Last week I passed the DB2 10.1 Fundamentals exam (on second try, darn!). Now I am an IBM Certified Database Associate DB2 10.1 Fundamentals … and I somehow get the impression that this is a rather strange title. If I present that to somebody, does that ring a bell with them? Associate? Isn’t that rather a business title? If I ask myself, what I know about DB2, it isn’t a lot. I probably have a basic understanding what is going on in there, but would I let myself try my hand at a business critical application? NO WAY (and my whole family would agree, since I always broke everything, which isn’t true, but they had to blame someone … you know that situation, do you).
To make matters worse, I asked the course teacher what it was worth. Not a lot. Should go for the admin test.
IBM really has a problem with names. Not only for their products, but the certifications and internal titles are a bit strange, too. I once had a meeting with the worldwide sales and the global sales for the same product. What is the difference? The pecking order was Global – Worldwide. Does global include the moon?
IBM’s naming specifications must come from Germany. Their bureaucrats are very good at that, too. Don’t expect ever to understand a letter from a German agency. Go straight to a German lawyer. German bureaucrats do not speak German. It must be an ancient dialect of a papua tribe that never had contact with somebody from the outside.
Now, could somebody please explain me, what IBM Certified Database Associate means? Or did I just pass a week of brain splitting work in the DB2 boot camp for more or less nothing?
„This Database Associate certification is an entry level exam for a user of any of the DB2 family of products. This individual is knowledgeable about the fundamental concepts of DB2 10.1 through either hands on experience or formal and informal education. The database associate should have an in-depth knowledge of the basic to intermediate tasks required in day-to-day administration, basic SQL (Structured Query Language), understand which additional products are available with DB2 10.1, understand how to create databases and database objects, and have a basic knowledge of database security and transaction isolation.“
Hi Vitor
What I like here is, „in-depth“ and „basic to intermediate“ in the same sentence. Does that make a lot of sense?