The evolution of DBA's

DBA's become DBA's typically for one of three reasons

They start off as developers forced to learn Oracle by their employer
They start off as developers who gain a passion for it
They start off as developers and become a DBA by accident

It doesn't really matter how people become DBA's. It is the evolution of an IT Oracle department AFTER someone becomes the DBA that is always amusing. Typically it runs along the lines of:

Month 1	Developer told/asks/gets lucky and becomes a DBA
Months 2-12	Developer realises just how much to be learned about admin and sets about learning as much as possible about Oracle
Months 12-24	Fledgling DBA is regularly setting up databases but is shocked when he/she finds out that people are running bigger db's on less hardware, and thus embarks on learning as much about tuning Oracle as possible
Month 24	DBA now knows more about Oracle and successful development on Oracle than anyone else in the organisation
Months 25	Management realises that DBA is no longer a developer and relocates DBA to the support team - after all, what benefit to developers could a DBA possibly be
Months 26-	Management wonders why quality of Oracle development has gone to the dogs...

Moral of the story

Whether they chose to become one or not, the DBA will know more about Oracle than anyone else in your organisation. When planning your seating layout, arrange your development teams in a circle and sit your DBA right smack bang in the middle of it. Developers should be sucking hints, tips and QA out of the DBA with such voracity that he/she goes home with a hollow head each night. (Don't visualise this - its not pretty). If your DBA is one of those people that likes to sit in a dark room and say nothing to anyone, then its time for a new one