How much usefull certifiaction would be?

[rmajali]

I am Oracle DBA having experience of more than 4 years. I have worked on different Unix flavours like Sun Solaris, IBM AIX , Digital Unix and I very comfortable and well versed with Unix environment. Also worked on Oracle versions from 7x till 9i. With this back ground how much usefull OCP certifiaction would be?

[Tarry]

Depends...

If all you did basic administration tasks then a lot but if you've had a fire breathing dba exp. under your belt then it's not worth it.
Upgrades/new features are handy exams for exp dba's who have little time to try it all out.

[ocp9999]

I am also from that category of experienced DBA's and Developers. I spent $100*8 = $800 to get both these certifications. It was like 10 weeks of reading. Well, by now every thing has dissipated. But there are things like stored profiles etc. I never used before and came to know Oracle has those fancy features. Frankly, big applications we support written by many many developers, I really do not find much use of that .... we are not in a perfect world whhere business rules are well known and programmers do not mind sharing their code.

To make long story short, it did not increase my earning potential,
anyone with good memory can pass 60 questions w/o any hands on. It will be nice if DBA test is is test of UNIX and DBA as most Orcale databses are still on UNIX. The test lacks operating system flavor.
I really do not have interest to upgrade etc. I go with returns, if there are no gains I will better do a college degree that will mean something on my resume for ever and comapnies do value.

[grjohnson]

I found it particularly useful. I found it very interesting learning about features that I wouldn't have known about otherwise. Many people don't change jobs that often, and find themselves using the same Oracle features day in day out. Certification is a way to force learning of new Oracle features, which, if your like me, would otherwise go unnoticed. Clients are very happy when I can make recommendations of new Oracle features which benefits their business and saves them processing time and money.

I think it'd be very beneficial for you, especially since you already have four years exp. I had three when I did mine. It's very important to have prior experience in DBA work to get the most out of it.

Oh, It also increased my earning potential.... 27% increase after certification.

Cheers,

[Minesh]

Guys,

I completely agree with grjohnson remarks. Certification does make difference I am not sure about earning potential now a day’s but as far as knowledge concern I am sure it does help. I am currently working as PL/SQL developer/DBA since last three years and also pursuing OCP .I can defiantly say that I have gain reasonable amount of knowledge while preparing for exams.

Cheers

[Mr.Hanky]

I see both sides of the coin here. In a way it is a total waste of time and money. On the other hand it really forces you to learn (memorize) ALL of the features Oracle has to offer. That can come in handy as problems arise in the real world. You will never use all the features available but it good to be aware of them, just in case.

MH

[SANJAY_G]

Originally posted by grjohnson
Oh, It also increased my earning potential.... 27% increase after certification.

Cheers,

I envy you grjohnson. Shall I show this post to the damagement here ?

[Tarry]

Well Sanjay,
Then you'll hate me because OCP helped me get a job with an increased salary of 38.88%.(with a promise to only get more) Only I'll be in enemy camp(MSSQL), but the HOD was an ex-oracle dba so she(yep,and you all know how charming I'm with the girls)said pretty arrogantly("Well If you're an oracle dba, then you can do this as well..").

All said and done, Well the increase came because I'm the smart one(but you guys knew that all along... )

Cheers!

Tarry

[jovery]

My OCP didn't get me a rise like the very lucky grjohnson and self confessed lady's man Tarry

But my boss did make me a cup of tea, does that count?

[SANJAY_G]

Originally posted by Tarry
Well Sanjay,
Then you'll hate me because OCP helped me get a job with an increased salary of 38.88%.(with a promise to only get more) Only I'll be in enemy camp(MSSQL), but the HOD was an ex-oracle dba so she(yep,and you all know how charming I'm with the girls)said pretty arrogantly("Well If you're an oracle dba, then you can do this as well..").

All said and done, Well the increase came because I'm the smart one(but you guys knew that all along... )

Cheers!

Tarry

There.. there is the problem Tarry. Unfortunatly I don't have lady boss and neither my boss is a DBA