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Re: My experiences breaking into the business

From: Marc Levesque <Levesque5556_at_rogers.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 02:11:09 GMT
Message-ID: <1jEb8.220$5L.152@news1.bloor.is>


I am impressed. Very good advice. Have been in the database business for many years, and find you have very good insight.

"RKG" <rkg100_at_erols.com> wrote in message news:a4ltll$i4g$1_at_bob.news.rcn.net...
> I have been in the business about 18 months and I live in Northern
Virginia.
> This is one of the biggest Oracle Markets in the world. It was a long
hall.
> I do not have a CIS or an MIS. All I had was a class in Oracle
Development.
> It was a good class, but they were not honest about how difficult it was
to
> get into the business.
>
> It took me 4,000 resumes around the whole country to get my first job and
I
> hated it. I was not treated well at all. I then landed a full development
> life cycle job working on a terrific project at GRCI... however, the
client
> dragged its feet and we did not get our funding continued... Now Im on a
> maintenance job/ new development using Web forms and UNIX.
>
> Here are some of my opinions.
>
> 1. The economy is really weak. Unless you have a security clearance or
have
> fundamental functional knowledge in one of the Oracle
> Applications(Financial, HR, Manufacturing) it is VERY, VERY tight for
junior
> people.
>
> 2. Most people who come out of class and school are absolutely and
> completely incompetent. They know absolutely nothing and are worthless. So
> for those of us who do know something, its tough to prove it.
>
> 3. Most people in this business, regardless of experience should be
bagging
> groceries. I have been doing this for 18 months and I work with people
that
> have up to 7 years with forms and 30+ years programming and I am hands
down
> the best one on the team. I have met people with senior level experience
> that cannot even write a package, have horrible debugging concepts, and
> never read the literature and learn new things. So once you get some
> experience, it does not take much at all to be amongst the best people out
> there. Hard part is getting in the door. Im not any smarter than anyone
> else. I just read the documentation, books, white papers, message boards
and
> I try to figure exactly what Oracle is doing when I do this(this is
> essential for bug fixing).
>
> 4. DBA's can often make the switch back to developer, however, DBA's make
> more money in the long run than straight developers. The good thing about
a
> DBA is they have a fundamental understanding of how an RDBMS works. How to
> tune queries, how the SGA works, etc... Very few developers know this.
> Problem with Informix is getting PL/SQL experience. However, PL/SQL is a
> VERY forgiving language and very easy to use if you know other languages.
>
> 5. Some things that might help. OCP definitely helps some. Experience is
#1,
> but many companies, especially ones with government clients, like to see
it.
> Also, you can make BIG BUCKS as an Oracle Instructor and you have to be
> certified to get those jobs(Anteon suposedly pays instructors $200/hour).
I
> also recommend publishing. Im going to try my hand in that in the next few
> months. Ive been told that that is huge in terms of dollars and
opportunity.
> You dont have to come up with anything revolutionary, just read what is
out
> there...
>
> 6. Id say stick with your job for now and start looking when the economy
> picks up. Get as much free training as possible and put it on your resume.
> Often times, if a DBA desires it, they can help with development. Try to
do
> this. I know its not Oracle and not PL/SQL, but its not that bad.
Hopefully,
> the economy will pick up by the end of the year. You can get all the major
> developer software from Oracle for $40 or so. Get it and do it at home.
> Build your own application. Just use the demo or scott/tiger schema or
> extract some tables and data from work and do it in Oracle. The Oracle
demo
> has some really neat stuff in it that most people dont know. You can
> download the demo from OTN.
>
> 7. Good books that I recommend... Tom Kyte(Oracle Expert One on One),
Dorsey
> and Koetzke(Advanced Forms and Reports), Fuerstein(Advanced PL/SQL
> Programming with Packages).
> Try to have a fundamental understand of Forms(see the interview questions
in
> the back of the Dorsey book), reports is not that imporant, try to pick up
> Designer to a lesser degree as a developer. Designer is a big and complex
> tool. Alot of the cooler projects use it though so learn how to Generate
> Forms and use the Table API(most designer books suck, so look for the
> thinnest one).
>
> 8. Ask tons of questions on OTN, ODTUG, and here. Read the Oracle
> Documentation. There is ALOT of stuff in there that most people dont know.
> Id say that 2/3s of all developers dont realize how much bind variables
> improve performs and/or why it does this. Learn how to tune a query using
an
> explain plan and the Oracle optimizer(good interviewers love that), learn
> about Updateable Views and Instead of Triggers(this is not complicated,
but
> VERY useful and very few developers know that they even exist.. see the
> explanation in the Dorsey book). There is also some good free stuff in
> Oracle Professional(I forgot the link.. its an online newsletter). Go to
> revealnet.com and read the pipeline.
>
> 9. Also, learn how to use libraries and why they are important(I know guys
> with 10 years in who cant do this and its pretty easy). I try to pick up
1-2
> tidbits a day and improve my skills a little at a time.
>
> 10. Im putting all this in here because you are a DBA. I have alot of
> respect for good DBAs and if you have a fundamental understanding of the
> database, development is much easier. Just bide your time, when the
economy
> picks up you can move back over.
>
> Ryan Gaffuri
> Staff Consultant
> Bloodworth Integrated Technology
>
>
> "Samantha" <samanthakaya_at_hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:7bd5ec56.0202120808.24869084_at_posting.google.com...
> > Hey everyone...I wasn't sure where to post this so I am trying my
> > question here. I graduated in the fall of 2000 with an MIS degree.
> > Unlike many of the other graduates I knew what kind of job that I
> > wanted. I wanted to be an Oracle Developer. Problem is finding a job.
> > Since graduation I had a job as an Oracle DBA for a really small
> > company that collapsed and now I'm an Informix DBA for a company that
> > saw something in me. Problem is I'm not enjoying the DBA side of
> > databases. So I've come here for your advice. I'm considering either a
> > career move to law or to finish up my OCP and try to find a job as an
> > Oracle Developer. Will having an OCP prove to employers that I know my
> > stuff. It seems like they want experience but I can't get experience
> > if I don't have a job doing that. The only experience I have are
> > projects that I worked on for classes. As you all can tell I'm very
> > confused. I really need to know what you all love and hate about being
> > an Oracle Developer. Also I know salaries vary depending on experience
> > and location but what kind of salaries have you noticed going for an
> > Oracle Developer position. Any help would be appreciated.
> >
> > -Samantha
>
>
Received on Sat Feb 16 2002 - 20:11:09 CST

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