Potato,

First, Sybase certification is the absolute least valuable certification amongst RDBMS certs. Not to say that Sybase skills are useless...if you live in the NYC area you'll find plenty of Financial Services companies that run Sybase (but they also run Oracle and MS SQL Server too).

It kinda depends on your background in IT as well. But, without a doubt, the OCP cert is "the" most sought after RDBMS certification.

Since you have very little expereince, I would recommend starting with Oracle9i, as you will be able to obtain your OCA-level after the first 2 exams...and then OCP with just 2 more.

Everyone has their opinion as to what an employer would like to see (8i vs. 9i cert), but unless you already have considerable Oracle expereince, starting with 8i is not going to do much for you. Also, if you learn (and get certified) with 9i...you will know nearly everything you need for 8i as well. It wouldn't take too much to learn the differences that would enable you to successfully perform the basic or intermediate level DBA tasks that are most often performed.

Another thing...now that Oracle9i Release 2 is out, many more companies will be implementing "new" DB projects with 9i...so this could become an opportunity for someone with 9i over 8i cert!!