Eddie Teaches IT
Career Path Tool

Database Administrator Career Overview

Sample Job Titles

• Database Administrator
• SQL Server Administrator
• Oracle or MySQL Administrator
• SQL Programmer
• Crystal Reports / SSRS Report Designer

Typical Salary

• $70,000-140,000 ($35-70 per hour)

Typical time and cost to complete training

• 12 months
• $12,000

Eddie Teaches IT Courses Needed to Complete Training for this Position

IT & Cybersecurity Foundations: Software and Security

Cybersecurity in Depth

Data and Databases

(click/tap course to view details)

Job Description

Database Administrators, or DBAs, are responsible for organizing, storing, and securing a company's data in databases. This can include employee and payroll data, customer records, and data generated from sales. DBAs make sure data is stored in an efficient manner, and that the data is available to the employees, customers, or applications that need it.

Tasks can include creating and managing database users, managing database permissions and other security features, optimizing database performance, backing up the data, creating new databases, and making sure data is valid. Some programming may be helpful. SQL is especially important so the DBA can read from and write to the database.

Getting a Job

DBAs often have a college degree in Computer Science or a related field. Although the industry needs more DBAs, getting a job as one can still be difficult since these are not usually entry level and since a great deal of trust is placed in the DBA. To become a first time DBA, an employee would probably want to first join an organization that has the potential for a promotion and then would have to get the promotion. Once a DBA has experience, it would be possible to jump into the role at another company. That still requires a great deal of trust in the DBA.

Getting a Promotion

DBAs already have a higher level job. If they are looking for a promotion even higher, they have an advantage because of their in-depth knowledge of a company's data and information.