Re: Certification

"Daniel A. Morgan" <dmorgan_at_exesolutions.com> wrote in message news:3B19DEF2.8FBB05A2_at_exesolutions.com...
> I know it will upset someone in Redwood Shores ... but it would be nice if
 they
> trashed this OCP money-making gimmick. I don't know of any employer that
 cares.
> And not once have I ever been asked, or asked, about it in an interview.
 Why
> would I care whether someone spent a lot of money learning obscure things
 that
> have little to do with the actual job.

I have to say I disagree with you Daniel.

First there is plenty of evidence from job ads at the very least that employers are asking for OCP.

This is a debatable point which could be settled by empirical evidence rather than your or my opinion. Oracle believes that it has that evidence which is why it states that certified individuals handle 40% more support calls and companies which employ them suffer 49% less downtime. This is a strong selling point to employers

However I do take issue with the idea that OCP teaches 'obscure things that have lttle to do with the actual job'. Lets remind ourselves of some of those *obscure* things that are in the syllabus.

Hot and Cold backup procedures.
What happens when good backups go bad.
Physical Database layout for performance and security. A focused and clear tuning methodology.
Net8 architecture and optimisation.

If a candidate has passed OCP I'd definitely expect him to understand all these areas, It doesn't necessarily mean they'd be good at implementation but that is why you'd look for experience as well.

--
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
Audit Commission UK