Re: How to confirm someone is an OCP?

Very interesting...seems most of the negative stuff comes from Oz...and Seattle which everyone knows is just Oz in the US...:)

Actually I support the OCP as a "line in the sand" it indicates a certain committment to learning. Would I turn loose an OCP only DBA with my production database? No, I would not. At least it is better than the old Oracle Masters program.

I encourage those who ask "should I?" because it indicates they are not sure of their abilities. OCP will help expose them to concepts they might not be exposed to otherwise. It gives a foundation to build on. If they don't build on it, that is their fault, not the fault of the program. How many of you have DBA intern programs? I'll bet none of you. If you want to really help get quality DBAs then provide a path:

Classes
to
OCP
to
Intership
to
DBA
to
Senior DBA
to
DBA Curmudgen

Mike Ault

"It is better to light a light than to to curse the darkness"

Daniel Morgan <dmorgan_at_exesolutions.com> wrote in message news:<3D2C7D5F.DE72F334_at_exesolutions.com>...
> Andy wrote:
>
> > I am going to be looking for a DBA soon, and it's occurred to me that
> > if someone tells me they are an Oracle Certified Professional I think
> > I'll want to confirm it.
> >
> > Do the Oracle Education people keep a record, and would they tell me
> > if someone was an OCP if I asked, or would that come under some Data
> > Protection Act (I'm in Australia)?
> >
> > Is there a certificate or letter I can ask to see?
> >
> > Not being an OCP myself, I don't know what to look for.
> >
> > Thanks.
>
> I would urge you to consider the OCP to be as valuable as the paper it is
> printed on. Here (I'm in Seattle, WA, USA) we don't even ask about OCP
> and other certifications as we have found out long ago that lots of
> people can read a book, pass a test, and not necessarily have any actual
> ability to do the job. Ask yourself, for example, would you want a
> surgeon that had never had an internship? An MD has meaning. An OCP,
> unfortunately, does not.
>
> Far better, when interviewing a DBA candidate, to have a clear
> understanding of what responsibilities you expect them to perform (strict
> production DBA), advisor to development and testing groups, lead code
> reviews, advise on architecture, etc. Then have a half-dozen good
> questions related to each proposed aspect of the job.
>
> There is nothing in the OCP that will teach the skills necessary to track
> down scalability and security problems. There is nothing in the OCP that
> will tell you that backup tapes should be tested regularly to see if they
> actually work. Practical experience is the only thing that really
> matters.
>
> Daniel Morgan
Received on Thu Jul 11 2002 - 07:22:16 CDT