Re: Oracle Certification

lark wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> first off, I apologize if i am posting to the wrong group.
> can anyone of you help me find a a decent bootcamp or training camp
> provider for oracle dba type of training?

You are not in the wrong group.

However, you will get a number of very stupid answers. For example, one instructor at a Western US based University will insist that Oracle Certification is a waste of time and money and go no further ... he is reacting to your header and not bothering to read your question. On this point he insists on spouting steam but has not provided any suitable alternative ... his class has limited enrollment and seems to be full for the next 35 years so even THAT is not an alternative. (Other than this point, I have a lot of respect for him!)

There have been a number of problems with Oracle Certification, not the least being historically some curriculum (especially self study) and some exams have had some errors. The anti-certification group will lead you to believe that all the exams (even all questions) are in error and all the courses and instructors are bad.

That BS out of the way - there are several places you can get decent training. One place is through Oracle Education (http://education.oracle.com) with their online library as well as instructor led courses. Relevant training sources from Oracle and Oracle partners are available from the same Education site.

My suggestions are as follows:

• Ask yourself WHY you want training. There are many, many areas of study in Oracle. Do you want to DBA, develop, use, design - each is different and each has subcategories (eg: DBA - day to day vs performance - see the Oracle Concepts guide at http://docs.oracle.com)
• Do not start with Certification as your first goal. The certificate does not have the credibility or demand that new people think it might have. If you get it as a result of the studies, great - but don't make it the top priority.
• Note that certification can be good if it's used as a framework for instruction. (But acknowledge that other frameworks can exist).
• Use Google or other search engine to find candidate schools in your geography.
• Interview them, especially the instructors. Ask why Oracle Certification seems to be viewed negatively by Oracle 'professionals'. Ask what errors in the course material or exams they have detected. Ask how they get around that in the course. If they say none, then walk as they are lying or don't know better! You are paying them money, you have the right to find the best value for your $ and that can only be accmplished by asking.

By the way - the 'comp.database.oracle' heirarchy is fairly dead - you want the 'comp.databases.oracle' (s at the end of databases) and specifically the 'comp.databases.oracle.misc'

HTH
/Hans Received on Mon Mar 22 2004 - 22:52:25 CST