T minus 10 days: I Am Validated!

Not only in job interviews, but with people whom I engage in general database conversations, the question inevitably is asked "So what do you like about being a DBA?". I'm a geek - standard nerd - and when I answer this question, I feel the need to validate the geekiness of my response with a statement to the effect of "Yeah, I know, it's a sickness I have.". The fact is I LOVE DATABASES. I could perform a Steve Balmer-esque rant hopping on a stage and chanting "databases, databases, databases, databases".

To my delight, I found in the first chapter of "Beginning SQL Server 2008 Administration" published by Apress an interview by the author, Robert E. Walters, with contributor, Grant Fritchey, about Grant's DBA career. A question from Robert was "What do you like about the job?". Following is Grant's response.

"I work mainly as a development DBA, so my work entails understanding business processes and definitions and turning those into structured storage. It requires me to cover a lot more territory and understand a lot more about the business, software development, database development, systems and so on, than other IT jobs. We straddle the fence between pure systems work and pure development. It really keeps things interesting. Plus, there is so much to learn about how the SQL Engine stores and retrieves data, the best way to get or send data to the applications, all the management tools, and so on. It makes the job a challenge every dat, and almost every day you have to learn something new. "

"I especially love query tuning - getting an execution plan and the I/O and CPU costs of the query so that you can figure out which are the costly operations, which tables need new or better indexes, and which queries are badly written or just need a bit of tweaking. It keeps you on your toes mentally, and you get immediate feedback on how well you're doing your job. You can take a query that runs in 45 seconds but is called several times a minute and make it run in 45 milliseconds, and you know that you just helped the company's bottom line and really earned your salary."

Finally, I realize I am not alone in warped enthusiasm for this career. I'd love to hear what makes other DBA's love their work.