by Jack Thornton

Created on: March 09, 2009

A career in databases offers a great way to be involved in Information Technology (IT) partly because databases are ubiquitous. It is also an ideal career because there are thousands of potential career paths within the industry. The range of options can keep the job interesting and varied. All of these options allow for various degrees of specialization and continued learning.

Regardless of which specific career path you follow, there are a number of tips that will be consistent for anybody wanting to break into databases as a career.

Education and Certification
Formal education is important. Not because it teaches the full range of skills that will be needed - it does not. Nor is it because it is the quickest way to learn - it isn't. Formal education is important because many places will not consider individuals for entry-level jobs without a degree - especially during an economic downturn. A degree indicates that you know how to learn - even if you don't yet know exactly what is needed for the job.

At the same time, it is even easier to get into a database career with a related degree. A good example would be a Business degree with a focus in Information Systems. That degree often requires one or two database courses for graduation and usually has more courses available. Even if your degree program is outside this, it may be possible to enroll in the database courses anyways.

With or without the formal education, there is another way to effectively demonstrate mastery of the basic skills. That would be certification. Oracle and Microsoft are the leading certification providers, but there are others including IBM and Teradata. Certification generally involves passing one or more computer-based examinations about different aspects of creating, using, maintaining and administering databases. Depending on which tests and how many are passed, there are multiple certificates that can be earned showing increasing levels of knowledge.

Learning how to use these databases and preparing for employment or certification is best done through experience. Most database vendors have versions of their products that can be downloaded and installed for personal use for free. Certification classes - on-line and classroom - can combined with reference books to supplement experimentation. The books are important to acquire anyways, since it can be critical to have a good reference library at your fingertips when things go wrong and minutes count.

Non-Database Skills
Being a DBA (Database

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