Certified DBA and So What?

Hi, 27th June 2001 14:08 hrs chennai

I am happy to share today i have cleared my Sun certified System Administrator for Solaris 7 part 2 Exam today.

With that i have become a certified Sun System Administrator.

Even though i have not honestly worked much on DBA role on sun solaris o/s surely my recent knowledge on it will help me to move in to this area.I have practiced much on for the exam.

I have not come to convey here the certification justification against Experience (exp is always exp nothing to substitute it)but certification really help to build up or shape up for beginers with job break through , for some promotion for some sal hike for some nothing (except pride) for me confidence to move ahead and to take Solaris Network Administration shortly.

I am happy to say that this site(DBAsupport.com) has really helped to shape up myself clear OCP DBA a few months back.The knowledge sharing and reading many articles helped me much.

I also missed very much this forum in the past few weeks due to this certifications .

If anyone interested to write exams on Solaris i can contribute with all the information i have with me which can Gurantee you 100% success.Mail me at [email protected] or else i will send the same informations to this site.

Cheers

Padmam

OCP cert. compliments, it does not replace practical, on the job experience. But I understand the sentiments of aspiring Oracle DBA's coming from a different field without experience (Developers, MSCEs, Unix Sys Admins, TacoBell employees, Nuclear Physicists, Janitors, you name it. hehe). They view OCP cert. as their ticket to DBA-land. Get the Cert. and try looking for an entry level position. goodluck!

I agree with the_Slob, but would like to add that there is no easy way to break into the field working with Oracle. Suppose you aspire to become an NT administrator. Many people see the A+ exam as a way to break into networking. While doing desktop support, you work on the McSE. Compared to Microsoft networking, I doubt that an employer would look at an applicant who wants to break into the database field with only one OCP test passed.

Learning TCP/IP is a lot easier than learning how to program PL/SQL. Programming is harder than networking, which is why there are more McSEs and CCNAs than OCPs and Microsoft Sql server DBAs. The learning curve for Oracle is therefore a lot steeper. Having passed several OCP tests at least reassures an employer that you will quickly learn how to apply the OCP knowledge to do your job in the real world. If I already had at least two years of practical experience, I would not bother with certification!

By the way, any links to good STS practice tests would be appreciated.



Just ask around, and you will find that many McSE certified people are fleeing from the Microsoft borg....


>>Would you like fries with that McSE?<<

Hi,

I have been a system administrator and Oracle DBA for 5 years working in a bank and a software company. I was not OCP certified till now and I am in the verge of completing one.

I personally feel that experience is what the employers prefer first and OCP confirms that the experience is not just only in paper but a fact and an added advantage.

Thanks

murali,

Were you a network admin *before* jumping into Oracle? How were you able to do this? Did you have to become a developer first?

Hindenburg

I've been a DBA for amost 3 years and I'm almost finished with my OCP exams. In my case, prior to becoming a DBA I had extensive C/C++/Perl programming experience, I had experience with other dbms (MS SQL Server, MySQL, MS ACCESS and Foxpro/Foxbase/Dbase III+), and I was currently employed as a Unix SysAdmin at that time. So I had a pretty strong IT background. When my company went looking for a Junior Oracle DBA, I volunteered and applied for the Job. My boss was aware of my previous experience and was pretty much impress by my performance so I was hired as Junior Oracle DBA.

Hey TheSlob,

It would be interesting to learn why you wanted to move away from being a Unix admin to an Oracle DBA. I know that PL/SQL is easier to work with than PERL or C.....

I guess you have to spend time as a developer before becoming a DBA. I heard that an IT department only has one or two DBA positions vs. dozens of developer positions. Is this why entry level DBA jobs do not exist?

[Edited by Hindenburg on 07-05-2001 at 05:34 PM]

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Hindenburg


> Hey TheSlob,
> It would be interesting to learn why you wanted to move
> away from being a Unix admin to an Oracle DBA. I know
> that PL/SQL is easier to work with than PERL or C.....

I started programming in the early 80s (Fortran, PL/1, Assembler). I was an Oracle developer before a became an Oracle DBA. I think that PL/SQL is sort of easy to make some simple PL/SQL functions and procedures but only after I read carefully 'Advanced PL/SQL Programming' by Scott Urman I dared to claim that I know PL/SQL. I still learn all the time PL/SQL although I scored almost 100% on the OCP exam. I takes a lot of expereience and learning before one can claim "PL/SQL is easy".

> I guess you have to spend some time as a developer
> before becoming a (good) DBA.

This should be right path.

> I heard that an IT department only has one or two DBA
> positions vs. dozens of developer positions. Is this why
> entry level DBA jobs do not exist?

Well, they do exits but of course more developers are needed than DBAs. But recently DBAs (me in particular) do a lot of other stuff: PL/SQL, Reports, Forms...

I am very interested in tuning Oracle. I would be glad to exchange some thoughts on performance tuning with some of you guys.

[Edited by Hindenburg on 07-05-2001 at 05:34 PM]

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Ok I admit, I wanted to be an Oracle DBA coz of the money (arent' we all? hehe). With regards to the number of DBA's in an IT dept. It depends on the size of your company. The company i work for is a medium sized company. We have 11 Unix Sysadmins, 4 developers and 4 DBAs, and others (IT managers, cisco network engrs.,etc) god knows how many they are..hehe. PL/SQL is easy compared to C or C++ but i admit i still dont consider myself a PL/SQL guru. I believe that My overall IT experience, especially with programming and other DBMS was helpful in my selection. Plus ofcourse you have to kiss your boss' ass once in a while..hehhe...Try one of this lines.."Wow you're losing weight, you look great!" or...."I followed what you told me and everything worked great!! Thank god you're here..."..heheh i'm sure you'll come up with your own lines..GoodLuck!

This is a very old and very tiresome debate. The "gurus" are going to say that OCP is worthless. The "OCPers" are going to say it's not. As a DBA who is currently working through the OCP 1st because I want to and 2nd because I have to (employer is requiring it), my experience is this:

There is so little formal training available for a "reasonable" price that the only testing mechanism is the OCP exam. If you are wanting to become a DBA and want even the slightest possibility even being let near a production system, you need to have some idea of what you are doing. That affirmation comes from testing, ie - OCP exam. You can also get that affirmation by trial and error (which I'm betting is how most "gurus" got where they are) but really, how many sane employers are going to let one of these people around their systems? Not mine!

OCP by itself, IS worthless. I know first hand that what I knew in the exam room and what I knew in the server room were COMPLETELY different! WAKE UP, OCPers! You aren't in Oracle class anymore! You MUST have the applicable experience to go along with this "vast" knowledge one expect to achieve by studying so diligently for an OCP exam. I learned this the hard way.

But for ANYONE calling or considering themselves a "guru" in Oracle stating that OCP is not worth the paper it's printed on is about as ignorant as expecting the rediculously high salaries once you complete the OCP. For most of us, the OCP IS our education. Once the "gurus" get that through their thick skulls, and the OCPers get the clue that it's not as easy as passing 5 stupid exams, this debate will FINALLY be over. Here's hoping that day comes soon.

Kevin