Re: for those who don't read my blog (tsk tsk!)
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:01:40 -0400
Message-ID: <CAE-dsOLKZ-Tvy2w7LLMrJad8+RmU4=08mukB06Q-RTSuuG1O_w_at_mail.gmail.com>
I don't think the OCP has any value in the marketplace in the US. The only companies that want OCPs are low paying sub-contractors looking for buzzwords. The same seems to be true for the Certified Master. The only time I see a company looking for an OCM it is a sub-contractor that googled buzzwords. To make matters worse Oracle sells the word for word questions and answers. The practice tests are the real questions. Virtually all vendors do this. There is atleast one company out there where you can sign up for $100 to get a life time membership. It gives you word for word questions and answers to all questions on virtually all certification tests. As long as vendors sell the word for word questions and answers certification will be completely useless. However, why would they stop? They make money selling the tests.
The OCP is also very expensive if you have to get it now. I got certified back on Oracle 8i, however, today you have to take a $3000 class. To make matters worse, the books from Oracle press for the upgrade exams are loaded with errors and are missing information from the actual test. I stopped upgrading after 9i. It is not worth the hassle. If the OCP becomes entrenched that is a major expense for people to make. Most companies in the US do not pay for any training at all. This is especially true in the slow economy. Plus you would have to use your vacation time or (if you are a contractor), go without being paid for a week to attend the class. Then buy the books, memorize alot of information that is not important and that you will forget later on just to get or keep your job. The company I work for now strongly encourages us to certified (it is part of our evaluations for raises), but they do not provide any money for expenses. None of the DBAs are working on certifications. The company argues that it helps them make sales since they can go "look at all of our certified people". I got this position a few months ago. I was inteviewed by the DBA team. Certification was not mentioned in the job ad and no one even mentioned it during the interview. This push is strictly from corporate.
To make matters worse, you have alot of for profit training companies taking advantage of desperate people. They offer technical certifications to people who have no technical background whatsoever. These people don't even get interviews. The classes are very expensive, and the people who take them often do not have alot of money and many are desperate for work. These companies do not do any market research and throw out big numbers using words like "DBAs can make up to" so much money. How often are their advertisements for entry level oracle DBAs? It is very rare. You may have one at your company, but overall it is very rare. Most DBAs started out as programmers or something else technical and moved over or have been DBAs for 20 years and got into it early on.
-- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-lReceived on Tue Sep 13 2011 - 11:01:40 CDT