Who knew an aptitude test could recommend a career as a DBA—and get it right? In Episode 44 of Talking Postgres, PostgreSQL significant contributor Karen Jex walks Claire through her path from Oracle DBA to Postgres consultant, solution architect, and now senior software engineer at Snowflake. My favorite bits: a project switched to Postgres when nobody knew how to install it, faking it as the Postgres expert, and the culture shock of building your own HA and backups. Plus: the warm welcome at PGConf EU 2019 that pulled Karen into the Postgres community; the new Buddy Program at PGConf EU 2026; and moving to the French Alps for the love of mountain biking.

Previously on Talking Postgres:

Links mentioned in this episode:

In this episode, we covered:

00:00 Intro & music

01:55 Becoming a DBA completely by accident

05:46 "You're the database expert. You can figure it out."

12:37 Leaving Oracle, where everything comes bundled

17:23 From DBA to helping other DBAs

21:48 The PGDay France meeting that opened up the community

28:02 Why Django developers love Postgres

34:36 Stepping back to be close to home

43:54 "When I grow up, I want to be a DBA," said no one ever

51:42 How much should you delegate to AI agents?

59:22 Thirty five buddy pairings at PGConf EU

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