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Universities use a lot of OracleSQL (almost all of them), are generally very accepting of older workers and have a working environment that is friendly to aging workers. The salaries aren't excellent but the comfort is high.

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Funny enough, my time in university tech as a student said the same thing. I was going to say either that or state/federal.

Hello Banner my old friend to the tune of The Sound of Silence

State and federal tend to use MS SQL, but I guess some federal agencies have the budget for oracle

The difference would be irrelevant, based on OP’s description. She ought to be able to plug into literally any SQL dialect if she’s doing junior/mid-level analyst work.

I'm not sure that's correct. AFAIK, having deep Oracle knowledge is very valuable to the right employer, but not so much for non-Oracle shops.

From my experience ~20 years ago, Oracle and SQL Server were very different beasts.

IIRC, once you get past trivial querying and into storage design, query optimization, etc., they're very different beasts. And Oracle in particular is it's own, huge world at that level. (Again, if I recall correctly.)

Sure, and I think that would definitely be relevant to a different kind/level of analyst. Sounds like OP’s mom would be more than covered by knowing how to google “Postgres function for whatever”.

I think for most SQL-only analysts, the vagaries of deep Oracle vs. MSSQL or whatever aren’t super relevant.

My own impression is that she who can write PL/SQL can write T-SQL. My own background is largely in Oracle, but I've dealt with SQL Server a fair bit.

I work with both Oracle and SQL Server, and this is absolutely true. There is a common standard you can stick to, but there is also a considerable universe of Oracle-specific features even just in the query language, to say nothing of temp tables etc.

Her title is db admin and that’s the position she’s gunning for. They’re going to expect senior level skill beyond just creating queries.

“ She wants to find a place to be comfy and write some SQL scripts, analysis, and data modeling here and there, where she will be both happy and useful. Pay is not a priority.”

None of this suggests senior level skill to me, whatever title is associated with it, particularly given the three points OP listed that she pushed back on. This role is, at most, mid-level.

GP mentioned Banner. The company that sells Banner (which uses Oracle on the back-end), merged with another, so now also sells a product in the same space that uses MSSQL on the back-end. The product that uses Oracle is priced lower than the one that use MSSQL by approximately the difference in DB license costs, so the two products come out pretty similar for total cost (I've heard that this pricing scheme was intentional to prevent one product line from cannibalizing the other after the merger).

Of the three public higher ed institutions within a 100 mi redius of me, all are Oracle on the back-end, two Banner and one Peoplesoft.

To the OP, your mom can watch university and community college job boards and search for keywords like "Banner" and "Peoplesoft". Banner jobs will likely be either one of, or a combination of Oracle DBA and writing PL/SQL.

yeah I was an intern in the Federal government and all the praise made me realize I shouldnt be there

who cares if “people my age are usually are distracted by girls and sports” people with cognitive ability to co-prioritize those things are not here at all, they’re in New York City doing the stuff you guys try and fail to regulate after the fact

Definitely could see it for a chiller work life balance, especially if you can come in further in your career and get a great salary

Thanks for the tip! We haven't even considered that, and did not know that Oracle was widely used in universities. We'll definitely check that out.

Universities do not need any more career retirees. That Is how higher education has become mostly noise.

If they wanted different employees they could pay to attract “real” talent. But jobs that pay $130k in private industry pay $80k at Universities. Honestly the guys I work with are very good at creating stable, long-living solutions with minimal maintenance requirements. They're not ambitious but they’re careful to create solutions which don’t have technical debt.

Management OTOH often shove poor solutions down the pipe after meeting with vendors.

Seconding this comment; it was my exact thought while reading this post.

Ehh, public uni salaries are quite fine considering the vastly better health insurance and other benefits...

Huh? 3 weeks vacation, $3,000 deductible and $8,000 OOP max for a couple. Not particularly notable, and higher than most OOP maxes I've had at private companies.

I mean, sure I can go to some concerts for free at the music school and use the makerspaces but that really doesnt make up for the $50k+/year I’m leaving on the table.

I suppose your mileage may vary. The individual deductible at UW-Madison is $250, out of pocket limit is $1,250. You can also choose between 3 providers. Also, vacation benefits ramp up and are quite generous after you've been there for a while.

https://etf.wi.gov/insmedia/2023/23et-2112sb/download?inline...

Depends on the state. In New York, for example, the health benefits are awesome, but retirement for new employees, especially mid-career, are meh.

Other places are way worse. Devalued benefits and pensions funds that are unfunded.

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