Choosing a future MySQL career path

In the past few months I’ve not had to look for a job, they look for me. If your a well qualified MySQL DBA there are many opportunities, I’ve had so many of these offers in the past 12 months I’ve lost count. However a DBA job would not offer the job satisfaction I’m seeking in my career goals now in 2008.

I’ve been able to consider 4 genuine positions in just the past few weeks, and indeed my new employer Primebase Technologies was someone I’d never considered working for, and indeed they had never considered me until a chance lunch meeting less then one month ago.

I did seriously consider working with Paul Vallee and the team at Pythian . Pythian looks for the best people from their respective levels of technology expertise, whether a college graduate or a 2 decade RDBMS veteran. This company has a great work ethic and a strong commitment to a 40 hour work week. With offices in multiple countries and a growing business, and a prominent client list as seen with the Pythian Web site even reviewing this company before talking to anybody provides a lot of good information.

I’ve followed Pythian closely since good friend MySQL She-BA Sheeri Kritzer Cabral was considering job opportunities last year. I was very impressed during this process. During recent vacation I took the time to visit Pythian, to speak personally with a number of people, from the CEO to potential fellow colleagues, to see the work environment, to have lunch and after work drinks. I invested more time in interviewing this potential company then they did in vis-versa, a principle I’d recommend to anybody for any future positions anywhere.

Today I read in How to become CEO, “Hire the best people. attract, motivate, train and reward the best people“. A good principle and one I know is at the heart of this company. Pythian is a company and a partnership I’ll be ensuring in the future remains strong. With a team of 60+ DBA’s across MySQL, Oracle and SQL Server they provide a dedicated service that MySQL (prior to acquisition) simply could not provide for market demand.

Comments on this site reflect the personal opinion of the author and may not reflect the opinion of any present or past employers.

Tagged with: Databases MySQL

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