This whitepaper provides insights on required skills and how to acquire those skills in order to become a SQL server database administrator.
The hard part about becoming a DBA is getting the first job. No hiring manager wants to give a user with no track record the keys to the most valuable thing the company owns – the data. A single mistake by a DBA can cause an outage or loss of data that can result in loss of revenue or in the worst case the failure of the company. If you want to become a DBA you have to be ready for that opportunity by building skills above and beyond those you use at work – you need to learn the basic skills of a DBA. There is so much to learn; how do you decide what to learn first?