die Seilerwerks

On the heels of my recent OCAfication, I came across “The power of Oracle certification” which mentions this Dilbert comic that I hadn’t seen and made me chuckle. Enjoy.

I thought it might be helpful for those also interested in taking the OCA examination to describe how I prepared for it.

First of all, I’ve been in the position of Oracle database administrator for 6 years. Practical experience is much more easy to recall than text from a book.

When I expressed my goal of getting OCA and OCP certifications, my employer was very supportive. At my request, the Oracle 10g OCP Certification All-in-One Exam Guide was ordered. This guide was a good read, although it was written prior to 10gR2, and so some of the contents were already outdated. This book also came with a practice exam that I didn’t feel was too bad, although it covered Resource Manager, which was not on the OCA exam, nor in my other study guides.

This January, my employer sent me to the Oracle DBA Workshop, the class recommended for the OCA. This class assumes zero knowledge of Oracle, so the majority of it was review, but there were a few nuggets of gold that I put into practice at work. Just to note, the class is not required for the OCA (unlike the Workshop II class being required for the OCP).

My employer also bought the self-study CDs for this workshop. I went through those over the two weeks prior to the exam.

Obviously these things all cost a bit of money, and my employer thankfully covered the cost of all media and training. Hopefully this helps someone out.

A hoy hoy. Just passed exam 1Z0-042, better known as the Oracle Certified Associate DBA exam.

Let the virgins and wine flow freely.

I’ve been busting ass lining up sponsors for an Ultimate tournament, so blogging has taken a big backseat. I have added a tumblr blog to my collective which you might find diverting.

However I’ve had some blog-worthy Oracle tales in recent days which are still unfolding. As soon as the dust has settled I’ll be sure to write it up so that others may learn from my misfortunes.

And I’m almost ready to think about scheduling that OCA exam.

NOTE: Howard has since taken his site offline while he finds a suitable webhost, so the first link probably won’t work

Howard Rogers recently touched on the knowledgeset (or lack thereof) of some interviewees with OCPs. We’ve all heard this before, and the common theme is that just because someone managed to pass the OCA and OCP exams, they still might not know nearly enough to be put in charge of your precious (and expensive) Oracle RDBMS. I’ve heard tale of people asking questions on oracle-l or the OTN forums like “What does ROWNUM mean?”, while proclaiming their OCP title in their signature. So, yes, it is probably best not to just hire an OCP without verifying that they have the knowledge that you seek. “Trust, but verify” is an oft-used quote in the computing world, and it applies to hiring as well.

Now, as you may know, I am seeking the OCA/OCP certifications, after 5 years of learning on-the-job. I just completed the Oracle 10gR2 DBA Workshop I last week, which is a suggested course for the OCA exam, and I felt pretty comfortable with the majority of the material. It was nice to play with EM DB Control, which I don’t (yet) have set up at my shop. Now I plan to go through the exam guide and review the course-provided books, then take the practice exam(s) provided with the exam guide. Then hopefully I’ll be prepared to take that exam.

Why do I want the certification if so many gurus think it is practically worthless nowadays? Why not just be content in having the knowledge, without spending (or wasting, as they’d see it) time preparing for the exams? Probably for the same reason I finished school to get my bachelor’s degree (which some people also say is watered down now): a sense of completion, mostly for myself. I don’t expect the OCA or OCP to get me anything that I couldn’t already achieve. However there may be a case down the road when having those certifications gets me a second look or a foot in the door with some non-technical HR staffer. One never knows how these things will fall out.