Re: Total oracle newbie

From: Howard J. Rogers <howardjr2000_at_yahoo.com.au>
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 22:39:54 +1100
Message-Id: <pan.2003.02.10.11.39.53.643071@yahoo.com.au>

On Mon, 10 Feb 2003 21:47:32 +1000, Richard Foote wrote:

> Hi Howard,
>
> Comments embedded
> No it's not $12,000 for a course but can you please keep it quite else
> you'll give the buggers some bad ideas !!
>
> I just wanted to highlight that Oracle training is on the expensive side
> with some courses even more so than others.
>

>>
>> In any case, listed prices at Oracle are only the beginning of the story,
>> as we both know well enough.

>
> Actually, getting a discount on training these days is a bit like Elle
> MacPherson tapping you on the shoulder at the local supermarket, begging for
> a night of unbridled passion. ie. not that common (speaking personally, it's
> only happened to me 3 or 4 times).
>

Uh huh. So who's Elle MacPherson?

There's a lady in the local grocery shop who sells lottery tickets. We all know her as Smelly MacPherson. Any relation?

> I can interpret this as
>
> a) The training you sold in 1990 was an absolute rip-off

It was high quality stuff, honest, gov.

> b) The Aussie dollar has sunk so low that $10 AU currently is just enough to
> buy one baked bean in England

But it's probably a *nice* bean.

> c) That prices are so expensive in England that the cost of hot water in one
> standard bath is approximately 20% of a standard salary hence why monthly
> bathing is so common.
>
> I could go on ;)
>

Most Aussies do. Interminably.

>>
>> I could wish they would drop the prices a bit, and bump up the numbers
>> accordingly; and I could also wish that the quality of most trainers would
>> go up a bit. And I definitely wish that OCP would mean something
>> sufficient to justify the cost.

>
> Curious, how are instructor numbers and standards thereof at the moment.

I wouldn't know about standards. I had a round of applause at the end of last week, which was nice. But it's difficult to get the web-based reports. So either you get a bonus, in which case you're doing OK, or you don't -in which case one assumes you aren't up to speed. The Sydney relocation hasn't helped access to the reports.

But you know how it is.

> I
> sent a note in to Oracle Education seeing if I could be of "assistance" now
> that my 6 months are up and not a word in reply. You must obviously have
> enough quality on your books ?
>

Couldn't say. One of my colleagues might report me to HR. Again.

>>
>> But it's not the *complete* rip-off some might think.

>
> No, rip-off is not the right term. I prefer "a bit on the expensive side".
> Students would leave my classes a contented bunch with the Oracle (and David
> Bowie) knowledge they've gained but comments that they simply didn't have
> the funds to do more training was all too common. You take an organisation
> with a couple of newbies to train, multiply out the above costs and that's
> one significant investment.
>
> Especially if the buggers leave after a year or two.

Funny thing: we always had a clause in the UK: if I spend this money on training you, you sign in blood you'll stay with me for two years (or whatever), or else you pay me back. Seems a perfectly reasonable deal to me.

Staff are just assets at the end of the day. They have a rate of return like any other. So calculate it, and make 'em sign up to the payback period. Or don't send them. It shouldn't be the 'scary' "loss" of money that bosses seem to think it is. And in the end, if you lose someone after training them, you probably gain someone else after some other poor schmuck has trained *them*. Knowledge and skill aren't a zero-sum game.

Regards
HJR
>
> Cheers
>
> Richard
Received on Mon Feb 10 2003 - 05:39:54 CST