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

> 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 think the buzz word here is "Companies that are serious about their database". "guvmint" as you put it, and some big corporations are nothing but big bureacracies. They are more into "filling" a position according to some set criteria rather then actually seeing what skillsets are required for a particular job. e.g. Could FedEx live with a few hours downtime where customers cannot track their packages? I guess not.

>
> - 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.

Oracle database is like a 2 year old child. Sometimes unpredictable and requires constant attention. Just like a parent cannot become a "Good parent" by just reading Dr. Spock's books, a DBA cannot become a good DBA just by reading thru an exam cram and passing an exam. You have to touch it and feel it and learn it's intricacies.

>
> 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.
>

This attitude by techies and companies that hire them is saturating the market with candidates that have all sort's of engravings on their resumes but not much else.  

> 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.

Yes it does give you theoretic broad perspective but you have to back it up with some practical knowledge.

Regards
/Rauf Sarwar Received on Fri Dec 27 2002 - 13:34:43 CST