WHICH database certification is the most marketable? (SQL Server, Oracle, DB2)?

	WHICH database certification is the most marketable? (SQL Server, Oracle, DB2)? For one of my new years goals, I have decided to try to get 1, just 1 at least, certification before the end of the year. I am about to go into my last year of college and would love to bag a certification along w/ my degree. I am planning on trying to be a DBA when I get out. I am enrolled in a 4 year computer science program. Which certification would work best considering my timeframe? (12 months) Which brand of database has a bigger shortage of DBAs? (I.e. bigger demand) Asked By: rivera573344 - 1/7/2010

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About 5 years ago, some University professors did a study of DBAs in the U.S. They found that about 40?f all the DBAs were foreign-born nationals. Your chance of getting a job as a DBA is virtually zero, because you will have no hands-on experience (and if you were born in the USA, it will just be a lot more difficult). So your best chance to someday become a DBA is to first get a job as some kind of programmer, analyst, data extractor, or Web site technician. You must choose between the small company that is using Microsoft SQL-Server or the big Fortune-500 company that is using Oracle. The big companies tend to outsource their DBA work to the WiPro and InfoSys companies. They employ the Indians in the U.S. office alongside the (handful) of American workers who analyze the data and design the next application. So your chance of getting to do any DBA work is zero in most big companies. Now in the smaller companies that employ mostly Americans and use Microsoft SQL-Server, you might get to help the senior DBA with a few tasks from time-to-time. So over a period of years, you could become the junior DBA or jump ship and become THE database admin guy at another small company that uses Microsoft SQL-Server. But keep in mind that many small companies also use Linux and MySQL, so it would be of some benefit to learn MySQL as well. I passed the 5 cert tests for Oracle 8i several years ago and garnered just ONE interview and I had 9 years of database development and SQL work experience at the time with Sybase and Informix (and a tidbit of Microsoft SQL-Server). The USA is currently flooded with 100s of highly experienced Oracle DBAs and Microsoft DBAs, so I all but gave up on trying to break into that line of work. Today I would be happy to get any kind of I.T. related job. Good luck with your degree, but be sure to visit the discussion forums at Dice.com to see what you'll be faced with. Answered By: John B. - 1/7/2010

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Oracle DBA Answered By: ms in va - 1/7/2010

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