Career Advice: Check Job Listings Before Making Career Decisions

Iggy,

I have been working in Sales for 25 years (software & services). Being that the economy is tough and sales positions are getting more and more compressed, I have been really wanting to become an Oracle DBA. However, I simply cannot afford the 3k-15k dollars it would take to take Oracle’s training classes not to mention take the time off of work.

I have reviewed your book on Amazon.com (although I have not bought it yet). Would you recommend someone like me to read your book and become an Oracle Certified Associate DBA? Or is there any other path you would recommend?

Kindly,

J. [name withheld]

J,

I suggest that you first check job listings to get a sense of what employers are looking for. Here is a sample of entry-level job listings from Indeed.com: http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=title%3A((junior+or+jr+or+entry)+and+DBA)&limit=100.

You can download and install the Oracle software onto your laptop free of charge for self-educational purposes (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/indexes/downloads/index.html). I can recommend the free publication “2 Day DBA” to help you get started (http://www.oracle.com/pls/db112/homepage).

Luckily, expensive instructor-led classroom training is not mandated for those wishing to acquire Oracle Certified Associate (OCA) certification. Certification will give you something to show for your effort. The OCA syllabus is posted at http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=198. If you decide to pursue the certification, you should consider investing in a study guide such as OCA: Oracle Database 11g Administrator Certified Associate Study Guide: (Exams1Z0-051 and 1Z0-052) which covers both exams that you need to take (http://www.amazon.com/OCA-Administrator-Certified-Associate-Exams1Z0-051/dp/0470395125).

My book is an introduction to the subject of database administration, not an exam study guide. You can preview it at books.google.com (http://books.google.com/books?id=pdSLnG66WQkC&printsec=frontcover). It was reviewed positively by Chen Shapira (http://prodlife.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/everything-a-junior-dba-should-know-a-book-review/) and Marko Sutic (http://msutic.blogspot.com/2009/08/book-review-beginning-oracle-database.html).

Kind regards,

Iggy

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