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Hi, I just want to get your feedback / idea on this.
If you're currently an ORACLE DBA but was given an opportunity to be trained as a SAP Technical Consultant (no DBA work) and drop your career as an ORACLE DBA. Will you make the job / career shift?
I know that im not comparing apples to apples but given the 2 career paths. which will you take given the current global job market situation?
Hope you guys will participate in this survey. Thanks
May I say that you don't need to completely drop Oracle DBA responsibilities, as SAP + Oracle adds more value to you, than just SAP.Quote:
Originally posted by D Maverick
If you're currently an ORACLE DBA but was given an opportunity to be trained as a SAP Technical Consultant
Hope you know that there are training programmes in SAP to manage Oracle databases on Unix/Windows.
HTH.
I agree but the job offer doesent include DBA work bec it its being managed by another group. Given this scenario, what will you choose?Quote:
Originally posted by ggnanaraj
May I say that you don't need to completely drop Oracle DBA responsibilities, as SAP + Oracle adds more value to you, than just SAP.
Thanks for the reply =)
If it doesn't mean a drop in Salary I'd JUMP at the chance. I'd love to be able to change roles for a while (but I want to keep my current salary level.. of course :D).
You'd NEVER lose your Current DBA skill, and a combination of SAP and ORACLE can only work to your advantage.
I think that you will loose Oracle DBA skills if you do not use them 100%. I have heard Oracle DBAs complaining about this.Quote:
Originally posted by grjohnson
If it doesn't mean a drop in Salary I'd JUMP at the chance. I'd love to be able to change roles for a while (but I want to keep my current salary level.. of course :D).
You'd NEVER lose your Current DBA skill, and a combination of SAP and ORACLE can only work to your advantage.
I was once offered a DBA job but it happened that they wanted to send me at once to SAP training. I rejected. I did not take that job. I am an Oracle DBA and that's it. Oracle is enough large area and I prefer to learn some other part of Oracle than SAP.
You cannot be both excellent SAP and Oracle admin. Nor you can be both Unix and Oracle admin. It is either or. The other option is a to be somehow good in both.
So, what do you choose?
I would gladly get ERP experience given the opportunity whether it involves DBA work or not.
Here, there is currently a very strong demand for SAP consultants and a very weak demand for Oracle DBAs. In addition, Siebel, Peoplesoft, and Oracle Apps pros with DBA experience are in demand.
There is a steady demand for SAP R/3 Admins that have a very good grasp of Oracle Administration and Unix Administration. An SAP freelancer (Admin or non Admin) can expect an hourly wage (in Germany) that is significantly higher than an Oracle DBA or Developer.
Check out www.jobserve.com to gauge the demand.
If someone is offering good training in the current climate take it.
Assuming they have drawn up a lock in contract and the salary is OK, you could always revert.
Nearly all job posts I've seen recently require more than straigh Oracle, notably Websphere/Weblogic.
Being fairly new to the game I'd jump at the chance to expand my skill set, even SAP which is not all that popular in the UK because of cost.
Probably would be different for someone of Julian's calibre as I dare say he is well established with a wide circle of contacts.
In the end you have to make your own choices.
Best of luck Maverick
Nick
It's always useful to have additional skills, although it's important not to spread yourself to thin. Keep your focus on a particular area and you can use the additional skills you obtain as leverage for your next career move.
Good luck
what is SAP? how you will abbreviate this? is it like this "Scientific Advisory ....?" to be SAP professional what u have to learn? i'm new. i don't know abt it.
http://www.sap.comQuote:
Originally posted by fulel
what is SAP? how you will abbreviate this? is it like this "Scientific Advisory ....?" to be SAP professional what u have to learn? i'm new. i don't know abt it.
I kind of agree, but with slight exception. While learning other aspects of Oracle is great, if your company doesn't use them you end up losing the skill. If your company is offering to train you on SAP or another ERP package in addition to your current duties, great.Quote:
Originally posted by julian
I think that you will loose Oracle DBA skills if you do not use them 100%. I have heard Oracle DBAs complaining about this.
Oracle is enough large area and I prefer to learn some other part of Oracle than SAP.
You cannot be both excellent SAP and Oracle admin. Nor you can be both Unix and Oracle admin. It is either or. The other option is a to be somehow good in both.
I don't buy into the "demand" argument. If you always took a job with what's "in demand", you would be a C-Netware-VB-Unix-Cisco-NT-C++-HTML-Java-Oracle-ERP guy. Part of the reason there are no DBA jobs out there is because unskilled people got "certified" and got jobs as DBAs and flooded the market. Part of the reason there are no DBA jobs our there is demand for ALL IT positions is soft right now.
So, where does that leave you? If you have no security at your current position/company, move. If you see no future at your current position/company, move. If you like what you are doing but want to make more money, really think about it. Your career is like a business; only you can manage it correctly.
Man, you are in Gemany, SAP is German. Of course the demand there is high..Quote:
Originally posted by dknight
I would gladly get ERP experience given the opportunity whether it involves DBA work or not.
Here, there is currently a very strong demand for SAP consultants and a very weak demand for Oracle DBAs. In addition, Siebel, Peoplesoft, and Oracle Apps pros with DBA experience are in demand.
There is a steady demand for SAP R/3 Admins that have a very good grasp of Oracle Administration and Unix Administration. An SAP freelancer (Admin or non Admin) can expect an hourly wage (in Germany) that is significantly higher than an Oracle DBA or Developer.
Check out www.jobserve.com to gauge the demand.
I agree with Jeff. He put it into words the way I probably wanted to, but couldn't.Quote:
Originally posted by marist89
I kind of agree, but with slight exception. While learning other aspects of Oracle is great, if your company doesn't use them you end up losing the skill. If your company is offering to train you on SAP or another ERP package in addition to your current duties, great.
I don't buy into the "demand" argument. If you always took a job with what's "in demand", you would be a C-Netware-VB-Unix-Cisco-NT-C++-HTML-Java-Oracle-ERP guy. Part of the reason there are no DBA jobs out there is because unskilled people got "certified" and got jobs as DBAs and flooded the market. Part of the reason there are no DBA jobs our there is demand for ALL IT positions is soft right now.
So, where does that leave you? If you have no security at your current position/company, move. If you see no future at your current position/company, move. If you like what you are doing but want to make more money, really think about it. Your career is like a business; only you can manage it correctly.
Tha DBA market is dead but not that dead. We here for example have an opening position for an NT Oracle DBA.
Normally, i use jobserve and look at the contract positions. I have found that searches on Denmark, Sweden, the UK, and the few positions for Poland return a lot of SAP. SAP is the largest software company in Europe, so it isn´t surprising that a demand exists outside of Germany.Quote:
Originally posted by julian
Man, you are in Gemany, SAP is German. Of course the demand there is high..
Marist is right about weakness in the IT job market and the futility of a career strategy that involves jumping on the latest hot skill. However, it is possible that there is a trend toward the greater use of ERP software and the use of hosting companies. Acknowledging these trends (if you believe they exist) may require adjusting your career strategy independent of the IT business cycle.
Another possible reason for the drop in DBA demand is that with better management tools, less staff is required.
It is just my opinion.
Isnt german army struggling with their SAP implementation?
I agreee with the comments written by the others. And I do agree with Julian that skills that are not used, are soon forgotten. In saying this, you'll still have the Oracle concepts in hand. A good DBA with SAP skills, whilst will NEVER be an expert in both areana's, will definately expand their employability.
Also, as has been said to me (many times over the last couple of months), a good DBA can always find work. So I also agree again with Julian and Jeff, the market isn't Dead to all DBA's, just to the unskilled.
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.
Im planning to leave my current job and I have these 2 companies that applied for that offers great career opportunities. One offers a Oracle DBA role that will managed their global client's Oracle databases. The other, as I have shared will be on implementing and supporting SAP systems. But nothing final yet, coz we have not discuss anything on the compensation package yet. Its a local assignment so im not really expecting any significant raise in my current salary. But im looking into the future. Hopefully before I reach the age of 30, i'll have the skills to land me a good job with a great pay (Kinda' wishfull thinking huh?)
I'm just currently getting around USD725.00/month (converted to USD) in my country. Not a pleasant thing to think of =) considering the amount is gross pay.
I hope everything will work out. Thank you guys for your comments. appreciate it very much.
No need to worry. Most of the SAP are sitting beside Oracle DB. Even for my company both are running on a IBM AIX Server.
But, SAP is damn broad, they have a few modules. To master one modules, it's going to take up some time. Only take those, which have market value. And SAP courses are damn expensive.
If the person have implement one or two life cycle of the SAP. At the current job market, you are hot. If SAP die off, your career going to die too.
From my user feedback, they are difficult to use. They have to go through several steps to get things done. SAP told them, it's the security function, that's why they have to go through so many steps to search,check and add.
I dun really favour SAP. See how the SAP market perform for the next few years.
Very true. At the high end it is Rs.2.2 lakhs for a 5 week training programme. Check this out... http://sap.com/asia/education/new/St...INMarJun02.pdfQuote:
Originally posted by danielwong
And SAP courses are damn expensive.
I suppose the pay for a certified SAP professional would be almost double of a DBA's salary(based on the training fee, I presume)!
I really don't know people who administer both SAP and Oracle. Perhaps in some very small companies. But I can imagine how they adiminister them :-)
There are lots who does that in Spain. In fact companies expect an Oracle DBA able to administaer SAP with SAP tools like SAPDBAQuote:
Originally posted by julian
I really don't know people who administer both SAP and Oracle. Perhaps in some very small companies. But I can imagine how they adiminister them :-)
SAP is a very closed system, it may be bad focusing yourself with it. But working with ERP you probably learn how a company works. But then you have not said what are you gonna do with SAP. Are you going to be functional consultant or technical? If it's gonna be functional then you can start forget everything about Oracle, there are lots of SAP functional consultants in my company and many cant even write simple SQL statements because there is no need for them to do that
Probably in small companies as I said. I work for a big company and there are separate SAP admins, Oracle admins, Unix admins, etc.
Bottom line: you are either an Oracle DBA or SAP admin or Unix admin. If someone tells me that he is both or all three, well I would not trust his complex skills too much :-)
The companies I have seen dba administering SAP is not that small really, 5000+ employees. My boss for example, was DBA in one of largest petrol company in Spain and he used to administer SAP and several others.
Same with Oracle applications, people expect dba administer oracle financials, crm etc
Same with peoplesoft, jd edwards. The problem is there is no such position called ERP administrators (or there is but noone uses it here), the guy who's administering the database is gonna look after the databases these ERP runs on as well
Well i think Donald K. Burleson is one such personQuote:
Originally posted by julian
I really don't know people who administer both SAP and Oracle. Perhaps in some very small companies. But I can imagine how they adiminister them :-)
Check out his book on Oracle SAP Administration.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/sapadm/
:-) Most people who write books or teach Oracle are far, far away from the every day DB problems. How often have you noticed that something claimed in a book or Metalink note is not the same as in reality.Quote:
Originally posted by adewri
Well i think Donald K. Burleson is one such person
Check out his book on Oracle SAP Administration.
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/sapadm/
I kind of agree (again), but in this case it's not true. I have met Don Burleson and his books come from the every day experience of managaing real databases. Although I don't always agree with him, Don is right up there in my top 5 respected Oracle dudes along with Tom Kyte, Mike Ault, Ahmed Alomari & Howard Rogers.Quote:
Originally posted by julian
:-) Most people who write books or teach Oracle are far, far away from the every day DB problems. How often have you noticed that something claimed in a book or Metalink note is not the same as in reality.
Hmmm... i agree...Quote:
Originally posted by julian
:-) Most people who write books or teach Oracle are far, far away from the every day DB problems. How often have you noticed that something claimed in a book or Metalink note is not the same as in reality.
Say i spend 6 months writing a book, to write a book i think i need to test what i write... ( or may be i can just copy from somewhere else )
Again depends on who is or has written the book...
You cannot say every one is the same, there are exceptions :D
Tom Kyte, Mike Ault, Donald K. Burleson , Jonathan Lewis
I love them all :D and i love you all too :p
What's the difference between a SAP Functional consultant and a SAP Technical consultant? Being an OracleDBA w/c do you think will be more appropriate (Functional or Technical)? What's BASIS and ABAP?
This might help me decide better if an offer does come. Thanks
SAP Technical would be more apt for a techy like an Oracle DBA!Quote:
Originally posted by D Maverick
Being an OracleDBA w/c do you think will be more appropriate (Functional or Technical)?
Check this out for more info... http://www.sapbasisadministration.com/
HTH.
the above sums it all up.. SAP has lots of functional modules. and normally, an individual is skilled in one module... due to its complexity..... regarding whether technical guys or functional guys earn more money , i am not too sure.Quote:
Originally posted by pando
There are lots who does that in Spain. In fact companies expect an Oracle DBA able to administaer SAP with SAP tools like SAPDBA
SAP is a very closed system, it may be bad focusing yourself with it. But working with ERP you probably learn how a company works. But then you have not said what are you gonna do with SAP. Are you going to be functional consultant or technical? If it's gonna be functional then you can start forget everything about Oracle, there are lots of SAP functional consultants in my company and many cant even write simple SQL statements because there is no need for them to do that
abap is programming language in sap
and basis is administration of sap (include app admin and sap tables which inturn are in oracle)
Oracle dba+sap basis is good combination and you won't loose the DBA concepts if you are in ABAP.