I'm at kind of a critical point in my career after a major relocation. I've been in IT for about eight years as a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, but I see that in order to reach the upper levels, you have to decide to master something. I seem to have settled on the MCDBA track with a goal of Database/Data Warehouse Project Management down the road. What is your general opinion of this? Is the MCDBA or the Oracle certification better? Or are both necessary to be ideally prepared?
The MCDBA credential continues to grow by size of certified population and in perceived value and presence in the workplace. Thus, it's a pretty good credential to have: one that's held its value recently better than MCSA/MCSE, in fact. As for comparing MCDBA or Oracle, it's like asking truck lovers if Chevy is better than Ford, or vice-versa. Oracle still dominates the market, but job opportunities and pay for OCPs and MCDBAs appear to be about on par. As for your final question: if you want to work in an environment where both SQL Server and Oracle are used, obtaining both certs will probably be helpful; otherwise, you can focus on the credential that puts you into the workplaces you favor most.

This was first published in December 2003

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