You might like to check out this related page on Personal Qualities for Career Success.
Here's a useful link for the UK offered by the Daily Telegraph on February 25th.2009.
It covers CVs, Interviews and has a (currently) very superficial look at choosing a job that matches your personality.
I used to think that being an Oracle DBA is as close as
you can get to having a job for life these days.
However, as I write this, (September 2009) both SQL Server and DB2 are catching up with Oracle.
SQL Server is winning market share from Oracle.
In response to this, the latest versions of Oracle Enterprise Manager are moving to point-and-click DBA
tasks and away from Command line work.
This translates into 'one DBA can look after more Databases', or to put it more realistically, and depressingly,
fewer DBAs are required.
I receive emails that say -
'I am an Oracle DBA and I have just been laid off, what do I do ?'
The implication is clear - if you are in this position, you should acquire
some DBA-related skills which give your CV a broader appeal, such as Database Developer, which brings us to ...
The second most common occupation would be as a Database
Developer,(which would mean PL/SQL skills for Oracle).
This is also
the conclusion on January 4th. 2004, of the respected Oracle expert, Tom Kyte.
Oracle continues to be the market leader, at 33%, although
IBM's DB2 is close behind at 31%, but Oracle dominates
on UNIX, whereas IBM is dominant on mainframes.
Microsoft's SQL Server is way behind at 14%
overall, although it is ahead on Windows.
A demand for Data Architects is growing as the
Internet and e-Commerce forces many organisations to
rationalise and integrate their Data/Information Sources.
In addition, 9/11 led to the introduction of a wide range of legislation
related to tracking individuals and events, which has given greater importance to
Integrated Compliance Framworks and Generic Data Architectures.