[thelist] Must a webmaster know databases???

[Sean German]

Howdy,

While I concur with the general consensus that you are not in danger of
knowing too much about too many things, there may some other issues at play
here.

If your boss say Access programming, Cold Fusion, and needle point are part
of your job description, then Access programming, Cold Fusion, and needle
point are likely part of your job description.  Of course that may lead you
to reassess whether you want that job or that boss, especially if that job
description includes anything illegal, unethical, unhealthy, or boring.

There is also the question of just how utilized are you during your work
hours.  Are you just so busy with other duties that you have no place for
database design and programming without regard to your knowledge of that
area?  If you have the time and energy, I certainly recommend getting into
all that db goodness.  However if your boss's goal is to overload your
already full plate to save the cost of someone dedicated to database work, I
would beware.

This came to my mind because of the mapquest situation.  Unless you are a
mapping company, or mapping is so central to what your company does that a
custom solution is necessary --eg you're UPS, and maps and solutions to
traveling salesman problems are vital to basic business functions --that is
probably a great example of when not to reinvent the wheel.

I just came from a company where I was network admin, dba, webmaster, and
exchange guy, when I wasn't working on development or QA.  That was a great
situation where I got to learn lots of new stuff, and for most of the time
the company was small enough that I could keep all those bases covered.  But
as the company grew, it became obvious (at least to me) that situation
wasn't working.

If I was at a large company being well paid, I might have thought, 'as long
as the bosses don't mind when I have to cut corners because I'm spread so
thin, and I keep getting to learn new things, this is good.'  Unfortunately
I was at a small company being paid very poorly.  At first I accepted the
low pay with expectations of future returns when the company hit the big
time, but one day I realized we weren't going to the big time as long as IS
resources (ie me!) were spread so thin.

So, I think there are two issues here.  First, taste as many pies as you
can; you never know when you might find something you really enjoy.  But at
the same time, keep an eye on how your bosses are allocating resources, and
how that is going to affect the future of your position.

just MHO,

Sean