Re: About LMT's -- nice article

DA Morgan <damorgan_at_exesolutions.com> wrote in message news:<3E5031EC.D63FCFE9_at_exesolutions.com>...
> Nuno Souto wrote:
>
> > DA Morgan <damorgan_at_exesolutions.com> wrote in message news:<3E4FD8F4.5FA42F8D_at_exesolutions.com>...
> > >
> > > Anything less than Oracle 9i experience won't get you an interview by
> > > the end of this year. Developers and DBAs need to act in their own
> > > vested self-interest unless they wish to go the way of the dinosaurs and
> > > the RPG II programmers.
> >
> > I think you're going too far there. At least in Australia,
> > I can tell you for sure that 9i here is currently mostly immaterial.
> > Vast majority of sites are in 7, 8 or 8i and those are by far the most common
> > requirements anywhere.

I certainly agree with that in socal!

> >
> > Besides, I do have a serious problem with anyone claiming that
> > professional competence in a field as vast as database administration
> > is in any way, shape or format linked to a particular version.
> >
> > That may be the case with M$ software but as far as the rest of IT
> > is concerned, it has never been like that and it most
> > certainly won't start now.
> >
> > With all due respect to those here who make a living out of
> > selling version-dependent competence/instruction/consultancy/whatever.
> >
> > Cheers
> > Nuno Souto
> > nsouto_at_optusnet.com.au.nospam
>
> Speaking for the Pacific Northwest region of the US (if I may be so bold and presumtive) there is no 6
> or 7 and very very little 8.0. That doesn't mean I couldn't find one or two hiding at Boeing or another
> large company in a legacy role ... but it would be a matter of having to do major research to find it.
>
> With Oracle releasing verison 10i this year, according to an otn web page I found ... around May-July,
> companies here will have all the 8i expertise they need. They will certainly keep those people but
> they'll not be advertising for more. They will be moving 8.0 and 8i to 9i ... or 9i to 10i. Any lesser
> skill set will not be in demand.

Or they will be saying "Hmph! 9i only lasted 2 releases, and one of them was full of bugs!"

I think you are underestimating the effect of all those 8i people thinking the same thing as you are, and moving along to somewhere with the promise of 9 or 10... after those gazillion ads requiring 9 or 10 for the same 3 jobs run their course, and those people move along to the next big thing. What I've noticed is that what is advertised is not necessarily a good indicator of the jobs, it only indicates what all the headhunters see as good farming for themselves. Personally, I've only gotten 1 job (out of many) by answering an ad and then getting a job. All the others have been through networking or headhunters. And there's lots of places that just need people to do the work, often as a result of crisis, as opposed to some new great well funded and managed project.

And I know of thousands of sites that use packages that are rule-based...

>
> And I do believe version related skills are critical. With the release of 10i knowledge of the RBO and
> related tuning will be meaningless. Knowledge of rollback tablespaces and segments will be irrelevant.
> Knowledge of dictionary managed tablespaces will be irrelevant. And surprise surprise knowledge of
> SQL*Plus will be nearly irrelevant. And I could go on without once divulging information not published
> by Oracle at otn.oracle.com.

Well, my take on this is that the real problem is documenting the job to get approval from top management to hire somebody. I have seen time and time again people getting hired (or internally hired) into a position where their skills don't exactly match up as you are implying. If they are good, they aquire the skills. The problem of an outsider, however, is they can't really know if gaining any particular skills on spec will do them any good. So you wind up with weirdness like every headhunter in the world advertising that 9i experience is _required_, then they internally transfer someone to the position, and hire someone cheap to fill the old position now left empty.

Of course, if there are many applicants, the one with the latest skill set may indeed have a leg up.

And many places recognize the difference between skill set and experience in a skill set.

>
> Those that do not know the word "quiescing", how to use the "advice" views such as db_cache_advice,
> optimizer dynamic sampling, etc. ... may still be hired. But they will get eaten alive by 20-30 year
> olds that have learned on 9i and are not stuck with the way things "used to be".

Only in places that are managed for the short term. Which of course are all too numerous.

Now, why you would assume anyone who's been through several cycles of upgrades would be stuck with the way things "used to be" is beyond me.  Perhaps you are confusing pointing out uselessness with stickiness.

jg

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