Is a Database Administrator considered a senior position compared to a Software Developer? (assuming both have equal years of experience)
eg. will an oracle dba draw more pay or oracle developer?
Thanks
Re: DBA vs Developer
Peace OldBoy
The following is my opinion only ...
It is not a matter of which of the two draw more "rate of pay" but a matter of which of the two are altogether more lucrative ... You will find that "developers" tend to have fewer social skills than "admins" and hence "admins" tend to make it to management quicker. Admins will generally earn less in rate, but their work is ongoing and hence they have a greater demand over time ... developers have high income rates and are better off in project based set-ups than in corporate environments, unless the product of the organisation is customisation of databases - in which case the product-realisation process is hinged on the development itself ... but if development is used to cater for the needs of an organisation which merely uses databases to run its affairs then DBA is better.
Also, pragmatically a developer can more easily administrate but an admin cannot easily develop ... the technical complexity is obviously higher in the developer side. However, understanding real and abstract together and helping people arrive at their solutions as well as work in teams and keeping a smile on the face is the task of the admin ...
If one views themselves as a person who blends in the crowd they are better of being dba ... a developer will get consistent cash if they can stand above all people in their field have good people skills and be excellent at developing otherwise they will be looking at a very boring future.
Re: DBA vs Developer
When it come to Oracle there are Many kinds of DBAs and Developers.
There are Applications DBA's they have many categories depending on which Applications Database they manage. For example the highest in demands and then in pay are Oracle Applications DBA.
The other branch of DBAs are called core DBAs , which manage databases but there might or might not be a mission critical application at the front end they get less monetary compensation than an Applications DBAs.
Similarly there are two kinds of Oracle developers , Applications developers who sometime get compensated more than the Applications DBAs.
Then there are core Oracle Developer who will write generic Oracle code not specific to Oracle Applications they are relatively less compensated than even a core DBA.
In the end it all boils down to your skills level , experience , industry , education and market conditions.