X-Received: by 10.182.254.10 with SMTP id ae10mr12994821obd.43.1398690322577; Mon, 28 Apr 2014 06:05:22 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 10.50.73.69 with SMTP id j5mr579546igv.14.1398690322412; Mon, 28 Apr 2014 06:05:22 -0700 (PDT) Path: news.cambrium.nl!textnews.cambrium.nl!feeder3.cambriumusenet.nl!195.96.0.7.MISMATCH!newsfeed.utanet.at!feeder1.cambriumusenet.nl!feed.tweaknews.nl!209.85.213.216.MISMATCH!c1no4868894igq.0!news-out.google.com!gi6ni634igc.0!nntp.google.com!c1no4868888igq.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.databases.oracle.server Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 06:05:21 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=69.4.5.254; posting-account=KXUmygkAAABvBFmgDBe4RBLFwhTRAMZC NNTP-Posting-Host: 69.4.5.254 References: User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <6000f123-f872-4bb3-a5b4-ad9edb7f91d3@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: Instant DBA From: ddf Injection-Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 13:05:22 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Xref: news.cambrium.nl On Monday, April 28, 2014 4:53:12 AM UTC-6, Noons wrote: > On 27/04/2014 2:11 AM, Mladen Gogala wrote: >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 > > against that The "certification" industry is a huge money milking cow a= nd >=20 > > while honest in general, there are some companies on the fringes which >=20 > > are trying to deceive both the candidates and the employers, with some >=20 > > success. >=20 >=20 >=20 > Let's not forget who started the whole ball rolling with the=20 >=20 > "certification" industry: Oracle themselves. Yes, even the "fringe"=20 >=20 > ones were helped and "blessed" by Oracle. Still are. No matter what. >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 > > references" - in PL/SQL. Another guy told me that "EXCEPTION WHEN OTHER= S >=20 > > THEN NULL;" is an excellent way of "avoiding errors". I wish Tom Kyte w= as >=20 > > there to see that. >=20 >=20 >=20 > Hehehe! Love that one! >=20 >=20 >=20 > > doing the actual DBA work. DBA personnel comes from either a long work = as >=20 > > a developer or a long work as a system administrator. There is no >=20 > > shortcut. OCP is not a guarantee that you will succeed. It is just a >=20 > > crutch used by HR people which is not all that important after the >=20 > > inflation of titles. Experience is irreplaceable and is what >=20 > > distinguishes a good DBA from the cheat. DBA also works with people and >=20 > > if there are holes in the understanding of the DBA job or knowledge of >=20 > > the technology, the DBA will be found out and fired. Yee who are readin= g >=20 > > this group, do not fall for this "instant DBA" craze, ruin thy career a= nd >=20 > > waste thine hard earned monies on obvious deceits like "Sunit Labs" and >=20 > > alike. For goodness sake, those people do not even speak English! >=20 >=20 >=20 > Amen! I cannot count the number of candidates who thought 'OCP' spelled "GOD" wit= h respect to being an Oracle DBA. I, too, have fielded a number of ridicul= ous answers to serious questions and, yes, I truly wish I had written them = down. Yes, Oracle Corporation opened the door back with 7.3 but I do rememb= er a requirement for certification that stated no less than 5 years of fiel= d experience was required to take the tests. It was an effort to recognize= those who worked in the trenches and didn't possess an IT degree as Oracle= professionals. Soon afterwards it became a 'game' of Oracle coursework an= d passing the tests with no requirement whatsoever of actual experience. T= his is where we are today, which is why the OCM program was started to 'pro= ve' a candidate KNOWS what he or she is doing. It's still a game, however,= of money and time, not of experience. Even the OCM 'exams' can be cheated= through, I expect, using the infamous 'brain dumps' which Oracle does cons= ider as cheating (how many 'cheaters' Oracle has 'defrocked', if any, is a = mystery). How can one be an 'Oracle Certified Professional' if one has no job? Most = of these 'OCP's' have no experience with the database and have never worked= in the industry, period, much less as a DBA. Yet the ARE OCP (Oracle says= so) which does a grave disservice to those of us who have spend decades in= the trenches. I agree with Mladen that these rampant spam-vertisements, made possible by = Google Groups and their policy to allow posting via email, should be ignore= d. We can't stop them no matter what we do -- complaining to Google Groups= by labeling them as SPAM does no good as we still get this crap in bucket = loads. I long for the days of deja-news, when an account was required for = posting privileged. Alas those days are gone for good. A Swedish saying that I particularly like is "The best helping hand you wil= l find is at the end of your own arm." Modern day OCPs don't realize or u= nderstand this and expect others to give them the answers so that they, too= , can become OCPs. These grist mills of exam prep feed this mentality and= make it grow and fester, undermining the accomplishments of those who, lik= e us, have WORKED to get where we are. The quest for the 'almighty dollar'= wins again, and the rest of us lose mightily because of it. David Fitzjarrell