Put a DBA in Your Pocket

Oh snap…one of your two DBAs just gave 2 weeks notice.

Now what?

You have 2 weeks before your other DBA starts feeling the pressure of doing 80 hours of work in a 40 hour week.

Did you see this coming?  Do you have a favorite recruiting firm on your vendor list?  Do you know a guy that knows a guy?

Assuming that the budget exists to pay for a replacement, you are very likely 4 weeks out from actually getting a replacement in the door:

  • 1 week for the recruiter to source candidates
  • 1 week to interview, if you are really on the ball and can “Agile” through the stack of resumes and the interview process
  • 2 weeks for the person you make an offer to so they can give proper notice
  • At best.
  • If you rush the process.

In reality, recruiters these days are handling 30+ openings and dozens of applicants per opening.  That’s a lot on their plate.

You have Stuff To Do™ as well, which limits your time to properly review resumes and get through the interview process.  Hopefully your process isn’t 3 phone calls and 4 face to face on different days…

Great…so we’ve defined the problem. What is the solution?

Put a DBA in your pocket.

You likely already have a lawyer and accountant in there.  Put a few critical technical people in there with them.

Set up a retainer agreement with an independent DBA to fill in when:

  • Someone leaves
  • Someone goes on a well-deserved vacation
  • Someone goes on Maternity/Family leave
  • A new project comes in and you cannot let the care and feeding go by the wayside

This doesn’t even have to be an actual independent contractor…many qualified DBAs, SysAdmins, storage people, etc. that are working full-time jobs but can check on your systems on weekends and evenings.

If your systems are mission critical, and you are running skinny in certain areas…protect yourself by having someone you already know in your pocket, ready to call when the unexpected happens.

For my fellow DBAs…would you like to take a vacation without your laptop? Or go to a training class? Send this link to your manager if you are stretched so tight you can’t breathe!

Dallas DBAs provides Remote DBA services at ‘X’ hours a week.  Contact us if this resonated with you.

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

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