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

Being an old ex-mainframe systems programmer myself, I can understand some of your references, but my question was more to do with how you could define a test to evaluate the skill/talent/knowledge of someone. I tend towards the heres the software, hardware and manuals and here are <n> test scenarios to work through e.g. user reports bad response time in ..., or disks containing control files have been destroyed....

It seems to me that such a test would take days to run and require a large number of scenarios if simple luck wasn't to play a big part.

Nuno Souto <nsouto_at_optushome.com.au.nospam> wrote in message news:3c592b97.2605889_at_news-vip.optusnet.com.au...
> Keith Boulton doodled thusly:
>
> >
> >> The solution is to make those certificates true tests of DB knowledge
> >> and reasoning. But that requires a somewhat more sophisticated
> >> "evaluation facility" than a template for filtering multiple choices!
> >
> >I wonder where one would start?
> >
> >
>
>
> well, many moons ago when IT was an industry where people aimed for
> careers as opposed to software versions, there was a thing called
> Education Services.
>
> Provided in the most part by the s/w or h/w makers. Usually of very
> high quality and highly respected in the industry.
>
> Back in those days these services were recognized of tertiary level by
> the industry and treated as such by its users and managers. Ie, you
> wouldn't get to be a teacher in one of these services unless you were
> very, very experienced or you had tremendous research and tertiary
> education qualifications.
>
> In some advanced cases, entire OS and DBMS source codes were analyzed
> in these courses, as well as the principles of database design.
> Minor things such as lock detection algorithms, cache algorithms, data
> access path lengths (logical and physical), optimization techniques to
> minimize various aspects of the prior, etcetc, were analyzed IN DEPTH.
>
> Enormous $$$$ were made by the Education Services, but they were
> considered worth spending on by the clients: usually they ended up
> with near-zero staff rotation and people who really could handle just
> about any problem.
>
> There are plenty of more recent examples. Notably, Cisco and Netware
> certified network engineers are among the most respected in the
> industry.
>
>
> Then M$ started the MCSE crud.
> Then someone from M$ left and joined Oracle...
> Now everybody with half a brain just laughs at OCPs, MCSEs, and their
> ilk.
>
>
>
> Cheers
> Nuno Souto
> nsouto_at_optushome.com.au.nospam
Received on Thu Jan 31 2002 - 16:26:57 CST