Certifications

I have several certifications, including:

• Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associate
• Oracle 9i Database Administrator Certified Professional
• Special Accreditation: Managing Oracle9i on Linux
• Oracle Database 10g Administrator Certified Professional
• Oracle Application Server 10g Administrator Certified Associate
• Foundation Certificate in IT-Service Management

It's not necessary for my job to have these certifications, but they're nice to have, mostly for my own satisfaction, but they also add a level of confidence with my customers. And they are not too expensive if you write the beta exams ($50USD versus $125USD). Also, I find the beta exams force you to know more, since they generally have more questions than the production exams.

Once every few years, I'll go on a splurge of writing certification exams. I've just recently written the beta exams for:

• 1Z1-047 Oracle Database SQL Expert
• 1Z1-046 Oracle Database 10g: Managing Oracle on Linux for DBAs

These are part of the Oracle Expert Program. I won't know for a few months whether or not I passed, but I am pretty confidant that I was successful.

I am also currently planning to write the following exams:

• 1Z1-048 Oracle Database 10g R2: Administering Real Application Clusters (RAC)
• 1Z1-050 Oracle Database 11g New Features *
• 1Z1-312 Oracle Application Server 10g: Administration II

* Oracle recently announced this exam as the upgrade path from 10g DBA OCP to 11g DBA OCP. It seems that it will be available in October, 2007.

I think for now, I'll concentrate on the RAC exam, once I finish installing 11g and 10g on my test system. Then, write the upgrade to 11g DBA OCP, and finally (probably early next year, I'll plan to take the AS10g exam, since this will upgrade my OCA certification to OCP for the application server.

I had plans to write the "Oracle Forms Developer Certified Professional" (it would be nice to have the bragging rights to have obtained the "triumvirate" of the OCP certifications :) but I simply haven't found the time to dedicate to learning forms in such detail.

Phew! And I thought I was done with exams after high school! :)