Re: Is a five day class really worth 2K for a newbie?

"TN" <tedne_at_w-link.net> wrote in message news:3974A7B1.3EF1_at_w-link.net...
> I realize that this kind of question doesn't lend itself to precise
> answers but opinions would be appreciated.
> I was checking out the Oracle website and they advertise a beginning
> 5-day class called Introduction to Oracle SQL etc., (41010) for $2,000.
> I have zero experience in DBA but I am comfortable with Boolean
> searching on Dialog and similar resources. And I do want to increase my
> skill set and marketability.
> So, does that seem like a good investment for a beginner?
> What about pressing on and getting those OCP pieces of paper on my wall
> and resume?
> Are there better alternatives?
>
> Again I apologize for the vagueness because I know in advance that any
> answer will have a lot of "It depends." I do want some opinions before I
> go over and get a sales talk from an Oracle rep.

I will probably be shot my my Oracle colleagues for saying this, but here goes for nothing: when you attend the core DBA courses (DBA, Backup and Recovery, Performance Tuning and Network Administration) it would certainly help if you understand SQL, but frankly it's not essential. The practices you do on those courses have the complete set of answers written in the course documentation, and if worst comes to worst, you can simply type them in blind.

By chapter 8 of the DBA course (there are 20 in all), the SQL they propose as answers to questions is so obscure that I would never in a million years be able to work it out from first principles. Provided you can read the proposed answers, think about them, and understand what they are trying to achieve and how they propose to achieve it, fine. You probably learn more *practical* SQL on the DBA course than you do on the SQL-specific courses, anyway.

So, my own personal recommendation would be, if you want to be a DBA, skip the SQL course. SQL skills will come with practice anyway.

On the other hand (isn't there always another hand!!?): if you want to achieve *certification* as a DBA, then the SQL course is going to be important. And if you want to get more involved in the development of triggers and procedures, the PL/SQL course is also important (I personally think that's what we have developers for, but there you go...).

Put it this way: I originally skipped the PL/SQL course, and there's a bit in the DBA course which is all about procedures, packages and triggers. It scared me witless the first few times I ran the DBA course, but in the end, did I feel less competent as a result of not doing the course? No. Would I want to sit the exams without having done the course -absolutely not. Which is why, in the end, I did.

As for certification being worthwhile? Well -I was an NT administrator for 3 years without an MSCP in sight. But it sure would have made job applications easier to have had the certification -employers rarely look beyond the pieces of paper when it comes to choosing for interview. If you can get to the interview itself, however, your certification becomes almost irrelevant: by then, it's a question of who you are, whether you'll fit in, whether you're committed to the organsiation's work ethic, and so on. In short, Oracle certification opens doors. After that, it's up to you and your personality, not a bunch of exam passes.

Regards
HJR
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Received on Sat Jul 29 2000 - 00:00:00 CDT