Hello,

I have been 7x Certified and used my bench time since my contract ended to upgrade to 8x but was far too busy interviewing to make the final hop to 9x.

Here is my assessment of the job hunt for Oracle DBA's. Certification seems to be worthwhile as I was picked out of 500 resumes for my new job. My contract ended on Dec 23rd and I have been all action without traction ( unless I wanted to live in New Jersey ) until now. I had two job offers yesterday and took my favorite pick. I did not attempt to play one off the other for a sweeter deal. Its very slow out there and I think 2003 is not the year for counter offers. The 2nd one was telling me to go ahead and ask for more, now that I had an offer in hand the 'shoe was definitely on the other foot' he said. But it was not my first choice and any package improvement could not change how I felt about the location so I considered their 2nd offer for a short while just to give it the attention it was due.

Despite spending an enormous amount of time interviewing and preparing for interviews the hire cycle is mind-numbingly slow. Further I suspect some companies never intend to actually fill a position, its free consulting for them to bring people in and ask them for ideas on solving their toughest problems.

If your not thrilled with your job right now I would recommend 'tolerance' until next year.

14% of IT workers are on the bench.
33% with jobs said this year they intend to find a better job with less overtime.

So if you quit you will be competing with 47% of the people in your line of work. Companies can afford to be incredibly picky, its like being at a an all-you-can-eat buffet and not being particularly hungry - your going to look everything over pretty good before you make your decision.

B