Modern databases require a high level of skill and knowledge to be adequately supported. See if you can interview the database administrators in three or four local organizations which use contemporary database systems:

a. Describe the systems which are managed by the database administrators you interviewed.

b. On average, how much experience and training did they have in information technology before becoming database administrators?

c. On average, how much time do they spend in training, formal or informal, per year keeping their skills current? Do they feel they receive enough training?

d. Compute the average cost of annual training per database administrator. Include both direct costs for training and indirect “lost opportunity” costs. If actual costs are not known, use a direct training cost of $500/day and average DBA salary and benefits of $75 per hour.