RE: Learn Cloud or Do Oracle OCM ..confused

A few thoughts –

As I think you can see from the other responses, the consensus is that certifications, in and of themselves, are not as valuable as the vendors of said certifications would like us to believe. IMHO, Mladen hit all of the salient points dead on.

That said – Performance is critically important, and becoming more so every day. However, the complexity “under the covers” is ALSO increasing. I haven’t counted lately how many init parameters there are in Oracle; but, at least (from Oracle 6) through 12, the number (if one includes the “hidden” parameters) was on a non-linear increasing curve. Also, while you may not aspire to Project or Team management today, at some point in your career someone is going to ask you to “take the lead”, and a “Gee, I’d rather not” response, or failure for lack of skills could be, as is said, “career limiting”.

Also, consider that 30 years ago (about when I started this nonsense), programming in C was a “new” skillset and all the rage (and COBOL was “dead”). Now, Oracle is threatening the ubiquity of Java by charging for the runtime, and there are MANY more choices, including object-oriented variants of C, COBOL and others, as well as Python, Ruby, ad infinitum.

A wise professor, when I took my Masters in Software Engineering, observed that “The gaps between ‘so-called journeymen’ in software is wider than in almost any other profession – where else would you find ‘experienced professionals’ with gaps (he was talking about ‘lines of code that passed tests/per day’) as wide as 5 or 10 times.

When I was hiring (DBAS and coders, in previous lives, now all I do is talk to people and sell stuff 😊); I took an approach quite similar to what I expect Mladen was implying – I looked for people with specific skillsets, of course; but ALSO for people who:

1. Knew what they didn’t know (and admitted it)
2. When faced with an unknown, responded along the line, “I don’t know; but, here’s how I would approach learning about and solving the problem”
3. Showed the ability to work on teams, either as a subordinate or a leader
4. Showed the ability to learn new things
5. Showed an interest in our business
6. Were open to change (which, after all, is the only “constant”

Clay Jackson
Database Solutions Sales Engineer
clay.jackson_at_quest.com<mailto:clay.jackson_at_quest.com> office 949-754-1203 mobile 425-802-9603 [cid:image002.png_at_01D58D8D.B168ACB0]

From: kunwar singh <krishsingh.111_at_gmail.com> Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2019 1:59 PM To: Clay Jackson (cjackson) <Clay.Jackson_at_quest.com> Cc: ORACLE-L <oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Subject: Re: Learn Cloud or Do Oracle OCM ..confused

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Hi Clay,
Thanks for your email . Very helpful insights . Your reply has been very helpful . At the same time it is making me wonder if your reply would be more relevant to me if were a project manager leading a group . But i am an individual contributor ( not leading people ) and would like to remain one and usually individual contributors are hired based on a skill set and I am seeking to develop those skills . And that is where my question came from . Please correct me if you think I am wrong .

On Sat, Oct 26, 2019 at 1:41 PM Clay Jackson (cjackson) <Clay.Jackson_at_quest.com<mailto:Clay.Jackson_at_quest.com>> wrote: To be brutally honest - Certifications in general are a good indicator of someone’s ability to memorize answers and “parrot” responses. While I’ve found Oracle Certifications “better than most” as far as “suitability for employment in a specific organization” indicators; they are still just ONE factor in a complex human interaction.

So, this “Grumpy Old Guy’s” recommendation would be to concentrate on the “human factors”, learning about why IT is important to business, how to interact with people on project teams, how to adapt to change, and being a good “generalist” as opposed to some specific technology which will be out of date by the time you get your certification.

Clay Jackson

From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org> <oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org>> On Behalf Of kunwar singh Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2019 6:52 AM To: ORACLE-L <oracle-l_at_freelists.org<mailto:oracle-l_at_freelists.org>> Subject: Learn Cloud or Do Oracle OCM ..confused

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Hi all,

What would be more beneficial in the long term in your opinion?

Oracle OCM certification (and things learned during its time preparation ) or learning cloud .

I don’t want to do both as don’t get much free time and want to gain expert level knowledge so that I am gainfully employed for next 5 years or so .

I am oracle performance dba in my current role .

So looking for insights on what community members here think .

I am interested in both , but thinking what value OCM will hold with all the cloud focus these days . In my job I am getting chance to play with python , so atleast I am learning a new skill currently too.

Rgds,
Kunwar

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Cheers,
Kunwar
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Cheers,
Kunwar

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