May 2013 Oracle Certification E-Magazine

We all want to get the best jobs, work on great projects, attract and retain top employees, and advance our careers. As we all know, there's no "holy grail" or single tool to accomplish all of that (despite my wishes). Rather, these goals require a multitude of skill combinations, work and life experiences, temperaments, ambitions, and a latticework of training courses/programs over the years. When the moment comes for you to find the best person for a project or acquire a full-time employee to work in your group, you get mere moments to try and assess all of these pieces and more. As a candidate, those same "mere moments" apply to you as you try and showcase your best in an extremely short amount of time. 

Here at Oracle University we devote the specific attention of a cross-section of experts to architecting and delivering exams that separate the qualified from the 'not so qualified'. A very exacting science goes into the craft of building each test question, the resulting correct answer and each distractor (incorrect answer), the time allotments, the sequencing of the questions, the alpha and beta testing, and determine the exact cut score that is required to pass the exam.

Now while no employer should use this as a single tool to evaluate for advancement and new hires, it is an excellent resource to evaluate candidate technical ability. Candidates and management alike can review the knowledge domains and objectives for any our exams directly on our website at certification.oracle.com - where we list exactly what the qualified candidate has demonstrated that they are able to do and how well they can do it.

Candidates often use preparing for an Oracle Certification as both a training framework and an advancement tool, where the required work, study and practice pushes them in areas far outside the comfort zone of their day-to-day work. This broadening and deepening of skill sets is seen as a key advantage for both candidates and employer.

In this quarter's edition of the Oracle Certification E-Magazine, we focus on endorsing a new set of industry gurus in Oracle Database 11g Release 2 SQL Tuning and Oracle Exadata X3 Administration with the release of two new certifications: the "Oracle Certified Expert, Oracle Database 11g Release 2 SQL Tuning" and "Oracle Exadata X3 Administration Oracle Certified Expert" - both Oracle Certified Expert (OCE) certifications, and both requiring passing only a single exam. If you work in these areas, have people working in these areas, or are hiring in these areas - I encourage you to check them out.