First, let’s start by breaking the delusions surrounding resumes.  Resumes are grossly overrated.  The average resume gets read in 10 to 15 seconds and 100′s of resumes are routinely submitted for each posted position.  A common mistake is to confuse productivity with activity.  Instead of spending days agonizing over crafting a resume, write an effective resume and concentrate your efforts on personally getting in front of a decision maker.

In most situations, HR will review your resume before it ever gets to a hiring authority.  So, it is critical that you thoroughly detail your technical skills and experience so that HR will catch the requisite  keywords in their screening process or all that work will be for nought.  The current market is extremely challenging and many resumes never get opened.  We had a recent posting where the employer received over 500 applicants.  HR only screened the first 75.  The hiring department wanted someone to start right away, so they just took four or five out of that initial 75 that they wanted to interview.

A few tips on resumes:

Always use reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent job.  Be sure to have inclusive dates of employment and education.  If you have gaps in your employment history, your resume will probably get tossed. For non-IT people, I recommend that resumes be no more than two pages.  However, for IT positions, four or five pages are OK if needed to have an adequate picture of your skills and experiences. Keep key word searches in mind and be specific about how you used each technology in each position.

Eliminate the ”Objective” and instead tailor your resume to each job.  The ”Summary” also needs to be tailored to that particular position.  Have it mirror, as closely as possible, those portions of your experience that respond directly to the skill set the employer is looking for.  Then, employers will can read further and get confirmation of your qualifications from the resume.

A word about job titles.  Make sure that your resume has clear and understandable job titles and  that they correctly state what you did at your past employers.  Insure that the job titles match the position you’re applying for.  If all of your job titles read “Project Manager”, the hiring authority probably won’t consider you for a “Database Developer” position regardless of your actual skills and experience.  Remember, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck and flies like a duck, it’s probably a duck.

The most effective resumes offer descriptions of experience and success.  The quickest way for you to sell yourself to a hiring authority is through succinct stories of how you tackled past problems and turned them into successes.  Although IT poses some special challenges, a high school senior must be able to understand any resume that you submit.

Tailor your resume to HR since they will be your initial audience. Leave off personal stuff unless it directly relates to something in the job. Avoid any ”dumb” statements;  ask yourself, “Would this statement make me want to speak with you if I were the hiring authority?”  Do not include why you left each job.

People ask about including references in a resume.  Don’t do it.  There is a time and place for references.  If you put them on your resume, and your resume is available on the the internet, people  - often recruiters - may call your references looking for contacts or opportunities.  After a while, you will wear out your references with inquiries that don’t lead anywhere.  References should also be hand picked for a particular position.  Sometimes you’ll need vendors or outside parties who have particular credibility with the prospective employer who can attest to your abilities.  Keep track of former associates and acquaintances by adding them to your social network and updating them on your status from time to time.

Some people craft a global or galactic resume that says they can do anything.  Avoid them as they are usually counterproductive unless the position requires all of those skills.  It is much better to have at least two resumes and tailor them to the particular skill set the employer is seeking.  For some positions, you might want to have a resume that will understate your skills.  This does not mean lying on your resume and you should always be honest with the employer.  It just means that you deemphasize some of your experience so that you don’t overwhelm a hiring manager or appear grossly overqualified for the position.  For example, if you are a Senior IT Director managing 100 people and a $50MM budget, you may be better off to present it as 25 people and $10MM if it more closely fits the particular position that you attempting to land.

In selling yourself to the company, always keep in mind : FAB.  This stands for Features, Advantages, and Benefits.   Attempt to demonstrate how your skills and experience (“features”) have benefited your prior employers (“advantages”), in order to show the prospective employer how you will “benefit” them.

Always call the hiring authority first and tell them why they need to look for your resume.  It’s amazing how rarely this happens.  I’ll receive 200 resumes , but only have three or four people call to follow up.  Even if you can’t get through, a short 15-30 second message asking them to look at your resume will often trigger their looking for yours over someone else’s. If you are fortunate enough to have a conversation, state why you are a good fit, then email a concise, bulleted cover letter with your resume reiterating those points and asking for the interview.

Principle #1)

Be honest – That should be principle number one in your job search.  Obviously, you should not fudge on what you are good at.  However, the other side of being honest is NOT downplaying your strengths.  If you have written an article on PL/SQL, let them know that.  You are not just good, you are GREAT.  Don’t undersell your skills. Don’t oversell your skills.

TIP #1)

Why so excited?  Why do you want the job?

What are the three or four honest reasons why you want the job?  Money can be one of the reasons but it cannot be the only motivator.  Don’t be bashful about stating your reasons.

Do you remember back to when you popped the question to your wife?  You asked her, “Will you marry me?” and what if she asked you, “Why?”  When you make a proposal, you have to be sure that you have a good answer that you can sell with conviction and passion.  Same with your job interview.  You should have genuine passion behind what you say.

What do I talk about during an interview?

If you are on the hiring end, what is the first question that get asked?  Tell me about yourself.  In one of my interviews, the poor guy froze up.  He started back at high school and went through his life story chronologically.  That is not what the employer is looking for which leads us to …

TIP #2)

What is it that the employer really wants to know about you?  Don’t be afraid to turn the question around.  Ask them, “What are the top three things that make someone successful in this job?”  Then ask “What else?” There may be 100 reasons to hire you but you need to find out the five that they are really looking for.

They will start with the HR description.  But in the back of their minds, they may just be looking for someone who is not going to tick off the boss, someone who can work with the group, and someone who is going to work well in this position.

TIP #3)

I want the job

I tell salespeople to just flat out ask for the job.  For non-salespeople, Tony Bashara has a great quote that I’m going to use.  ”This is a great opportunity for both of us…What do I need to do to get the job?”

!!!NEVER, EVER LEAVE THE INTERVIEW WITHOUT ASKING THAT QUESTION!!!

Now, realistically, you might need to consult with a spouse before accepting a job and the terms of employment might not match what you need.  The caveat is that – “based on what I know so far” – I want this job.  Leave room for the dealbreaker.  If they come back with 2 days of vacation, that might not be the place for you.

FINAL THOUGHT: Do the homework.

Track down someone who works there and learn about the company.  This is where preparation meets opportunity.

• Configure database parameters that affect RMAN operations
• Change RMAN default settings with CONFIGURE
• Manage RMAN’s persistent settings
• Start RAM utility and allocate channels
• Use the RMAN BACKUP command to create backup copies and image copies.
• Enable block change tracking
• Manage the backups and image copies taken with RMAN with the LIST and REPORT commands

Introduction to Oracle 9i – SQL (Part One).pdf
http://www.fiocci.com/Textbooks/Introduction%20to%20Oracle%209i%20-%20SQL%20(Part%20One).pdf

Introduction to Oracle 9i – SQL (Part Two).pdf
http://www.fiocci.com/Textbooks/Introduction%20to%20Oracle%209i%20-%20SQL%20(Part%20Two).pdf

http://www.amazon.com/Oracle-Database-Osborne-ORACLE-Press/dp/0072229810

SCHEDULE: We have a Calendar posted online with a schedule of times.  Each week, there will be three class options during two time slots but they will cover the same material.  On Sunday evening, there will be a combined OCA session.  This is will be the first time to cover the material for the week.

That following Wednesday, the West group headed by Ramakrishna Devaraju will meet somewhere in the western part of the metroplex while the East group headed by Liping “Emily” Gao will meet around the Richardson / Plano area.   Exact times and locations will be listed on the Calendar.

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=sj3omgg4a08vgt0h6kisndvt0c%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Chicago&pvttk=a1121f4ba3046b9da84d8c6e21d66c84
SECOND PORTION OF THE OCA CLASS – ADMIN I: Following the completion of the SQL portion of the OCA study group, we will begin studying for the Admin I exam sometime in June.

MAIN TEXT (ADMIN I): There is one book in particular that stands out as the best value for an OCA study group.  That would be the Oracle Database OCP Certification All-in-One Exam Guide by Oracle Press.  It is written by Damir Bersinic and John Watson.  The book covers both the OCA and OCP exams and is very well-written.  I have seen it selling for between $70 dollars and $45 dollars, depending on the condition of the book.  It covers the OCA portion extremely well and is a good intro book for OCA candidates.  It devotes three-fifths of the book to the Admin I exam and two-fifths of the book to the OCP material.  You can purchase it through the link below; however, I am checking on a local bookstore where Tariq got his copy for $5.  This will also be used by the 10g OCP group.

http://www.amazon.com/Oracle-Database-Certification-Guide-Handbook/dp/0072257903/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240245463&sr=8-1

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS (ADMIN I): Another set of books that I used is the Sybex OCA / OCP Certification kit.  This one has a lot of exercises and questions that help prepare one for the test.  It comes with an e-book on CD and some flash cards that you can load up on a pocket PC.  Speaking of Oracle Press, I would also strongly recommend reading Oracle Database 10g: The Complete Reference by Kevin Looney.  Although it is not an exam prep book, Kevin Looney is one of the best Oracle authors and his guide is a must read for understanding the database.

In addition to published material, Oracle has a lot of downloadable documentation through its OTN website.  Read over the Oracle Database 10g Concepts Guide from the Oracle website.  Make sure that you can grasp all of the concepts and be able to explain it in basic English.  This is also good for developing an ear for what Oracle like to say about their stuff.   Lastly, print off the OCA / OCP exam requirements and be prepared to know anything about those points.

This will follow the completion of the SQL portion of the OCA study group and should start sometime in June.  In the meeting, the group decided on a recommended textbook as well as a supplemental text that might be used for additional exercises and test questions as needed.  A syllabus and schedule will be posted that is specific to the Admin I portion as we get closer to the start date.

Held at the Marriott on November 21, 2008

Attendees:

Emmanuel Delpierre

Jose Boban

Ricky Burke

Jim Blood

Jeff Sun

Chris Frost

Zdima (sp?)

Background

Emmanuel and Ricky started discussing this idea back in 2001, but it had always been on the back burner.  Then, Jose approached Emmanuel four months ago about starting up a DBA Consortium.  Jose is going to be the Project Manager and will coordinate the effort.  

Who is going to be involved?  Who is going to do what?  How do you maintain the whole thing?  Emmanuel pointed out that we might have a list of 15 or 20 people that want to be involved now.  However, 6 months later, who is still going to be maintaining this?

Jose Boban

We are looking to make this available as an on-line offering.  There would be a 50 dollar fee on top of the DOUG membership fee for database maintenance.  We could use that to build up a reserve fund for hardware.

This could be a worldwide offering (particularly to India and China).  We already have lots of international traffic with only 90% of the DOUG website’s traffic originating in the US.  Guys that are desperate to access the latest Oracle technology, but do not have the hardware or the ability to install all the underlying pieces from scratch.

Jose works as a DBA for Motorola and he relayed the following story.  A few months ago, two tables were lost so Jose received a call late at night from China.  After two days, we sent them the tapes via FedEx but the local DBA could not restore it.  Nobody could restore it.  So, I helped them use RMAN to restore the tables from tape.  The whole time I was thinking, “Someone should be videotaping me so that other people could learn how to do this.”

Jose’s idea is not to compete with Oracle, but rather to spend time on special topics.  Like How to Set up a Standby Database or How to Set Up ILM Assistant.  We could conduct boot camps on a predetermined training day like Saturday.  Then, make it available to other users for a small fee.  Plus, we would make ourselves experts at the same time that we are working with it.

Ricky Burke

Looking to get Oracle eBusiness Suite and Oracle Financials set up on the new box.  Companies want people with hands-on experience now and you can’t hire on someplace that is going to train you.  Application Express is the sandbox of the e-Business Suite and the basic building block of the Oracle Financial System.

Not many other companies have anything like this hosting proposition.  Solution Beacon offers Oracle Applications, but only as an application service provider.  Apex.oracle.com has workspaces available for an Application express instance, but it does not give access to the backend.  This hosting could put DOUG on the map

Jose added, “If you are a fresh graduate with an OCP, that is a joke.  Everyone wants an experienced hire.  If not, then someone has to train me.”

Zdima (sp?)

Functional Consultant at Accenture

Trained at Northlake College

Took courses on Admin Workshop 10g I & II

Have a good understanding of the technical aspects

Wanted to do his OCP but needs hands-on experience

Goal is to be able to talk intelligently with developers and DBAs

Might be managing projects – knows what his team members are going through

Jim Blood

Has been working with computers for the past 30 years and has recently picked up 8 certifications (OCA, OCP, Solaris, web design, PMP)

Never worked as a DBA, but would not rule it out.

Most experience as developer / analyst

Likes to write code in Java

Jose said, “Oracle is really focused on this unbreakable LINUX initiative.  If you know Linux and can develop in PL/SQL, then you are set.”

Jeff Sun

Worked mainly on the Application side but is interested in Data Guard and setting up the Financial Software.  Wants the ability to practice on hardware.

Discussion

The plan is to install Oracle 11g and put on Oracle Applications.  Clone to Server and do patches every quarter.  Jose has set up Data Guard at least 50 times.  Knew that he could do it, but it was very difficult to do the first time. 

List of volunteers – Need experts available on a rotation who can get in and patch it as needed.

Ideally, you want enough people to ensure close to around the clock coverage.

Hardware – We currently have one LINUX Server.  These do not need to be commercial class machines.  Just something that we can put Oracle 11g and Applications on.  Can also clone from the same machine.  We can start small and play with it.  Put together a proof of concept that we can figure out the numbers of concurrent users.

Reserving the box for cloning, others watch.  Then if a user gets stuck, he or she can contact us.  They could tell us that they got to step 6c and could not get any further.  Then, someone steps in on a web seminar

Don’t worry too much about the hardware specifications, right now.  Maybe we can tell HP that you need two machines, like the Oracle Database Machine.

Is there an issue of paying an additional membership fee?  Developers can download and install anything off OTN as long as they are not making any money off of it.  We are trying to stay away from the charges.

Next meeting – E-mail when the next meeting is going to be held.  Hopefully the server will be ready by then.  Ricky will ask Vic about the server.  Plan to meet again on December 4^th for a little meeting toward the end of the Holiday party at Blue Mesa.

Emmanuel said that we can do the training at Oracle.  Ricky pointed out that we probably want to go through something 3 to 5 times before taping. 

We will need to get a hold of someone to do the video taping and the production work.  Chris will check at Collin College with the eLearning and Video production departments.  We would also need to do audio overlays with the presentations.

Update on the DOUG Website

Ricky Burke headed this portion of the meeting.

Application Express – Ricky is working on a developer’s version of Oracle 10g right now.  Looking to use it with Oracle Express.  That’s the free Oracle Database with Application Express on top of it.

Ricky is a long-time Oracle Forms Developer.  A couple of years ago, Oracle started into JDeveloper and Java.  Now, they have Application Express that does want you use to do in Forms and Reports.  He’s been using it for the past 6 months and is impressed with it.  Says that lots of the Oracle sites are in APEX (i.e. AskTom)

DOUGs website is run off of a Microsoft Access database.  We want to move this to an Application Express front end.  The free Oracle Express edition comes bundled with an older version of Application Express.  We dropped down to the 10g release for the site.  Oracle 11g Express Edition is due out next year.  In the interim, we can update the Application Express to 3.1 and still have it run with the Oracle Express Free Version.  Oracle Express edition is limited to a single processor and less than 4GB of storage.

Application Express is being marketed to a huge area of small to medium businesses that currently use Access or MySQL.  If the business takes off, that product can’t handle it anymore and they need to upgrade to a full-fledged server.  Microsoft uses this to get companies to move from Access to SQL Server.

If something is built in Application express, there is no need to rewrite the application.  It can work in a standard or enterprise version of Oracle just as well. APEX is getting more and more common for mid-size businesses.  Workspaces are already web-enabled, so you just give them a user ID and password to get them up and going.

The DOUG website is currently hosted by Network Solutions.  In addition to the website, Ricky is building a full-blown DOUG membership and event management application.  Ricky took the current DOUG website and stuck into an Application Express application version 3.1 on his laptop.  Now, he needs Vic to upgrade the development website server to 3.1 so Ricky can export his application and import it back over to the website.  Already have a reimplementation of the front-page.  Question – Do we want to have the same banner?

Emmanuel – Stay with the old banner for now, get it moved over, and then we can worry about changing the layout.  Converting the membership page and calendar are the top priority items.  Once we are on the new platform, we can look at the layout and see if there are parts that we want to replace pieces at a time.

Events calendar – Want ability to filter on different topics instead of having to see everything all at once.  Also, want the ability to export to Outlook.

RSVP process – Currently done by the coordinator, want to use Application Express for the automated e-mails. Prepare 3 or 4 email ahead of time and put them on schedule for blast.

Emmanuel suggested having a user’s full profile come up every time they RSVP.  Prompts you to put in your personal e-mail and ensures more accurate info in the membership database.

Another big thing – Renewals are manual right now.  DOUG wants the ability to do online membership renewals.

Assignment – Look at the DOUG website and compare the old website with the new website.  For example, the page for the BI Group is just static information.  Ricky wanted a liaison to get a hold of the BI and other Forums.  Emmanuel said that he can do that.

Ricky will combine the notes from Emmanuel and Jose.  Then, we will e-mail them out to the group this weekend.