Very Computer

I am presently an MCSE working on a international Windows NT contract.
I am very interested in becoming an Oracle DBA and I was wondering
where should I start. I have recently bought a few Oracle books from
Oracle Press (Oracle: A Beginner's Guide, and an Oracle PL/SQL intro
book) and have really dived into them. I am also going to buy Oracle
Personal Server to load on my PC at home so i can work through the
examples. I would love to take the Oracle classes, but time does not
permit me to do that right now.

How can I get my foot in the door? And where do I start? I am willing
to start at the very bottom as I would love to find someone who
wouldn't mind working with me/letting me help out with Oracle
databases on the weekend. I am willing to help out for free so I can
get some first hand experience (I live in Pittsburgh).

I would appreciate any advice, help, etc., that anyone could give.
Just looking to get my foot in the door and work my way up. As I said
I am willing to even help for free as I need a starting base of
experience.

Thanks to all who reply,
Jeff Stagno

There are numerous Oracle DBA books in the market. The best I can suggest
to start with is 'Oracle - Server concepts Manual'. Once you have a good
understanding of the concepts, you can start with Oracle - Server Admin
Guide. There are other books published by Oracle Press. You can try them
after the above 2 books.

Regards

N.Prabhakar

   Jeff,

      As one that have just been promoted from Sr.Analyst to Oracle
   Jr.DBA, the best way I see to do it is to get in the development
   area for a few years (2-3 is a good time) just to feel the majors
   problems you will face as a DBA from the other side.

      You go changing projects until you got a pretty pool of
   experiences in a lot of different systems and then go looking for
   a company willing to pay the proper courses and to employ you as
   a Jr.DBA in an off-project where you can do as you like on the
   database.

      Nothing is more exciting and full of opportunities as a new,
   reccently created database to learn every kind of mistakes you
   can do and still survive. More over if the project is still in
   the development phase, going to be implanted soon.

      However, if you want to do it by yourself, there are some
   interesting books, like "Oracle DBA Survival Guide", Jon Greene,
   SAMS Publishing; and Oracle DBA Handbook, by Oracle Press.

      An last, there are some series of courses given by some companies
   in agreement with the Oracle Corp., and a special serie for Oracle
   DBA's.

      Hope I have been useful,

                     Aram Meguerian

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I don't work at Unisys, she is just my Internet Provider, so don't
blame this company for anything I have said.
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I recommend you go with Windows/NT at home. I was planning on doing this
myself until my project just purchased 35 P120 boxes with NT4.0.
Windows3.1/95 just isn't reliable enough.

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Ed Bruce