Re: Outrage that OCP exams are now unproctored - Comments?

On Thu, 26 Dec 2002 21:53:47 +1100, "Howard J. Rogers" <howardjr2000_at_yahoo.com.au> wrote:

> > >> practice degrades the value of Oracle certification, and makes it even
> > >> more worthless than before.
> > >>
> > >> Comments?
> > >
> > >You can't devalue something which was worthless in the first place.
> > >
> > >Regards,
> > >Paul
> > >
> > >
> >
> > Worthless to whom?
>
> To the industry.
>
> Employers worth working for know it's a heap of doo-dah. Employers who think
> it means something aren't worth working for.
>

In an ideal world, perhaps.

OK, I'll fez up. I'm doing the OCP (DBA) and have a couple of exams to go.

It has the following value:

• @#$%! personel departments (or whatever huggy-bunny name they are giving themselves these days) are dumb animals. When organisations (esp. guvmint) are recruiting, they go through HR and HR go to the recruitment manual (written by a committee of dumb animals) which says; degree, OPC, pick a meaningless qualification. As these are the people that will do the first scruitiny on an application / resume, these are the qualifications that get you to the people who have a clue. I wouldn't expect the clued-up to make much of my OCP but at least I get a chance of showing them my experience. The OCP gets me in front of the people I want to talk to.
• I'm not a DBA and have no real ambitions to be one. I do, however, develop data warehouses and performance is right up there. The OCP at least gives me a common vocabulary with the DBAs I'm working with and some insight into what they do and their concerns. Perhaps experience should give me all that but it is not always the case. It would depend on specific individual experience. The OCP makes me better at my job.

In conclusion, the OCP is about money. My money. As far as I'm concerned, the 'people worth working for' are the ones who are going to pay me well regardless of how they are set up or their attitude towards formal qualifications.

As for a newcommer, I reckon it's a pretty good starting point. The OCP gives a good broad basic understanding of how Oracle works and is not a bad pre-requisite to getting down and dirty with the docs, lurking here, running google searches and, of course, playing with the engine.

IMHO, of course.

Steve Roach Received on Thu Dec 26 2002 - 18:43:29 CST