Oracle certifications

Author

ocpguy!

Silkysmoothe1

2001-07-27, 3:50 am

Very interesting! I have been struggling with this for more than a few days. After reading your post I am struggling No more, thanks.

I would like to buy you a cup of coffee, or a beer and interview you, lol.

I have no experience, and YOU are right,,,what I truly like doing doesn't pay the bills, "meaning" I am trying to better myself monitarily while expanding my knowledge. And about this sight, if you read my post I Concurred with Randy that I did not notice many questions being asked but rather how to obtain a cheet sheet.

I am truly motivated and would like to learn what you know to add to my other certs.

before I make a long winded post I will patiently wait to see if you read this thread,,I hope you return.

I am interested in knowing how your test are going and how you have gotten your experience without the cert. How did you get going? was it like you said, Helpdesk, or the other??????? What type of business did you target,,,did you have inside help, "most people do" which is not the case for me.

I had quit my job to finish a cert/from CISCO and trying to find work dealing with that technology,,,,,It has been 2-months longer than I anticipated finding work,,,and still no nibbles,,, my account is dry,,,,,,and I may not be around this time next month,,,,,

hope to hear from you soon. silky

ocpguy

2001-07-27, 5:56 pm

Amusing that a post would be started for me...

I totally understand about the getting laid off bit. I was laid off by Verizon Wireless (great company, easy work.... and they gave me a sweet 3-month severance package to boot!)

Anyways...I was in the middle of getting my OCP certification... but then finding work took more priority.

By the way... if you are not working... have you considered collecting unemployment? I was making $500 a week for sitting on my a-s-s and looking for work... drinking margaritas on the beach... while also drawing a severance.

First of all... do you have a college degree? That's pretty important. It could be a degree in psych... as long as it's a degree. Some companies really won't even look at someone that doesn't have a degree unless they are a super genius hacker or have mass experience.

If you don't ... then I think the A+, Network+, Cisco kinda stuff is a good start.

For the DBA or Analyst stuff... usually they want a BS,BA,etc.

Anyhoo... back to the DBA stuff... I would recommend getting a job as a report writer, business analyst, analyst, oracle support... or junior systems admin where you work w/ith databases also analyst work where you have to do a lot of SQL Queries on an Oracle Database. From there... you can find out who the DBA is... stop by their cubicle... kiss their a-s-s a bit... offer to buy them lunch... find out about what they do... and offer to do their grunt work. DBA's are very specialized... usually very busy... so they would love to have this help... plus some tasks they find menial... like checking backups, setting up a test server, or doing some reporting, or setting up some users... would be a goldmine for someone wanting to learn.

Also, you should consider contracting.... lower your rate to something insane like $10-20/hr and offer to do anything... that could be a foot in the door as well..

Oh... back to me and my certs..

I will be OCP tomorrow... when I pass my Network Admin. I decided to go the OCP 8 track then do the upgrade exam 1z0-020 on monday. I took the Intro to SQL last week. Then

Wed-DBA ARchitecture/Admin
Thurs-Backup Recovery
Friday/Today-Perf Tuning

passed all of them...

ocpguy

2001-07-27, 6:06 pm

I graduated with a BA in Business Administration (MIS and Marketing Emphasis) from the University of Washington.

I had paid internships at Micro$oft, AT&T Wireless, Jet Propulsion Lab/NASA while in school. I didn't really like any of them enough to stay there. So when I graduated I turned down an offer at IBM (which I later regretted... is that a word?)

And decided to work for myself doing consulting work for my friends, referrals, small biz, and non-profits. I designed databases, prototypes, wrote requirements, did testing for clients using SQL Server, Access, and Personal Oracle.

After a year of that... the work was not stable... then I got a job at a telecom company as their Database Analyst. It was such a small company that I did the DBA work, Systems Analyst work (like reporting, troubleshooting, project planning/management), Maintenance, On-Call. I got a great exposure to SQL Server, Sybase, Oracle, Tandem.

Then I took a job at Verizon Wireless... where I was a DBA/Sr. Programmer Analyst. Truthfully I got paid a lot of money to shop and surf the web. I did do DBA work. I worked on a ArcInfo GIS mapping server (with an Oracle Backend), a Crystal Info Server (think Crystal Reports that can be scheduled and e-mailed), Oracle 7, Oracle 8, Oracle 8i, SQL 7 databases running on Sun Solaris and NT.

I've also gone to a M$ training like 70-210/215 Admin of Win2k Server and I took a Oracle 8 Database Admin: Architecture & Admin class. It was very good... because you learn the guts of Oracle.

I now work and live in Atlanta... and you wouldn't believe how cheap the Oracle and MCSE classes are... you can take a class for $2000 for either track or get Sun Certified for $2000. So I'm working in the day... and going to school 3 nites a week for OCP certification...

After I get certified I'll be looking for anew job ... hopefully will get paid about $10-20k more...

After I OCP certified I think I'd get MCDBA certified just for the hell of it... because I have the cheat sheets for it... I don't think I'd want to be strictly a SQL Server DBA... I'd want to be primarily Oracle with a backup for SQL Server... because Oracle get's more respect and you get paid more.

Hope that helps a bit.

Silkysmoothe1

2001-07-27, 11:12 pm

This is greatly appreciated. The info that you have given me will go a long way.

If your trying to be grammatically correct, YES, you are correct. LOL.

Yes, I have a BS-from UNT "Uni-North-Texas" 1998/grad.

I have a CCNA too, and looking to pick up a programming cert/Oracle.

I am going to shoot straight for DBA and try finding work as you say,,ground work. entry level.

I have never done any contracting and would not know the first step in doing so.

You mention Oracle/7, 8, 8i which I assume are all similiar, like windows 95,98,00,,yes?

I thought about umemployment, but my helpdesk job started and ended me at $13.00 hour,,which would not be very much inflow. I think it would behoove me as far collecting cause I don't plan on being jobless for long.

Last but not least- What would you do different if anything, "looking back now". I thank you for sharing your experience, this helps alot,, so as to avoid any pot-holes I will encounter.

Thanks,,,silky,,,

ocpguy

2001-07-27, 11:29 pm

quote:
You mention Oracle/7, 8, 8i which I assume are all similiar, like windows 95,98,00,,yes?

Oh man, if you don't know that... You have a long way to go. Yes... they are all databases, I won't really get into how they are all different... but most corporations are using Oracle 8 or 8i. Most are trying to standardize on 8i (which came out 1998) There is an Oracle 9i, but there really aren't any companies adopting it because it is so new and existing apps aren't tested to work on it yet.

quote:
I thought about umemployment, but my helpdesk job started and ended me at $13.00 hour,,which would not be very much inflow. I think it would behoove me as far collecting cause I don't plan on being jobless for long.

I would still sign up for Unemployment. Who knows if you can get a job in this crappy market? I thought I'd be only out of work for a month... it took me 3 to find work... and not even perm work.. it was contract.

quote:

I have never done any contracting and would not know the first step in doing so.

To find contract work.. post your resume on monster.com, dice.com, hotjobs.com, computerjobs.com and the headhunters will come a callin'

quote:

Last but not least- What would you do different if anything, "looking back now". I thank you for sharing your experience, this helps alot,, so as to avoid any pot-holes I will encounter.

As I look back... I would have taken that job with IBM Global Services and let them make me a DBA right out of college when I had the chance... had I realized how easy DBA work is... and how much they get paid. I hated my DB Mgmt classes in college ... they were so hard. But real life work isn't hat hard.

Because it's very difficult to get a job right out of college w/o exp as a DBA. You can get a job as an analyst, programmer, etc... but nobody hands those out.

ocpguy

2001-07-27, 11:33 pm

By the way... I HATE programming. I'm really not good at it. I like Production DBA work. I'll do sys admin, networking, analyst, reporting, testing... before I do programming. What takes a person 1 or 2 hours to do... takes me a month. I'm really dislike it... and I'm horrible at it to boot.

I'm giving you advice specifically for the Oracle Database Adminstrator OCP track.

I don't know anything about the Developer track. You should talk to Nicole... she's all over these boards, and is a Oracle Dev and is going for that dev track... if I'm not mistaken.

I only know about DBA stuff. Good luck

Paisleyskyee

2001-08-01, 5:13 am

good luck on your exam quest

Sponsored Links