Advice needed on career change into Database admin/programming

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Hi, I am looking for a bit of advice. I am quite keen to get into Database programming and administration. I am currently a project manager and have worked in quite a few areas of IT mainly through managed services for 2 companies. I started out working first and second line support about 6 years ago. A lucky break led to work as a programmer, at first with ASP, then C# using SQL server 2000 then 2005. At the time I loved the database work and writing SQL but after a couple of big projects the work dried up for the company.
I then spent the next 3 years working firstly as a project coordinator then as a project manager more on the networking side of things. About a year ago I spent some time working on a project migrating data from one system to another using SQL and it reminded me of how much I enjoy database work.

As part of my degree I did courses on SQL and db administration using an Oracle database but I completed that back in 2003. I am thinking of doing the following certifications to improve my chances of getting in.

MCITP: Database Developer 2008

MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer 2008

What are the prospects of getting into a database role with very little experience? What sort of roles can I realistically go for? I realise I would have to start at the bottom but I feel that in the long run it would be something worth doing. Life’s too short to be doing something you don’t enjoy.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

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Typically they look for people with computer science degrees but with the proper certifications I don't think it will be too difficult or impossible to get into a junior position. Since you took some DB courses I'm assuming you know the fundamentals about databases so I would expect you to first start off by doing simple maintenance and database modification requests before you are allowed to design and architect. At some point in your career you'll want to become Oracle certified.

 

Hi,

As the other person said, its better to start as a junior developer.

Currently i am working as a Junior .Net Developer for a big company which has very small IT Setup. I work in VB.Net / Asp.Net / Oracle. Before i started my job, i used to hate oracle but now i really love it.

I have recently done OCA PL/SQL Certification on Oracle 9i track. There are very few companies in uk using Oracle database so there are very few junior level oracle jobs out there.

You can try the Postgraduate degree programe in Oracle run by Sheffield Halam University. You can study the complete course via distance learning. This might increase your chances of getting a Oracle Developer job.

I know one company in manchester looking for a junior oracle developer few weeks ago.