Issue 9  May 18 2021

Technology moves at a faster pace than your job title.

Anyone working in the world of data is not doing the same job today than they were three years ago. Tools evolve, and hopefully so do your skills. In time, you transition into a new role, with a new title. But that takes time. In the meantime, you have a title that doesn't match your activities.

The easiest example of this is database administration (DBA). There are a lot of database platforms actively working towards automating away routine tasks. This does not mean that DBAs are being forced out of a job. I see the opposite. DBAs are able to transition their data skills into new areas such as development, data engineering, and even data science.

I don't just feel this way, I have some data for reference. Four years ago I posted an article to LinkedIn titled 'The Disappearing DBA'. This past week I decided to take a quick look and found how yet again the BLS predicts a 10% growth in DBA jobs through 2029.

Judging by the previous predictions versus actual job numbers, it is clear someone at the BLS is simply mailing it in at this point. In 2010 the BLS predicted there would be 145k DBA jobs in the US in 2020. Current 2019 estimates are roughly 132k DBA jobs. We are not going to see double digit growth in DBA jobs over the next ten years. The number of DBA jobs will hold steady, just as it has done for almost two decades.

This helps show how the traditional DBA role is evolving. Most DBAs are doing more than one job, just look at any bad job posting and you will understand.

Databases don't run themselves quite yet. But they are doing far more things these days, freeing up time for DBAs to be a part time data engineer, or developer, or data scientist.

As the technology changes, so must your skills. Every time you see an announcement of some new cloud or automation feature, you have a choice how to respond. You can be cynical and say "they won't ever replace me, because i'm a human that can think independently", or you can say "I'm a human that can think independently, let the machine do the boring stuff, let me work on something new."

The choice is yours. Eventually, your job title will match, only to find your role changing again.