Fear, Power, Loathing: Fringe Benefits of Being a DBA

One of the great benefits of being a DBA is that you can end up with COOL ‘code names.’

For example, back in my day as a Production DBA at Coldwater Creek, I was known as “The White Camel”.

Sounds powerful and mysterious no?

The Secret behind “The White Camel”
In Perl-Land, if you’re a White Camel, that means you’re a badass. I’d like to think I’m a badass too, but my the story behind my ‘code name’ is a bit more simplistic.

One day a CWC employee was trying to figure out what they’d need to do to gain access to a report or some data. So they asked a co-worker. The conversation went something like this:

Employee: Hey, what do I need to do to gain access to the such and such report?
Co-Worker: You’ll need to talk to Mike Campbell about that – he controls access to all that stuff.
Employee: Who the HELL is the White Camel?

Hard to imagine something funny like that not sticking.

Question is, if you’re a DBA, do you have a code name? Hmmmm?