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>-----Original Message-----
>Rob,
>Hope I can offer some practical advice here, from 'the
>other side'. I've been a SQL Server DBA for over 7 years
>now, and whilst I don't claim to know everything about
the
>product, I do have good, solid day-to-day working
>experience of it and the problems you hit in practice. My
>first observation, having seen my girlfriend revise for
>the exams is that they are very often far away from the
>reality of what you will be expected to know and do in
the
>job. I've found some of the tthings you are expected to
>know either dubious, or downright wrong, from drawing on
>estalished practice (and not just my own). Moral is that
>you may learn some stuff for the exams that you will have
>to un-learn in practice.
>
>Following on from that, my second criticism is that they
>do not test you on nearly enough of the basics that you
>need to do on an everyday basis. Which leads me to my
>third criticism...
>I've personally interviewed a lot of DBAs for various
>employers over the last 3-4 years. I have found that some
>people who are apparently very well qualified (Ie :
MCDBA)
>can talk the talk, but when it comes down to answering
>some very, VERY simple questions about SQL Server, they
>are singularly clueless. I've had to cut two interviews
>short in the last three years, because it got to the
point
>where the MS "qualified" candidate could not answer the
>first 3-4 basic, everyone-should-get-these questions that
>I put at the start of the interview test to settle them
in.
>
>That's not to say all MS qualified people are bad. It's
>just my experience that a certificate does not a DBA
>make 
>
>However, on the plus side, so many out-of-work developers
>are claiming to have DBA skills these days, that many
>employers are filtering out applicants who do not have at
>least an MCP. From a personal point of view, I had little
>time for the exams until recently, but the vast influx of
>cheap overseas labour into the UK market now means that
>the only way I can partially guarantee to get myself an
>interview with 50% of the employers out there is to get
>myself certified.
>
>So yes, it is valuable, but just beware of the downside,
>and do get experience under your belt too, even if it's
>shadowing the DBA in your current job and learning what
>it's REALLY about 
>
>In a nutshell, certification might get you past the HR
>department's advert. It won't get you past an experienced
>DBA.
>
>Best wishes,
>Jon Reade.
>
>better than no cert
hit[color=blue]
>labs and actually
>just hit the books.
>message
obtaining[color=blue]
>MIS
>I'm
>are
>career.
>because
>of
>get
the[color=blue]
>books,
>would
take[color=blue]
>.
>I just got my MCBDA after my W2k MCSE/A Sec.Spec,CCNA3.0,
A+,Network+ but I have no production experience.I've
looked at the Monster.com job listings and discovered that
I would have to take a minimum of a 10k cut in salary to
take a DBA slot curently offered.I'm FED and am helping
other Oracle DBA's,who lost their FED jobs due to no MCDBA
cert's even with MBA's{!},study for their MCDBA's.It is
definitely worth having and I may never use it directly in
production.I would think hiring into a native windows
enviroment would be the most accomodating for a non
production MCDBA as you wouldn't have any Oracle,etc.
burnout baggage{with legs} to deal with.The FED is
currently going native all over so definitely keep your
radar tuned to FED listings if you are of that persuasion.
I'm not throwing away 22+ years total myself for some
private sector MS hostile, copyright violating
pirates .I'd just as soon bust them,if you catch my
meaning.
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