Copy pasted from a writing I have done in a chat. I haven't proofread the text.
our
American colleagues have Craigs List a website with a minimalist layout
on which people can post announces. France has a similar thing (though
the layout has really improved over time): Le BonCoin. Literally it
means "the good corner" , a corner meaning a good place to be at. So
think about it as an online garage sale on which you can find anything
I
had just started at the Wikimedia Foundation, the grand pinnacle of my
existence and went to intend an open source conference in Paris with a
few acquaintances from my home city (read: geeks drinking beers in an
underground coffee). I have just transitioned from a telco career to a
"software developer", so even if my few months tenure at the WMF was
enough to impressionate anyone, I kept a rather low profile since I was
really just a newbie (and still am).
So
the freshman developer I was got introduced to a way more senior
person. Well technically we are the exact same age, but he had an actual
degree in computer science and had done all of his career in a rather
niche field that nobody really want to have to ever have to deal with.
He was a senior DBA.
So
I am here working for that tiny little non profit has a junior dev
facing one THE dba of one of the biggest website in the France
ecosystem. I could not say much but I could definitely learn a bunch of
lessons.
How I knew he was a senior DBA? He gave me his visit card and upon reading his fancy title I asked back: "why are you senior?"
To
which he replied: "you had a computer since childhood, you have done a
ton of mistakes, probably lost your disk data entirely, had a computer
wiped in production, deployed on a late friday and ended up your work
week at 6 am on a Saturday as a result"
Me: "oh sure that is experience"
Him: "being a senior his having done enough mistakes that it is unlikely you will do mistake again"
