Oracle Certification

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the new Oracle Certification Program Blog. We hope that you’ll enjoy this as a great way for those of us on the Oracle Certification team to share information and updates into what’s going on in the program.

Because we here at Oracle are hard at work each day to maximize the value of your Oracle certification, we look forward to sharing insights with you about what we are doing and why are doing it.

Several weeks of brainstorming amongst the certification team has resulted in a list of topics that we feel I should discuss in the blog. Honestly - this list got pretty long. Sparing you the lengthy details, here are a few examples:

- What is the Oracle program doing to help curb cheating?
- What is the real value of certification?
- How should I go about studying for the Oracle exams?
- My certificate took longer than I expected to arrive. Why?
- Why does Oracle have a training requirement?
- What should I do if I have a problem?

I look forward to covering not only these topics, but many more as well. Watch for new posts once or twice per week. My hope that it will give you some good insight to the ‘behind the scenes’ workings of the Oracle Certification Program.

For comments, ideas, and/or suggestions, please email us at paul-blog_ww@oracle.com.

Regards,

Paul Sorensen
Director, Oracle Certification

I often hear questions such as: "Is it worth it to get certified?", "Should I get my team certified?", and "What is the value of certification?"

To answer these questions, I often share the key data points in our latest Global Oracle Certification Program Survey. More recently I’ve also found myself sharing some additional perspective points that I have come to believe quite strongly:

The real value of certification isn’t so much the ‘piece of paper’ you receive, although this is indeed an important token of your achievement. The true value sought by professionals and their clients is found in the steps that a person must goes through in order to pass the required exams.

Everyone can identify with the anxiety that comes with the prospect of taking a test. In preparation, most people have to study: train, read, research and practice. I see a lot of people that even create flash cards or their own practice questions. Serious preparation is typically a tedious process that is done over the course of several days, weeks or even months. There is plenty of time to learn and absorb the topics/concepts and to get some ‘hands-on time’ with the technology. It is this very studying that leads to greater learning and understanding - hence creating a great value for each of the customers whom hires this professional to work on their systems.

I want to point out that this principle applies to anyone of almost any level of experience. The breadth and depth of what is covered on the exams (or the exam objectives) typically requires even experienced professionals to prepare well – think, practice, train and study. If this process is taken seriously, then it is almost certain that they will learn something new or understand something old a little better.

Regards,

Paul Sorensen
Director, Oracle Certification

Obviously you all know that I think certification is great. It can be an important career-building tool for people who take the process seriously (see my previous blog entry). However it’s my strong feeling that certification alone is only a part of the equation in building your career. There are other very important factors that you should consider if you want to advance and expand your career. Some suggestions are:

• Broaden your job experience - Volunteer for a tough new project at work or volunteer to manage your local junior soccer team’s website. Pursue things that expand your experience and help you meet (and impress) new people.
• Get additional training - You might need to take training in conjunction with your certification, but if possible don’t stop there. There are many opportunities for additional training - advanced courses, self-study CDs, online courses, white papers, etc.
• Increase your product experience - Download the latest version of the product, install it locally and become familiar with it. Don’t forget to review any accompanying documentation or white papers.
• Finish your university, college or technical degree (if possible) - If you are close, why not finish it up?
• Build your reference base - To get a good job or promotion, you need people who are willing to vouch for you. Work hard to build trust with your peers, bosses and associates. As a part of this effort, focus on improving your communication skills.

Getting certified is a great way to build your career. Going through the certification process will help you increase your knowledge, expand your skill-set and boost your confidence. However certification alone is not enough. You should include some of the items above to help expand your career even further. You never know - it might just put you on the fast track!

Note to Hiring Managers: Just as candidate should not stake their careers solely on certification, you should not hire someone just because they are certified. Certification is an important factor and should play a role in your hiring process, but you should also base your hiring decisions on experience, education/training and communication skills (among other things). Most importantly you should follow up carefully with the candidate’s references. By looking at the whole package and verifying the details with multiple references you will improve your chances of hiring the right candidate.

Paul Sorensen | Director, Oracle Certification

For everyone waiting for the comments feature to be enabled: I’m glad to say this has now been enabled and we are ready to take your comments. I'll try to work in answers to your questions in among the topics that we have planned.

If you have support-related questions, or questions specifically about your certification, exam or experience, please direct them to ocpexam_ww@oracle.com (vs. here in the blog).
 
Although many are enthusiastic about Oracle certification, we understand that some may have strong negative feelings about Oracle Certification or one of my blog topics. We welcome your comments, but as a reminder - please keep your comments civilized. (i.e. policy prohibits posting anything inflammatory, insulting or that contains coarse language.) Thanks for your support on this.

Paul Sorensen | Director, Oracle Certification

Recently we’ve received several questions about our developer certification offerings (including comments in this blog). I’m happy to let you know that we’ve been working on a new certification offering in the developer space and it’s just being released in beta now. The new track is an alternative OCP path for PL/SQL Developer OCAs and is called the Oracle Advanced PL/SQL Developer OCP.

With the addition of this new track, PL/SQL Developer OCAs can choose either the Forms Developer OCP or the new Advanced PL/SQL Developer OCP (or they can pursue both). I’ve had a number of people talk to me about additional options for developers so I’m particularly excited about this track.

Here are some important links associated with the new track:

• Certification Track: Oracle Advanced PL/SQL Developer
  
• Certification Exam: Oracle Database 11g Advanced PL/SQL (Exam 1Z0-146)
  
• Exam Registration
• OU Recommended Training
  

We need qualified developers to take participate in the beta. This helps us get the exam out in production sooner. Exam price for betas is only $50 (US).

Please Note: If you are not a PL/SQL OCA but have passed some combination of our developer exams, you may still be eligible to earn this new OCP credential:

If you have passed one of our SQL exams (1Z0-001, 1Z0-007, 1Z0-047 or 1Z0-051) AND one of our PL/SQL exams (1Z0-101 or 1Z0-147) then you can get your OCP by passing the new 1Z0-146 Oracle Database 11g Advanced PL/SQL exam.

If you are not sure whether you qualify, send your questions to ocpexam_ww@oracle.com.

Paul Sorensen | Director, Oracle Certification

For those of you headed to Oracle OpenWorld 2008 in San Francisco this year, there are a number of certification-related items that you might want to check out:

1. Exam Cram Series: "Oracle Database 11g New Features.” Sunday, September 21 from 9:00a to 5:00p. Pre-registration is required. More information here.
2. On-Site Certification Testing: Four straight days (Monday -Thursday), with two testing sessions each day. Location: Moscone South #252.
3. OCP Lounge: If you are an OCP, come spend some time in the lounge. We have about 20 workstations set up for email, practice exams, and browsing. Periodically they even bring in some snacks. Location: Moscone South #250.
4. Meet some of the team members who manage the Oracle Certification Program. We will be hanging out around the OCP lounge and the Testing Center on the Mezzanine level of Moscone South – Rooms #250 and #252.

I hope to see some of you at the conference. Please don’t hesitate to come by and introduce yourself, ask a question and/or provide us some feedback.

Thanks!

Paul Sorensen | Director, Oracle Certification

QUICK LINKS:

• Oracle Certification Program
• Oracle OpenWorld 2008
• Oracle Certification at OpenWorld 2008