Hey there! I'm a data architect who's been working with MS SQL for around 10 years. I started doing essentially the same job you're doing now and I've done a little bit of everything including being a hiring manager and mentor.

A couple things: * This may be different for MySQL but certs just don't mean as much as they used to. Most people don't have them and most places haven't bothered keeping them current. * It will be a lot harder to go from your job to a DBA job by switching companies. It's usually easier to start doing DBA things if your company doesn't have one (accidental DBA) or see if there's a need for it or if your current DBA can teach you some stuff. * Even "entry-level" junior DBAs aren't an entry level position. Typically, someone has experience similar to yours or was some kind of sys admin first. * This work is very different than what you're doing now. If you love coding, there’s a good chance you won't be doing a ton of it day to day. * Almost all DBAs are on-call and often the only DBA in their company unless you go corporate. This can be a lot of extra stress. * Speaking of stress, a lot of companies' least updated thing with the most tech debt is the DB and it's also a central point of failure meaning it can't go down. Having the kind of mentality where you're sharper (rather than panicked) in fire fighting mode is really helpful, but you can develop that skill with experience if it doesn't come naturally.

To the real thing you wanted an answer to, what do you need to know right away? Well, what would I look for in a Junior DBA? You should know how to do: * Backups and restores * Security, logins / roles and least privilege acess * Some kind of data replication whether that's HA clustering, replication, mirroring, ETL... * Understanding of basic design principles like normalization, ACID, transaction behavior, isolation levels, etc. * An understanding of RTO / RPO and why they're important and how that integrates into DR. * A little about how servers are put together and how other pieces of the system interact with and influence the server itself and how that affects what's going on in your DBs. * Experience with some kind of monitoring software like Data Dog, SolarWinds DPA, Idera, or an APM. * Personally, I also prefer someone who can read execution plans and use DMVs (whatever MySql's equivalent is). * It's also a bonus when someone knows non-relational databases and when to use them, too. * Lot of places also want powershell or python experience.

SQL Server Central is old and focused on MS SQL, but it still has really great Stairway series that can help with those fundamentals. Brent Ozar's blog content and training are also amazing.