Post #88,655
3/16/03 2:16:20 AM
3/16/03 2:24:06 AM
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The better cert to get: DB2 or MySQL?
Perhaps this should be in the Database topic? It is both, actually. That is why sets are better than trees for classification.
BTW, an article about MySQL
[link|http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/03/12/fortune.ff.open.source/index.html|http://www.cnn.com/2...source/index.html]
Regarding quote: "MySQL is to Oracle as Linux is to Windows. It will slowly but steadily creep up the food chain, just like Linux has." I think it is more on par with MS-SQL-Server, not Oracle. Oracle is still the king of scaling and MySQL has a long way to go before getting there.
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Edited by tablizer
March 16, 2003, 02:24:06 AM EST
The better cert to get: DB2 or MySQL?
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Post #88,666
3/16/03 9:40:54 AM
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DB2
You can climb a lot higher up the food chain with a DB2 cert than a MySQL cert. Also, I think the article is wrong... the one that will climb up the chain is going to be PostgreSQL, not MySQL. Certainly, Postgres is a better starting point.
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Post #88,668
3/16/03 9:51:24 AM
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DB2
The exams aren't that bad. I took both the User and Admin exams last summer in one day and passed them both.
Oracle is 4 exams, I think. And SQL Server is 6 (MCDBA requires passing W2K Server AND a programming language, what's up with that?)
I was originally going to say that if you can pass the DB2 exams and dress nice and be polite, you can probably get a job in IBM Global Services. But, the guy that come out to our site about 3 weeks ago didn't dress nice, and was late to his appointments, and didn't follow up very well.
Half of success is showing up on time, being diligent, listening, and being polite. Master those, and the DB2 part should be cinch.
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Post #88,702
3/16/03 5:21:40 PM
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DB2
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Post #89,006
3/18/03 2:56:05 AM
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Thanks for the advice guys
The only thing though is that I never actually touched a real DB2 database. I would have to lie about that on my resume. Lying is not something I excel at because I have too little practice. I was raised under a religion that promised fire and brimstone if one lied.
Any recommendations on study guides for DB2, BTW?
Hmmmm. What about a Postgre cert?
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Post #89,048
3/18/03 9:45:57 AM
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Try this...
[link|http://www-3.ibm.com/software/data/education.html|http://www-3.ibm.com...ta/education.html]
They have some free, downloadable self-study courses.
If you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
-Henry Ford
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Post #89,060
3/18/03 10:48:10 AM
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More
I had a post a while back that had a Bunch of resources, I think in the Databases forum.
IBM has a 90 day eval download policy, so take advantage of that.
Also, you might get DB2 Certification for Dummies. It was the most helpful book I used to get certified.
Finally, I really wouldn't spend time certifying without spending some time (90 days, perhaps?) working with the product.
I really can't stand people who pass certification, but have never actually used the product!
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Post #89,351
3/19/03 3:31:04 AM
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But what if OSS eats into DB2?
Finally, I really wouldn't spend time certifying without spending some time (90 days, perhaps?) working with the product. I really can't stand people who pass certification, but have never actually used the product!
Well, that is why I was leaning toward MySQL.
While I agree that DB2 is more of a "big gun" DB probably with more salary in the long run, I am thinking short to medium term right now, and having some actual MySQL exposure seems would be a leg up, especially on a resume. I am focusing on survivle in IT right now, not BMW's.
Besides, what happens if the OSS DB's (like Postgre) start eating into the Oracle's and DB2's? DB2 DBA's will then be in glut-ville, no?
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Post #89,398
3/19/03 9:58:46 AM
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It will be a while before that happens
The products are not up to the really big jobs yet. IMhO, of course.
Also, a lot of the knowledge you gain (ie- the basic principles) will be portable from one to the other. If you need to cert postgres later, it will be easy after certing db2 (well, relatively easy, anyway).
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Post #90,756
3/23/03 5:16:17 PM
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What are the drawbacks of MySQL certification?
Okay, it may not result in a huge big-brow stuffy fortune 500 database positition, but other than that, is there less demand for MySQL certs or something?
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Post #90,767
3/23/03 5:34:55 PM
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Who's going to pay for people with certs?
Small business, or big ones? Which DBs are the ones in use in the environment that hires people?
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Post #91,190
3/24/03 8:52:52 PM
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Very good questions
Are you saying small companies don't care about certs? Why not? They are picky about everything else under the sun. If OSS DB's are selling/growing faster than proprietary ones.....?
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Post #91,275
3/25/03 12:12:59 AM
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They might care
The question is, can they afford it? Certs are very expensive, and ongoing maintenance of certification is becoming more and more financially onerous for consulting firms, as desperate software firms are looking at cert programs as a way to make revenue from their client base (resellers/consultants/VARs), instead of as a driver to help build business for the actual product. Couple that with the massive consolidation in the IT consulting industry, and you end up in a situation where consultancies are not interested in small clients because they can't get the economies of scale to justify the cost, and small clients can't afford the premium they have to pay to the consulting firms just for being small. Not enough certified consultants to go around, and they prefer to concentrate on the big boys because the big boys are the ones that can pay for the big jobs.
Look at it this way. Let's say you're a small company that sells educational equipment; overheads, chalkboards, chalk, notebooks, that sort of thing. You've got two partners, a part time secretary, and various outside sales folks that throw business your way for a piece of the action. Your business is growing, and you're getting to the point where tracking all the pieces you sell is getting hard; you're now carrying enough stuff that you just can't keep it on index cards anymore. So, you want to digitize. You want to be able to stick it all in a db, have a little front end that's going to track your customers, your orders, your invoices, and the parts so you can keep a grip on your inventory (inventory getting out of hand is one of the major things that kills small but growing businesses like this). you want to be able to put it on the web so your outside contacts can go get information from you without bugging you personally anymore, and can input an order so you can start prepping for delivery right away.
You don't want to deal with spreadsheets because you know that you've never managed to keep a spreadsheet going with that kind of data in it for long enough to actually use it; once it gets past a certain point, the sheet is just unmanageable, and eventually it's going to blow up anyway and then all your data is gone.
Where are you going to go? A system like that from a company like EDS is going to cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars at least, and will also involve ongoing licensing costs on an annual basis. There's no way you can deal with that. So, you look around at the midrange. You can get a zOS machine for fifteen or twenty K, but again you have the ongoing costs, and it also makes you completely dependent on your vendor and you still have to pay somebody 200$/Hr (from the vendor, natch) to actually build the system for you, and that's probably going to take what, a few hundred hours at least? So, what are you going to do? Your business' margin after you and your partner pay for your living expenses is not that large, but at least your not on the Bataan death march anymore, but the simple fact is that ponying up the dough for something like that is simply not going to happen because your house is already hocked to the max to get the money to get the business going in the first place, and the simple fact of the matter is that the bank is not going to take the risk on you, because they're completely risk averse these days after watching a whole bunch of their money go up in smoke over the last two years.
It's a catch-22 that many businesses find themselves in. They've gotten big enough to start needing stuff, but they're not big enough to be able to compete with the corner the big firms have managed to lay on the IT labour market. They need to look outside the box, but they don't even know they're in a box.
If you do MySQL, you can reach those people, but that means you're going to have to be a salesman first and a programmer second. If you don't want to be a salesman, do DB2 and get into servicing the corpse^R^R market instead.
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Post #91,693
3/26/03 12:31:36 AM
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Price and duration?
I could not find the price of the exams at IBM. VUE (sp?) testing centers did not list prices either.
Also, when a new DB version comes out, is the old cert worthless or unprovable? How are old certs viewed in the eyes of companies? what if a new version comes out right after one finishes the exams?
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Post #91,734
3/26/03 8:26:13 AM
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Re: Price and duration?
Depends on the company; once you're in, most companies will pay to keep you current. Old certs are not worthless, but they are worth less, if you follow my meaning.
As for prices, contact local training centers; they're the ones you'll be getting it from, in all likelihood.
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