Re: Is Sr. DBAs afraid of not be able to pass cert exam ??

I've been an Oracle DBA for 9 years (can we say V6034?), contracting for 7 and I'm learning new things every day.

I find that the things I learned in the early days are not much use to me now, and I have to look up the syntax for things like setting a database into archive log mode, and why a temporary contents temp tablespace isn't de-allocating temp segments. No doubt an OCP will know these things and will gain a couple of minutes on me.

However, I have a good memory for situations (and I know a lot of DBAs who have the same knack), and find that I can fix problems because I have come across them before in the real world. I can also talk to non-technical people about Oracle.

I'm thinking of taking the OCP exams because the job market is very tough at the moment and any advantage is worth having. Incidentally I got a call from an agent who said a client specifically wanted an OCP. He got 60 applications for the position, 10 of whom were OCPS. He put forward 3 of them. And me. He said that although they had specified an OCP, he thought that I had done exactly what they wanted so they may waive the OCP requirement.

I feel to a degree that the OCP exams are an income generating exercise by Oracle, and I do feel trepidation at taking them because I don't want to fail. There's a lot I don't know about Oracle, and a lot of it is basic stuff. My SQL gets me by, but don't ask me what a union does or to do anything in PL/SQL. I can't tell you off-hand how to optimise the SGA and how to create a materilized view. However, ask me to explain to a client why they should upgrade to V817 from V805 and wear the cost, or to go with Unix and not NT/2000, or to produce a report for a manager on why the backup strategy is unsafe, and I can do it.

There's a lot more to being a DBA than knowing the CREATE OPERATOR syntax. I don't even know what an OPERATOR is... Received on Wed Jan 30 2002 - 16:48:42 CST