Which major for DBA?

wil831

I'm wondering which major between Computer Science and Information Systems would qualify more to become a DBA. In my school's general catalog for undergraduate majors, it lists DBA as one of the possible career opportunity under the IS major but not under the CS. I've been switching between these two majors the past few semesters and decided to stick with IS but I'm hoping I made the right decision. So, anyone able to give some advice? thanks.

Weedpacket

Computer science is more a branch of mathematics, and computing for its own sake. If you were going to be desiging languages or compilers or operating systems or DBMSs or hardware architecture or similar stuff, then you'd be wanting the knowledge available in a computer science course.

As a DBA, though, you're only looking at the computer as an instrument for doing something else - your focus is on information administration.

It's like the difference between being the architect of a library, and being the head librarian.

Sxooter

I'd say to get a degree in something you find interesting. If you find accounting more interesting than math, then go for that. if you like calculus and designing things, then go for an enginerding degree (civil, mech, elect, all good).

Computer science is fine too, but honestly, the real mark of a dba is the mental discipline needed to tell your boss that they're compltely wrong, here's the riht way to do it, and have your boss thank you for pointing that out to them.

That's the kind of mindset that any good engineer has, since whether you're building a bridge or a database, failure is not an option.

csn

Hey Sxooter - I was just curious, do you have a degree in computer science (or something similar)?

csn

Oh, as for becoming a DBA, I think a degree in computer science is way overkill. If you're interested in solely becoming a DBA, there are certifications/certification (Oracle, MSSQL, ...) programs geared to performing a job as a DBA. But having a computer science degree should certainly qualify you to be a DBA as well as for a whole lot more.

Sxooter

Actually, I've got all but the last 20 or so credit hours of an EE degree. Didn't get to finish when my children got older and I had to get back to work to pay the bills. Who knows when i'll get to finish it.

Had to take three programming classes, thought they were just about the easiest thing I had to do, since I'd been programming for fun for 15 years by then.

Weedpacket

Originally posted by csn
But having a computer science degree should certainly qualify you to be a DBA as well as for a whole lot more.

Just be aware that you'll find yourself mentally reverse-engineering the DBMS 🙂

Ravenous

I'm graduating with a degree in Computer Science in one month. My opinion is this:

Neither degree is going to teach you how to be a database administrator. That you have to learn on your own. If you have a general interest in computing (ie all things computing), go for computer science. If you don't care about data structures, algorithms, how paging works, how programming languages are designed, what a Turing machine is or any other topic like this (basically you're content as a user and don't wanna know the gritty details), go for the degree in Information Systems.

As someone else pointed out, Computer Scientists design the computers and the Information Systems guys are the computing equivalent to plumbers. If you want to contribute to the world of computing.. Computer Science. If you want to plug everyone else's work in and use it.. Information Systems.

Note:
As I said, I'm about to graduate with a degree in computer science. I'm a bit biased and have no malice towards IS guys. 🙂