Re: How to confirm someone is an OCP?

On Wed, 10 Jul 2002 22:17:05 +1000, "Howard J. Rogers" <dba_at_hjrdba.com> wrote:

> No need to be cynical.
>
> I have a Masters in Twentieth Century Domestic American Political History.
>
> How much of a difference to my employment prospects do you think that
> honestly makes to me these days?
>
> A degree means I can demonstrate I can learn learn. An OCP should mean you
> can demonstrate you are willing to learn. Nothing more, nothing less.
>
> The cynicism you see in these parts is in large meaasure due to the fact
> that most of the posters you'll see here regularly would scoff at the idea
> that they have to demonstrate anything: their professional work experience
> demonstrates as much equally well, if not better.
>
> If all you've got is an OCP, it's better than nothing. At least you've
> studied. If that's *all* you've done, forget it. You need experimentation
> too.
>
> Regards

At the risk of beeing seen as swine before pearls, here is my take on why I am about to do the OCP:

I have been working in the DW space for a while now and, along the way, have picked up a few bits and pieces about DB tuning - duh, obviously. However, I find that the more involved I get, the more I need to know about the guts of the beast.

RTFM, I hear you cry.

Also, I am working in Australia (Where the men are real men...and so are the women.) and they just love their pieces of paper. If I had a buck for each job description (contract!) that has 'college degree' under Essential Criteria. Not sure why this is. Could be the proximity to Asia where paper qualifications are just as important or it could be that Aus companies just hand over their hiring policy to HR - and we all know how bad THAT is.

Anyway, the OCP kills a few birds with one stone. I get to RTFNotQuiteManualsButNotBadTrainingMaterial along with the manuals. It is an incentive to set up a self-training / experimental system at home and I get one of those all-too-important-but-useless-on-its-own bits of paper that I can cast before the HR wankers.

I'm not a DBA and may never be one but it does mean that I can apply for those roles that ask for 'DBA skills' (yeah, I know, what ever that means) and possibly collect a few extra beer tokens.

All in all, I think it's worth doing. Should I come up against a real DBA during an interview I am happy to come clean and tell them EXACTLY what my experience is. However, as HR exists to make sure that nobody who actually understands the role is ever likely to meet a candidate, this is very unlikely and I can spout all sorts of technical sounding drivel during an interview and sound really brainy. And I must be right because I've got and OCP!

So there.

Steve Roach:
steve_roach_at_attglobal.net
0417 847 502 Received on Thu Jul 11 2002 - 17:55:00 CDT