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Re: Oracle Certification

From: Hans Forbrich <forbrich_at_yahoo.net>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 13:53:32 GMT
Message-ID: <wpg8c.2371$wg1.536@edtnps84>


Daniel Morgan wrote:

> Hans Forbrich wrote:
>

>> Daniel Morgan wrote:
>> 
>> Personally I'd rather see an Oracle led/supported/endorsed/funded
>> solution.

>
> That would kill it, or devalue it, for the same reason it has done so
> with the OCP. Education needs to be for the pure purpose of education.
> Not with an ROI attached: Something any unit of Oracle Corp. must, by
> necessity, have.

Are you implying that ALL cerification (CNE, CTT+, LPIC, MCSE ...) is of no value, or just Oracle's? Or perhaps just corporate-sponsored (CNE, CLE, MSCE ...)?
>

>> That is unlikely, given the threads on Oracle's Support, Education and
>> Consulting deficiencies we've seen in the past few months.  (And in doing
>> so, Oracle is only hurting themselves.)

>
> In a sense I agree. What Oracle could do that would best serve the
> long-term purposes of Oracle would be to make education grants to
> universities that demonstrate the expertise required to teach not just
> the Oracle product ... but rather how to address business problems
> using their tools. Students that learn to solve business problems with
> spreadsheets use spreadsheets. Those that learn to solve problems with
> a specific RDBMS, in a setting that teaches multiversion read and write
> consistency will want to buy that with which they are most familiar and
> comfortable.

(I have a somewhat different definition of University. My def'n puts your course more into a technical school - think CalTech, MIT, 'PolyTechnik', and so on. But I know where you are going.)

(I note there is a mild, although not unreasonable, self-serving aspect to your comment as well.)

Any funds that Oracle might spread towards Universities would soon be spread so thin as to be useless. Or only select Universities would get it. There are simply too many Universities and all have their hand out. So I don't think that will be of any value at all, other than to get the universities even more ticked at Oracle.

There are other ways for Oracle to interact with post-secondary institutes, such as educational discounts on licenses, which would help more.

>
> Doing this, unfortunately, requires a committment to long-term benefit
> rather than "how are we doing this quarter" which is the usual mode of
> operation for US Corporations.

What can I say. The US (and other) Corporations are simply reacting to the 'profit' demand by the C-levels and the shareholders, esp. corporate shareholders. And that brings the circle of life right back to us peons.

>> 
>> One possible solution to this - let us start a thread (or continue this
>> thread) with a list of all the OCP (or at least OCP curriculum)
>> inaccuracies that are known.  Possibly using the thread title "Known
>> issues with OCP material and curricula".

>
> I think there has been a citing of many many examples. Some I've posted.
> Others by Jonathan Lewis, Howard Rogers, and others with far more
> knowledge and expertise than I can bring to bear.
 

You miss the point. The material is there, but you yourself state that "students are in no place to make the determination of what is correct and what is not." I'm suggesting a way to correct THAT problem by consolidating the information.

> The problem is that so many of the mistakes are eggregious. For example
> the statement in the 9i OCP that you can't put an ORDER BY clause on a
> view. That isn't a question of judgement or interpretation: It is just
> plain wrong.

Yup. Some material is obsolete - a holdover from the Oracle 6 or Oracle 7 days. My Oracle 7.3 SQL Language manual definitely states that the ORDER BY clause is not permitted.

Makes me wonder how many of these things are simply propogated myths or holdovers from the 'good old days'? Which doesn't excuse them, although it may account for them.

Isn't there an "Oracle myths" site somewhere? Or is that a myth?

> I would too. But in the current marketplace there is an overabundance of
> talent. At least talent as defined by years of experience on a resume.
> The last thing the marketplace needs is more with faux-experience. I
> know you are in Alberta so I can address your marketplace directly. I
> know more than a half-dozen Oracle professionals from Calgary and
> Edmonton that are currently at AT&T Wireless in Redmond Washington
> because they can't find work at home and they are not in the US by
> preference.

You again miss the point. Whether we have too many is irrelevant. People are asking the question "How do I get Oracle training?" In some cases they are doing so because that is being demanded of them by their employer. I think it's our business to fulfill THAT demand and we're on our honour to fulfill it properly!

In Alberta's case, the problem is simply that the competition (MS) is perceived as much more attractive than Oracle strictly on a pricing basis. MS has managed to make features and consistency irrelevant. As a result, there's a lot of work but the rates have dropped significantly. Supply and demand (the American dream?) in action!

>
> By rejecting the only available alternative, we are

>> backing ourselves into the passer-by-only corner.  However, I'd really,
>> really hope the book they used to learned was right!!!

>
> When we again experience of shortage of employee prospects I hope we
> don't again make the mistake of employing anyone, or any thing, that
> can breathe air and spell the name Oracle which is what we saw here
> in the Puget Sound area. And, quite frankly, part of what has fueled
> the move to offshoring jobs.

From where I stand it seems the offshoring is simply a reaction to a demand by shareholders and C-levels to cut expenses. Amusingly I read a recent report states that the success of offshoring in India is causing their salaries and prices to skyrocket so much that the "offshorists" are needing to look elsewhere - if I find the reference, I'll post it. My guess is that offshoring is a cycle that will not take long to fizzle.

My hope is that we have enough foresight to start educating the next generation of good DBAs >properly< at a reasonable price. Otherwise we keep riding the "crank 'em out 'cause of the shortage" wave.

>

>> Back to the OCP inaccuracies ........
>> 
>> So let's do something about it!  Can we start a list of known mstakes?
>> 
>> /Hans

>
> Go for it. I'll add list to the thread.
>

Do we need any rules? Such as 'post reference where the error exists', and 'post why it's wrong'?

And - are there any possible problems, such as legal implications to referencing specific books, etc.

/Hans Received on Wed Mar 24 2004 - 07:53:32 CST

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