DB2, How I made the Leap....

So after working in IT for several years, both in Linux, and primarily in windows... I decided that I needed to specialize in a field. Tired of being the jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none, I made it a point while working with an Ohio Non-profit that I would try to specialize as a DBA. At that time I had some exposure to PostGre, MySQL, MSSQL, and DB2 version 8 for Windows.

"So, how do I start this?" I asked myself, well after leaving the non-profit and working at a small civil engineering firm, I decided to take a leap of faith and talk to a company I had interviewed with previously. They had mentioned a year earlier that there were some big changes coming down the IT pipeline; SAP integration, E-commerce website, Tivoli, just to name a few and they had a real shortage of talent. So I took the leap. I was offered a position as a DB2 DBA, for a restaurant supply company.

Great! Now where do I get information on DB2, I had only the basics, DB theory, and about 5 scattered years working both directly and indirectly supporting different database applications, and a very informative yet challenging stint where I upgraded a IBM content management server on windows from version 7 to version 8.3.

So I started reading, and reading and reading some more. I bought books at Amazon, checked out the library. What I learned, was interesting, to say the least. I came to the determination that DB2 was a dark art. DB2 was and is similar to learning how to hand make samurai swords (I saw a PBS special on this). So now after reading this you are probably asking "What the frack is this clown talking about?" Simple. You can read all the books in the world about DB2, but you will never have the expertise to be a seasoned VET in DB2 until you find a mentor. The documentation, books and materials for learning DB2 are really only a spark to get you started in the right direction, just a gentle nudge. In order to know DB2 you have to have disasters, learn from mistakes and hope you have a shoulder to lean on when you are just about to fall flat on your face.

Once you get a mentor, don't stop there. Find another mentor, because even though you have decide to specialize in DB2, there are specialties of the DB2 Master. Security, performance tuning, I/O, HADR, SAP, z/OS, installation and configuration, ETL, Data Studio... If you can do it in DB2, it most certainly can be specialized in. So, now this all sounds incredible overwhelming. DB2 Experts are like pokemon.... gotta catch them all! And if all the money you have budgeted for training only amounts to $3k-$5k... spend it on IDUG... I learned and networked at IDUG more in 1 week than in my whole career. This place is the place to rub elbows with the geniuses of the industry, and to find some DB2 Pokemon!