Just curious ...what kind of job functions do certified OCP ians do ? I am mid way through my certification and database administartion is just part of my routine tasks..amongst other gazillian technology related problems / oppertunities ( looking at the positive side).

I would like to start a thread to share some of the experiences we have.

My companyy background: Mid size, 50 people, US based, catering purely to IT. They are diversified in Software Development ( Some 15 Client Server Products, and 10 Web based Products , Government Contracts: Projects (Hosting Govt web sites etc ), Publishing ( Now its taking the shape of Epublishing).

Most of the new recruits, / or older experienced gurus perform Cross Matrixed job functions. That way we get to share experience and our learning curve is faster. ( Two heads are better than One....most of the times if the frequency matches and there are no competitive feelings..and if the goals are common)...its always a productive model.

To share my experience.. i started with customer support, QA , Testing , moved on Infrastructure management ( LAN, WAN, IT policies, Routers, Switches, Backups Recovery, databases, Disaster planning on multiple patforms..NT, 2000, Novell, Unix. ); Client Server development: Oracle, sybase, powebuilder,asp : Web development : Oracle 8i , perl, Java, pl/sql packages, Xml etc, project mangement, client handling

In between i did my MBA in information Technology. One of the things i got out of it was managing IT and the appreciation of alligning Business needs to technology requirements. Putting ROI, Project Managemnt, Organisational constraints, Cash flows, and basically the ability to see project viability.

The need to migrate and upgrade some clients to higher versions of oracle made me go for OCP certification. Cause there were lot of big mouths who could not put there money where their mouth was. Sure it was an ardous decision to study for OCP ( cause its no joke..if you are studying to implement real projects...then you go for the fundamentals and applicabality of what you study)..so far its been lot of fun..

Another aspect i'd like to share...no matter how much you know...its pretty much people managemnt. How you get the requirements, cater to client needs, developer, dba, qa, tester teamworks etc. [
Almost all projects / products have a life span. Technology is constantly evolving..political situations will always prevail, employee turnover is a known fact, how does one manouver....keep your thoughts coming....and good luck folks !!! Have fun..( and don't burn out....or if you have been ..share with us the been there , done that story.cause we have 9i, 11i, 20i, and god knows how many i's to come.

You can email me your thoughts on harpreet69@yahoo.com and of course on this wonderfull platform dbasupport