Re: I was referred here for advice

Hi, Pam

I am faily new to Oracle myself, but I do have a background in IT and as a computer trainer. I am just now learning the products and I hope to eventually find work as a database developer.

Do you have any previous experience with other database products such as MS Access and good old dBase? These would definitely help yo to decide if you really want to do database work. They would also ease you more comfortably into Oracle, which is one of the toughest database products around.

Here are a few things that I've discovered (as a beginner) about Oracle:

Oracle Corp. wants everybody to purchase their products so badly that they give them away, at least on a trial basis!!! This means that you can download the software for free and teach it to yourself at home. But once you start using the software for business, then the Oracle folks will want a nice big licence fee. Interesting marketing concept, eh?

I recommend that you download:

1. Oracle 8i Enterprise Edition (or Personal edition)
2. Oracle Enterprise Edition
3. Oracle WebDB

Oracle can be tricky to install. Do you have a friend who knows Windows well enough to help you? Also, consider that your system needs at least 64 MB of RAM and a good couple of gigs of hard disk space.

Oracle also makes lots o' dough selling Oracle books and courses. I hope to take a couple of courses, but hopefully I can exempt myself from the beginner courses through home study.

In terms of books, I started with 'Oracle 8i for Dummies', which I found to be a decent primer. It's very effective at getting you started and its examples are good. Note that the dummies book does not tell you how to install Oracle.

I've now graduated to 'Oracle 8 The Complete Reference' by Loney and Koch, an interesting little tome of 1300 pages.

If your PC meets the system requirements and you have a friend who can help you with the installations, then good luck giving Oracle a try.

Chris

Pam Stevens wrote:

> I have just begun the journey into a career change into the IT field.
> Before attending any career seminars, I was focusing on MCSE, but during
> my information gathering stage, I believe that an Oracle position would
> be better in the long run. I am not currently employed in an IT field,
> and realize that I'm not going to take a course or two, get certified,
> and be hired on as a Fortune 500 companies top DBA. My current plan is
> to take an Intro to Oracle 8 course. The facility offering this course
> claims that it is thorough prep for the first two exams toward Oracle 8
> certification, and would prepare me for an entry level position writing
> code as a database developer.
>
> Most of the people I've asked for advice don't seem to realize that I'm
> not trying to jump into a mid to upper level database position, and have
> been either unhelpful, or offered extremely negative advice, meaning
> I've been told that it is basically impossible to make a career change
> into IT.
>
> I would appreciate opinions as to whether I am going about this in the
> proper fashion, or if a different route would be a better choice to make
> this change. If you are of the opinion that changing from a non-IT
> career to an IT career can't be done, I'd like to know that too, and
> would like to know your reasoning.
>
> Any advice you can offer is appreciated.
>
> Tom Stevens
Received on Tue Feb 29 2000 - 00:00:00 CST