Here's how you can set goals and objectives effectively as a database administrator.

Understanding technology basic is the key for a strong foundation of career. Instead of learning many technologies at the beginning, Would suggest to concentrate on single technology and get your foundation strong. Like in RDBMS, DBA must work on basic understanding on database, architecture, designing and implementation, how SQL queries works internally and related execution plans, understanding on DMVs & DMLs, tables and indexes , how backup and restore works along with performance bottlenecks. Topics are endless in RDBMS and it takes ample amount of time for a DBA to get rid over them. Most importantly, you must have a learning attitude. Once your foundation is clear, you can think upon learning new technology. Set your goal accordingly.

Since you know your DB environment very well with your experience. You must start working to resolve issues permanently. Prioritize your issues, segregate them as per business criticality and make a plan. May be long hanging fruits can be resolved immediately and these issues can resolved by your L1 or L2 DBAs. Being a senior DBA, you concentrate on high to critical issues and work upon them.

Every goal must accompany with metrics to assess the goal and if required take an immediate action. If you are having frequent data breaches then your environment is having critical flaw and you need to act upon it urgently along with your developer or application owner or vendor and with your infra team.

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: Technology is changing every hour and every day. If we stop updating, one day we will be eliminated. 𝗨𝗽𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 & 𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀. Besides the hard skills, we also need to upgrade our soft skills and connections. 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸. Practical experience is invaluable. Collaborate on team projects to apply your skills and gain real-world insights. 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀. If connect with experienced professionals to learn from their expertise and improve your skills.