Let me start this by saying that I am one of the lucky few. For me the OCP was my ticket into the database department at my company. I went from the help desk (yuk!) supporting proprietary applications to the DB department. I had to go to school on my own time and my own dime and complete the OCP. After that it took quite a few months of networking and persistence to land the "Monkey Boy" job. I love that phrase and it is true, I am the DBA gopher and am thankful for that. Although now I do officially have my own DB's to look after (woo hoo!) it is really nice to have a few seniors to bounce ideas off before I drop the system tablespace.

So, there is my example of why OCP is important. Just keep in mind that from what I hear this is not the norm and it took a lot of work to get here. Now the "real" work begins.
MH