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:

• Talking Postgres podcast Ep39: From MemSQL to HorizonDB, an engineer's journey with Adam Prout
• Talking Postgres podcast Ep42: How AI is changing software development with Simon Willison

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Conference: PGConf.EU 2026 in Valencia on 20-23 Oct
• Save the date for: POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2027, happening 30 & 31 March 2027
• Two days this time: FOSDEM PGDay 2027, happening 28 & 29 Jan 2027
• Conference: PGConf.dev 2027 in Montréal
• Conference: PG Day France
• Conference: PGConf India 2027, on 2-5 March 2027
• Conference: EuroPython 2026
• PGConf.EU conference talk: Tuning Postgres for Analytics, by Karen Jex
• DjangoCon Europe 2024 keynote: When I Grow Up I Want to be a Database Administrator, by Karen Jex
• POSETTE speaker page: Karen Jex, with videos of her talks
• PGConf.EU 2023 talk: Elephant in a nutshell - Navigating the Postgres community 101, by Valeria Kaplan
• FOSDEM 2020 talk slides: Fibonacci Spirals and 21 Ways to Contribute to Postgres—Beyond Code, by Claire Giordano
• PostgreSQL.org: Contributor Profiles
• PostgreSQL Europe: PostgreSQL Europe board
• PostgreSQL docs: PostgreSQL 19 release notes
• Voice dictation: Wispr Flow
• Voice dictation: FluidVoice

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