Cobol programmer to Oracle DBA

[hugheskbh]

Hi All,

I'm very interested in becoming a Oracle DBA. I've been a mainframe and midrange programmer for many years with expertise in Cobol and RPG. I've also been a SQLSERVER DBA (this was along with my programming duties). I know some oracle, but not enough to get hired as a Oracle DBA. Please give me some direction on getting started. I would love to find a position as a Jr. DBA, but I'm also very confident in myself that I can learn oracle quickly. Again, if anyone has any suggestions that would help me, I'm very interested in hearing from you.

Thanks

Ken

 

[SantaMufasa]

Hugh,

The license tag/plate on my car in 1988 (when I began my 9-year tenure with Oracle) was "CP COBOL". Although it's been years since I fancied myself as "Captain COBOL", I know well where you are coming from.

Among my suggestions for quickly getting up to speed with Oracle are:

1) Get access to an Oracle installation that you can play with. You can download evaluation copies of Oracle for your PC. Start at

http://www.oracle.com.

2) Get good books. There are several copies of good, applicable books via Amazon.com. The "Oracle Press" series of books are excellent and relatively affordable. Their titles will indicate how applicable they will be for you. McGraw-Hill/Osborne are the publishers of the "Oracle Press" series.

3) Get some training. Classes from Oracle Education have always seemed pricey compared to alternatives. But you are also getting training right from the source. Then again, there are very excellent instructor-led classes available from providers outside of Oracle.

Another training source is computer-based training (CBT). Oracle offers CBT and so do others.

There are those, however, that learn just as fast (and far less expensively) from getting their hands on a good book (Item 2) and the product (Item 1).

4) Get access to a professional. You will always have questions while becoming familiar with a new piece of complex software. Tek-Tips is a site for professionals to answer questions for professionals. If you word any questions here as a professional, you might find some answers here. In your case, a willing buddy who is an experienced Oracle DBA is going to probably be your best bet on this issue.

Good luck,

Mufasa (aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA @ 00:33 (29Jan04) GMT, 17:33 (28Jan04) Mountain Time)