Oracle's Certification Benefit?

Question

I have become disappointed in Oracle's own recognition of their Certification programs. I am currently OCP for 7.x,8.0,8i, & 9i, (and taking 10g and '10g on Linux Expert' in about a week.) I have been Oracle certified for almost 10years now.
Even upon completing 8i and 9i, Oracle neglected to send a cheesy Lapel Pin, as they had done in the past. I have visited the OCP website often, to see 'come back to look for more benefits soon' and a discount on Oracle Press Books. (Shopping EBAY often leads to better discounts.) Has anyone ever seen any other benefits (excepting attending OpenWorld?)
Having considered getting a Certified Master credential, I have determined it is cost prohibitive. Without a sponsoring organization, $2000 for a test, plus 2 ILT's, a total of $6k-10k seems excessive. Over the past 10 years, I have already spent upwards of $16k on my own education.
Oracle has not gotten the word out to managers and employers (via their sales reps) that obtaining a Certification from Oracle denotes any confidence from Oracle.
For those of us who have gone through the trouble of Certification, it would be a useful tool (when securing employment) to have some statistics on the numbers of Certified Individuals, ie:
# of OCP's for 7.x
# of OCP's for 8.0
# of OCP's for 8i
# of OCP's for 9i
# of OCP's for 10g
# of OCP'S HAVING BOTH 7.x and 8.0 (etc)
# of 9i Linux Experts
# of 10g Linux Experts
# of 10g RAC Experts
etc
It would also be useful to seperate these stats by Country, as well. At first, this may seem like an outrageous request (especially if all this information is stored in a MS database 8-) ! ) But if you begin to consider all the new features implemented since 7.x, you begin to realize this should be no big deal. I'll bet if Oracle Certification department posted the database names and table specifications, OCP's would come out of the woodwork to write the SQL.

Answer 1

That thread is exactly as applicable today as it was ten years ago... which is not saying a great deal. Generally the people who vehemently insist that IT certifications have no value have an agenda. Either they aren't certified, or failed a test and so must take the tack that the tests are useless and don't assess real-world knowledge. That said, the arguments against certifications generally come in some variant of the following:
- People cheat on the tests and therefore having a certification is not a reliable means of determining knowledge.
- The topics on the tests doesn't cover what you need to know in the real world.
- Employers 'in the know' realize the certifications aren't useful and ignore them.
People who are willing to cheat on the tests are probably also willing to lie about their experience, 'enhance' their resumes, and try to gain enough of a surface veneer of knowledge using 'Oracle Interview Question' books to try to get an interview and skate through it. Certifications didn't create these people and eliminating certifications won't make them go away. Any hiring manager must take due diligence to weed them out during the interview. For that matter, cheating is rampant in the universities these days. My wife taught college-level History and had 1-2 in every class that blatantly cheated on their work. You don't generally see people claiming that this means college degrees have become useless.
I write certification study guides. I know about the information that is asked on these tests. The vast majority of the information that is in the topics is valuable to know. I will grant that upgrade tests tend to be all over the map, and may test you on features that you might personally not use. I will also say that understanding the topics on the certification exams is not enough to be able to perform the activities of a DBA, Developer, etc. However, a test that truly covered all of the information you really need to know for that would be nearly impossible to write, to study for, and to pass. What the tests do provide is a general background in the information that someone working in that field should be cognizant of.
The last point I can state from personal experience is baloney. I have seen certifications provide a positive factor from both sides of the interview table. There is no way that a candidate with an 11G DBA OCP but no experience would be hired over a candidate with no certification but several years of experience. However, they do act to tip the balance in making decisions and they do help when resumes are in the initial sort process for determining who to interview. Even when the hiring DBAs don't give much weight to certifications, they never act as a negative factor. No hiring manager decides not to hire a candidate that's a good fit simply because they have an OCP and the manager feels OCPs don't mean anything.
Outside of the three above points, I can tell you that I am a better programmer and DBA in part because of certifications. I earned several certifications soon after the program started, but then didn't do anything to upgrade for several years. I didn't take the 9i DBA upgrade test until 10G had been out for several years. When I finally studied for the upgrade test, I found several PL/SQL enhancements that answered problems I was experiencing in development. I immediately started writing better code because I went after that certification. If you actually study for the test as you should, then that process will increase your value as an Oracle professional and boost your career prospects. Having the piece of paper and a line for your resume is just icing on the cake.