While, indeed , there's a lot of ppl who are so called paper certify. Disregard is Microsoft, Oracle or others.

Some of them can even took all the exams, by reading third party guides or dumps to get themselves to certify.And,never go through the practise or labs on how to use the product.

when, they apply for the jobs, they told the employer they know the stuffs. But, in the end, they can't work it out. Even for basic admin, tuning ,maintenance or others.

This certainly will lower down the values of the certs. I mean everyone have their own goals or motive to acheive. It's all up to individual. To know, what they wants.

Okie, if you are certify for Oracle. Everyday, you spend 2 hours or more to practise all the labs or simulation. Reading articles from Oracle Magazine, forums and books. And, you are able to go around without any problem, doing the administration, tunining, maintenance on the database.Become so confidence, you are able to manage the database. Go ahead and apply the DBA jobs. Why bother to wait.

When, ppl are born into this world, they came with nothing, we can't expect everyone know everything. we have to pick up knowledges, when, times comes by. I believe those ppl who work with database or others field. They started from scratch, slowly climb up their career path.

For my case, look at my certs, i hold quite no of them. Some ppl in this forum, dun even bother to check my background, what am i doing, if i face a problem, i posted a thread, they straight away tell you off. I am paper certified. I mean, we have to tactful in the sense of answering ppl questions and help them if we are able to. Not to bash ppl up for nothing. I would told them,if i am so called paper certify, we will post a problem, if we know the products, how fast, what kind of solutions are we going to apply, to solve this problem. They just disappear.

To mean, the way, i put in, might sound foolish or childish. We are working professional adults, why resort in this manner.

Most important,if you are really keen on taking up a Oracle DBA jobs, try to learn as much as possible, talk to ppl who are working with Oracle, learn from them. But, only learn from those, who are willigly to impart their skills to you. Dun bother those guys who keep talking nonsense and not willigly to help. Practise the Oracle till your test server crash or screw up. And solve it by yourself, if possible.

How to define a expert. An expert might not be a guru . Is a person who are able to find answers in the shortest time and solve it. Of course, they also must equip with good knowledges.

My advice, get certify, learn all the examples from the books, practise as hard as you can, seek advice from ppl, read as much books if possible. I believe you can find your own world in this DBA roles.

All the best to you.

Cheers!!!