Re: Is there a shortage of postgresql skilled ops people

On Tue, 2007-03-27 at 08:54, Marc Evans wrote:
> Hello -
>
> Over the past couple of years I have made use of postgresql as my database
> of choice when developing new software. During that time, my clients have
> in multiple cases eventually come back to me and requested a re-targeting
> to "Any database that we (my client) can find skilled ops staff to
> support." In a most recent case, professional recruiters were employed to
> try to find such people. The search was disappointing at best.
>
> My question for this community is, what do enterprises that you deploy
> postgresql within do for skilled operations staffing? I can understand
> trying to convert a mysql or Oracle person to work on postgresql, but it
> would be very helpful to have a potential talent pool to draw from that
> was similar to those others. Finding people with HA, scaling and
> performance tuning knowledge is something that seems impossible to find
> except in people wanting to be developers.
>
> The sad reality from what I have observed is that unless more people gain
> those skills and want to work in ops, it's becoming very hard for me to
> justify recommending postgresql for enterprise (or larger) scale projects.
>
> What do others do and/or experience?

I got my current job when a recruiter was scouring the pgsql mailing
lists and emailed me asking me if I was interested in working said
company.

I guess that's one way to look for pgsql people. She just happened to
catch me right after my last company had decided to switch to Windows
and I'd decided to take a severance package and a short vacation.

I know at least three other people who would make damned good pgsql
admins, but who aren't necessarily looking for that job right now. I'm
sure most other pgsql users are in the same boat.