I think mentorship is the key to helping you learn and to help you along to becoming a Sr. DBA.

RM:

It’s said that most DBAs live chaotic lives, in that they always seem to be on call. Is it the same for you and have ever considered a change of career?

CL:

Yes, I have been on-call for years. Typically though, you have someone else you can switch off with, otherwise it is easy to get burnt out. If you are working for a company that can afford to fix servers that are old and/or unreliable, things are typically fine. If they can’t afford to, work life probably is not that fun. I have considered moving into non-operational roles, like data visualization and architect roles that don’t require being on-call and will someday get there.

RM:

Do you think there will be a time when DBAs will be more or less replaced by emerging software? Or is it just the nature of software that there will always be the need for a physical presence?

CL:

Not unless Skynet becomes a reality. But seriously, I don’t think you can train a piece of software the nuances of the data the way the business team understands it, even I have to go ask; then train it how the application code changes over time and how it will affect the database server. Basically, there will always be a relationship between humans and the data, and the DBA is typically the first line of interaction to it. Exceptional DBAs have to be in constant communication with the business team and developers to understand for example why a job is running longer than normal or what recently changed on the application side to cause procedure x to be called 10 times more often and have missing indexes. Software helps to identify this happened and offer solutions to fix. Over time it will get better, but there is just too much information for a computer to make a decision on what to do with limited resources, i.e. Deep Blue not at your disposal.

RM:

Is there any moment or event either in IT or computer science would you like to have been at and why?

CL:

I would have loved to have been in the room when Bill Gates was discussing the use of using GUI interfaces for an operating system instead of the text based systems everyone was used to. What a paradigm shift he was contemplating and one that ultimately changed us all.