{"id":2881,"date":"2021-07-08T19:21:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T18:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/?p=2881"},"modified":"2023-01-11T09:00:57","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T09:00:57","slug":"becoming-an-oracle-certified-master-my-ticket-to-a-stellar-dba-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/?p=2881","title":{"rendered":"Becoming an Oracle Certified Master: My Ticket to a Stellar DBA Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Born in Brazil,\u00a0Rodrigo\u00a0Mufalani\u00a0is an\u00a0expert Oracle\u00a0DBA\u00a0working at\u00a0IBM\u00a0as an Infrastructure Specialist for hybrid cloud projects.\u00a0He recently sat\u00a0down\u00a0with\u00a0us to discuss how he got started\u00a0in his\u00a0DBA career\u00a0and how\u00a0becoming an\u00a0Oracle Certified Master\u00a0and\u00a0Oracle ACE\u00a0catapulted his career\u00a0and allowed him and his family to start a new life in Luxembourg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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? Subscribe to the podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

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How did you get started\u00a0in your DBA career?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

My journey\u00a0in\u00a0the database world started\u00a0a\u00a0long time ago,\u00a0back in\u00a02004, and it happened by chance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was at college at that time and applied to a developer position at a company, but my programming logic was not as good as that expected from a developer at the\u00a0company. But the\u00a0HR\u00a0department saw that I did\u00a0pretty\u00a0well\u00a0on the SQL part of the test and invited\u00a0me\u00a0to apply to an internship\u00a0position as a DBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Why\u00a0did you\u00a0decide to pursue that opportunity and go down the\u00a0Oracle\u00a0DBA career path?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When they offered me the position of DBA, I started looking on the Internet for what exactly a DBA was. I had no idea at that time.<\/p>\n

I had started my career doing first line IT support, helping out with Windows installations and network stuff. But I was searching for something closer to the development side of things, as that\u2019s what I was studying in college. So, that offer was perfect.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how I became an Oracle DBA. I think it was destiny.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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And now you are an Oracle Certified Master\u00a0(OCM)\u00a0and\u00a0Oracle\u00a0ACE.\u00a0How has that helped you in your DBA career?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It has helped\u00a0a lot in my career.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0why I am speaking\u00a0to\u00a0you from Luxembourg.\u00a0Until 2018,\u00a0I used to live in Brazil with my family\u00a0(my wife and kid). Because after the certification,\u00a0I got an invitation from a company based here in Europe to move here and help them with their customers.<\/p>\n

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How is the exam to become an OCM?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I cannot talk a lot about it because I have an\u00a0NDA, but I can tell you it\u2019s\u00a0pretty hard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You\u00a0have\u00a0to\u00a0prove you have hands-on expertise in a\u00a0list of skill sets in different areas, some of which you rarely use\u00a0on a daily basis.\u00a0And it’s\u00a0pretty hard\u00a0because\u00a0you have\u00a0time, your mind and the exam itself against you. It\u2019s a\u00a0two-day exam at Oracle\u2019s headquarters, and\u00a0I took my exam in\u00a0the UK.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the moment, and due to Covid-19, the exam is suspended, so there have not been new Oracle\u00a0OCMs\u00a0since\u00a02020.\u00a0But the future OCM exam, if there is one, will\u00a0probably be\u00a0related to the cloud and offered online.<\/p>\n

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Join our community and find your next job or expert in IT<\/a><\/p>\n

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What about the Oracle ACE award?\u00a0When did you receive that one?\u00a0How has it helped you in your DBA career?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0believe it happened more than ten years ago, in 2009.\u00a0Especially because it\u2019s not an easy distinction to maintain over the years.\u00a0If you receive the award but you don\u2019t keep participating in the community, sharing your knowledge with the community, you lose the award.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny because I remember I was reading the email\u00a0in which\u00a0they notified\u00a0me\u00a0that\u00a0I had been awarded the distinction when\u00a0my boss\u00a0at that time\u00a0called me\u00a0into his office to go over some stuff. And I told him I just got awarded the Oracle ACE award, and he\u00a0goes \u201cOh, congratulations! But what exactly is that?\u201d He just had no idea. It was so long ago. I was the third person in all\u00a0of\u00a0Brazil to\u00a0be given the award.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The program\u00a0has\u00a0grown\u00a0a lot since then, and it\u2019s a pleasure to\u00a0continue\u00a0being\u00a0part of it.\u00a0I like\u00a0talking to\u00a0a lot with people\u00a0and love to\u00a0do\u00a0presentations and talks at conferences. I founded the Luxembourg Oracle\u00a0User\u00a0Group with some\u00a0colleagues,\u00a0and I\u2019ve\u00a0had\u00a0the\u00a0opportunity to speak\u00a0at several conferences.\u00a0Also, I\u00a0even had the opportunity to go to\u00a0Azerbaijan\u00a0before the Covid\u00a0pandemic,\u00a0and it was amazing. I\u00a0have\u00a0met so many great people\u00a0through\u00a0these conferences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I must really\u00a0thank the Oracle\u00a0ACE program\u00a0for\u00a0giving me the opportunity to meet all these amazing people.<\/p>\n

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What is your\u00a0main\u00a0role at IBM?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Right now, I am helping with a large migration project for a big customer. I am doing some automation and am involved in all the migration activities\u00a0as part of the cloud migration team. So, ensuring performance, that all is done according to the plan and on time, etc.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the moment, I am mainly helping with\u00a0Oracle-related\u00a0subjects. My role\u00a0is a\u00a0little bit\u00a0wider, spanning to all things database-related, but for the moment I am mainly playing with Oracle.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"Connect<\/a><\/p>\n

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As a DBA, what are the most challenging aspects of working in a hybrid cloud environment?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Nothing in particular.\u00a0The same\u00a0challenges\u00a0that we have all the time. So, tight deadlines for delivering projects, ensuring as little\u00a0downtime as possible,\u00a0etc.\u00a0The customer always wants\u00a0to\u00a0have the, and we try to deliver\u00a0the best\u00a0to them.<\/p>\n

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What\u00a0advice would you give to those starting in IT?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

My advice for the starters in the\u00a0field of\u00a0technology\u00a0would be to read\u00a0and research\u00a0as much\u00a0as possible.\u00a0Try to pay attention\u00a0to the senior\u00a0people\u00a0around you\u00a0and\u00a0don’t\u00a0be embarrassed to ask questions.\u00a0But ask questions after you try.\u00a0Of course, in a safe environment,\u00a0not in the production environment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I prefer\u00a0that\u00a0someone asked me after\u00a0trying\u00a0these\u00a0or\u00a0that step and\u00a0failing to find a solution.\u00a0Sometimes, people get so accustomed to\u00a0getting\u00a0every\u00a0answer\u00a0at once that they\u00a0don’t even\u00a0try.<\/p>\n

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Check out more of our interviews from our podcast episodes.<\/a><\/p>\n

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For more advice on cloud careers, make sure to follow Rodrigo on Twitter<\/a> and LinkedIn<\/a>, as well as on his blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Rodrigo Mufalani, Infrastructure Specialist for hybrid cloud projects at IBM discusses how becoming an Oracle Certified Master boosted his DBA career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[754,9,773],"tags":[525,615,178,441,426,427,618,616,579,617],"class_list":["post-2881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-us","category-featured","category-podcast-interviews","tag-behind-the-screens","tag-dba-career","tag-ibm","tag-interview","tag-luxembourg","tag-oracle","tag-oracle-ace","tag-oracle-dba","tag-podcast","tag-rodrigo-mufalani"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2881"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6796,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2881\/revisions\/6796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}