RE: the ora certified masters cert - finally bloody sick

I kind of regret perpetuating this thread now. It should have died gracefully on Wednesday really.
You seem to have a quiet year ahead of you Don. Plenty of time left for hoop-jumping =)

Unfortunately it now seems to be an even heavier financial undertaking than it used to be. It brings it home to you when people are talking about blowing their 'boat budgets' and suchlike. Rather than imposing mandatory course attendance it may have been an idea for Oracle to actually make the exams harder to encourage people to attend courses voluntarily and to increase the number of failures/retakes. Also it would have helped the image of the OCP program.
They've just strengthened the evidence (if that were needed) of OCP being simply a useful revenue stream.

Never mind,

I'll call it; this thread has gone. Time is now 12:16GMT.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
Sent: 28 June 2002 12:08
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

• I swear this will be my last post on the issue.

If I've offended anyone, they have my most sincere appology. However, I think you have interpreted this wrong. I have never said or implied, nor do I remember seeing anyone else say, that anyone with an OCP is trying to cover up for some deficiency. In the post that you replied to, I said "a few... that waved their OCP around like it was a Nobel prize". These (two) people were - quite obviously. The vast majority of OCPs I've known, including many on this list, are not like that at all. Many got it because it is now a market necessity. Some got it to get an entry-level DBA position. A few that I know got it just to see if they could pass all the exams without any preparation.

My problem is not with people who have it, it is with the marketing and hype that has made it mandatory - regardless of level of exerience or anything else. And also with Oracle's most recent greedy exploitation of the situation they created.

Will I get it? Probably. (I don't want to be the only one left without it and it looks like Kirti's gonna go for it now. ;-)

I've been lucky that my last two jobs I got because someone I had worked with previously called me (a VP and a CTO). However, when and if I have to go looking again, I'll likely need it just to clear the HR checklist hurdle and land an interview. (Unless I get lucky again).

Lets see... What do I need to do in the next few months... Finish building and testing a Linux 9i RAC system, set up new software for the MML on every server and migrate all the backups it and a new tape library, diagnose and redesign | tune significant parts of a custom in-house application, move two other internal Oracle systems to bigger servers, spend a couple of weeks reviewing and hardening a client's nine exclusive Oracle8i systems in Chicago and one 8i OPS system in Texas (all but one using literally every option Oracle offers in 8i, including iFS - which I haven't yet had time/motivation to learn), do a security and architectural assessment of a prototype 8i system that another client wants to install in *thousands* of retail locations around the world, do the standard "only DBA in a shop full of developers" development support and production thing, work with the CTO and VP on developing a disaster recovery plan, *perhaps* write a white paper
(or two) and a presentation (or two) for OOW 2002, and, oh yeah, ... study
for and take about six essentially entry-level DBA exams before Oracle ups the ante again. Sorry, but if I had a choice, I'd rather sleep occassionally instead. I don't really need any more flaming hoops to jump through. I imagine there are a lot of people like me out there who feel the same way.

Don Granaman
[OraSaurus]  

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