An interesting point was raised by some Anonymous person from my last
post, they said:
"After meeting
some OCMs that were barely adequate in their Oracle
knowledge I firmly believe there is no challenge in OCM and I'm
convinced the Oracle certification in general is waster of time and
money ... or my standards are just too high
...."
Is this right you reckon? I
wouldn't have thought so. Let me explain my
reasoning...
There's currently three (main) levels
of DBA certification from Oracle.
look at them, there's obviously quite a lot of skill level difference.
I have a feeling you (Mr/Mrs Anonymous) might have
been meeting people with either OCA, (which means they're just starting
out with Oracle technology so their Oracle knowledge could be described
as "barely adequate" to the likes of you...) or someone with an older
OCP like me...
(Before anyone
arc's up let me explain!!) I received my 8i OCP a few
years ago now, and when I got the certification, it was a lot to do
with book learnin', I reckon I could have passed just by reading books
and searching the internet for sample exams, which backs up your
arguement of "barely adequate", no hands on, real world, production,
nitty gritty, arms elbow deep in crashed database, ORA-600's flying
left right and centre, junior DBA on one side of you saying "what's
this do...?", manager on the other saying "We need to run a payrun in
the next 1/2 hour!" ...etc etc.
However if you have
a look now, you'll notice there's hands
on courses you have to attend before going for your
certification, so they're making it harder to get certified, which can
only be a good thing for us hard core dba's to achieve, and prove that
we are worth the money we expect to get paid...
And
the OCM, well, have you SEEN what they have to go through.... far out!
I challenge anyone, ANYONE to go for the OCM
exam without have an "extremely adequate knowledge" of not
only the 10g database, but the tools associated with it... I may be
wrong, any OCMers can jump on and tell me how easy it was :-) I know
I'd feel much better!
So, anyway, it's not what I
was expecting to write about today, but it's good that people are
interested, thankyou Mr/Mrs Anonymous for replying, it's meant I've had
to research more on the different levels of certification, making me
more determined to get there...
Comments (5)
"However if you have a look now, you'll notice there's hands on courses you have to attend before going for your certification, so they're making it harder to get certified"
Not necessarily true. They're making it *more expensive* to be certified. Why should an experienced DBA have to pay a couple of thousand dollars to attend a course when they could pass the exams in a breeze? I was very lucky that I took my certification for a laugh (using free exams at conferences), *just* before the course requirment was introduced. The exams were ludicrously easy and I passed with flying colours. If I was to gain certification now I would have to attend a course?!?!
Having to pay for a course is not the only way to make things harder.
Posted by Doug Burns | May 26, 2006 1:16 PM
Posted on May 26, 2006 13:16
I think your goal a achieving the OCP Master is a good one. I often used to smile when someone said, the Oracle Certification is not worth the paper it is written on. Those are the same people that often, don't value any certification. But my thoughts are, there are alot of people that are out there with great knowledge about certain disciplines, but they never went to college. Maybe they also never went to graduate school. It's not about the Certificate. It's about the process of learning. It's about the process of trying to challenge yourself. Keep up the good work, I have met plenty of PHDs that can't write or are not very articulate. That doesn't mean that the PHD is not worth achieving.
Keep going, I will read your progress.
Posted by Robert Dawson | May 26, 2006 3:16 PM
Posted on May 26, 2006 15:16
All the best in your quest. I am also planning to do the same and was looking for someone who is trying for the same to share experiecnces. I am still at initial stages of clearing 9i & 10g OCP papers. So just behind you, so may be days which i will take is little more longer, but hope to complete .. (Lets say i dont loose initiative...) Keep sharing your experineces.
regards
Pravin
Posted by Pravin | June 26, 2006 1:00 PM
Posted on June 26, 2006 13:00
Gosh, how can anyone state that ANY Oracle certification exam would be piece of cake!!! I'm just studying for my first certification (OCA) and I'm sure it's gonna be a tough exam... Gladly the sql-part can be taken via the web :)
Good luck for your other certifications - I read you're just studying for some :)
Cheers,
Erika (a finn in Belgium :)
Posted by Erika | January 11, 2007 5:45 AM
Posted on January 11, 2007 05:45
As a newbie OCM myself, I can understand a lot of sentiments expressed in this post. The Practicum is really hard, and I have heard that most people do not pass it the first time. But it cuts both ways; Oracle is indeed making things very expensive for non-Oracle employees (prereqs = OCP, 2 classes and $2000). Yet, on the other hand, it is quite a prestigious group to belong to. I am probably at the lower end of skill level in the OCM realm, and I know it, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to get better. And just because I might be a low-level OCM does NOT mean that I am new to Oracle DBA work. *grin* You cannot pass the test without knowing your stuff.
My personal feeling is that if Oracle really cared about an objective value (as opposed to a subjective value) of their certification, they would do a much better job writing and administrating tests. In my opinion, they should do away with the OCA, rename the OCP to OCA, and rename the OCM to OCP. A true Master would then be someone who is *really* qualified, a certified EXPERT. I am not an expert, but I am pretty good at what I do. Also, by going this route, they could drop the ridiculous prerequisites - if you fail, too bad; go take a class. =)
Posted by Charles Schultz | March 1, 2007 8:32 AM
Posted on March 1, 2007 08:32