Re: Certification

5 Years Experience doesn't prove competence. We have several 'autopilot' database that I 'babysit' just to notify the vendor (I usually do it prior to a failure). The terms of the support contract for the product say I must be available, but I am not permitted to do anything without permission.

They are what I call 'shoe box databases' with a total size of less than 10 gb of data.

I came from a tech support env, but was hired to my current position because I paid oracle corp out of pocket for Instructor Led Training, and pursued the cert as I went through the class.

I got entry level pay, and I was entry level. But I also designed a *major* migration of a 27 gb database. Something Vendor support reccommended to spend four days on. The Senior Oracle DBA with 5+ years experience couldn't come up with a viable solution. They even tried hiring 'consultants' who couldn't come up with a solution.

Here are some details:
Source:
Oracle 7.1
2K Block Size
OS: Vax VMS 6.2 (32 bit platform)

Destination:
Oracle 7.3
8K Block Size
OS: Alpha OpenVMS 7.0 (64 bit platform)

I managed it in 9 hours. At an estimate downtime cost of $16,000 an hour (my bosses number when he interviewed me) I saved my organization more than a million dollars!

My story shows, education and OCP can get you in to an entry level position. Time in service dosn't make a competent dba. (Or other certified professional.) It's all about resources. Identifying, evaluating, making an informed reccommendation, and validating it proof. I was able to significantly elevate my status (and paycheck ) because I used my resources. (Remember RTFM? It works. The migration guides clearly state upgrade options include: 1) migration script, 2) imp and export and 3) sql*net copy. Option 1 was not an option, as the change of block size and os (32 to 64 bit). My peers kept insisting on option 2. I went with option 3!!! )

And after that, I chose to upgrade my resume....

Doug

Niall Litchfield wrote:

> "Daniel A. Morgan" <Daniel.Morgan_at_attws.com> wrote in message
> news:3B26743D.3EB35776_at_attws.com...
>
> > I believe your percentages come from statisticians. <g>
>
> <VBG>
>
> --
> Niall Litchfield
> Oracle DBA
> Audit Commission UK
Received on Sat Jun 23 2001 - 04:28:17 CDT