How to become oracle expert – developer? steps to start your career, All you need to know!

Oracle has a wide range of specializations and careers for its products, which means you must select which specific path you need to follow.

Most of the time this specialization will be your lifetime career and you need to find a foundation ground to start, something easy and common within most of Oracle career paths, which is Oracle SQL.

SQL is even mostly the same for other platforms, by learning it you can also use it in other databases like Microsoft SQL and PHP MySql.

SQL is a essential for Oracle developer, you have to use it if you are developer, techno consultant or oracle database administrator.

It doesn’t matter if you are working on an on-premises database or on cloud version like SaaS or PaaS.

The most important is to be able to write SQL script and generate a report or activate a function.

In order to start your Oracle career, we recommend start by learning Oracle SQL, then you can select which development path you can follow.

Here is the steps you can follow when you begin your Oracle Career

Step 1: Learn Oracle SQL.

You have many recourses to Learn Oracle SQL, some of these resources are free and others are not.

The below are some of the available popular tools you can use to start writing your first SQL scripts.

1 – Udemy: Udemy is a very good place to start learning Oracle SQL, the good news it is not too expensive, you can only pay between 10$ to 20$ for a well-organized course with more than 15 hours of learning recorded videos and materials.

2 – LinkedIn Learning platform: You can get one month for free when you subscribe to its LinkedIn learning platform, you can cancel this subscription at any time, anyway It is easy to learn Oracle SQL in one month.

3 – Oracle authorized training partners/centers: If you are a person who understand more in classrooms with other students this choice maybe for you.

You will get oracle attendance certificate in addition to original Oracle materials when you complete your course with one of oracle authorized partners however its price will be higher than other available options.

You can locate oracle partner on your location on Oracle website.

4 – Oracle SQL books: If you learn more by reading you can buy Oracle SQL books, you can find it at amazon or any bookstore on your country, however I recommend having a book as a reference not a basic tool to learn.

5 – Youtube: just type on search Oracle SQL learning on Youtube and you will find a lot of tutorial videos for you to learn , however these courses might not be organized and most of the time are not fully completed.

Two types of Oracle products and Positions:

There are two basic logical types of oracle Products, first one related to IT infrastructure like servers and managing databases, second type is business related like Oracle ERP systems which requires analysis and configuration skills.

When you work for an organization, I prefer to be attached to business which is second type, when you work direct in business end users you will get more experiences on other aspects like accounting, human recourses, and other related topics.

This will give you a wide experience in addition those who are working on IT Infrastructure like Oracle DBA and server admins are working behind the scene, Managements always not recognize them despite their vital role on their company, while those who are related to operations, developing reports, fixing ERP issues are always recognized, in cutting cost plans, type one expected to be their choice to be out of the bus.

As you see in these jobs there are many roles you can have while working in a technical job.

Analysis and configuration skills: in this part you must understand the business workflows in the organization and design a solution for developers and consultants to configure the system.

You must understand all the application configurations as well as the business requirements and start to configure it on the system.

IT Infrastructure skills: typically being skilled in understanding operating systems and managing application servers, examples of these roles are database administrator, Oracle Solaris Admin, and application server administrator.

Having a deep understanding on Oracle products will help you to know the current job market needs, you should also be aware which of these products are popular in your country, or the place you are planning to work in.

The below is a list of Oracle products which will give you a full picture job market demand.

Oracle products in Market:

Oracle Database.
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).
Oracle Fusion Middleware.
Oracle E-Business Suite.
Oracle Cloud Applications SaaS.
Oracle Java.
Oracle WebLogic Server.
Oracle Hyperion.
Oracle Data Integration.
Oracle Primavera.
Oracle MySQL.
Oracle Identity and Access Management (IAM).
Oracle Exadata.
Oracle Business Intelligence (BI).
Oracle PeopleSoft.
Oracle Siebel.
Oracle NetSuite.
Oracle Linux.
Oracle Solaris.
Oracle Virtualization VM.

When you hired in an organization you will have a role on one of these products, so it is time to be get the required skills to deal with all technical aspects of what you are planning to work on.

Published Jobs titles will look like this:

Oracle database Administrator.
Oracle Developer.
Application support engineer.
Oracle Apps Technical consultant.
Java Sales Representative.
Oracle HCM Consultant.
Techno Functional consultant/Technical Lead Oracle SCM.
Software Developer.
Java Developer.
Oracle EPM consultant.
Implementation Project Specialist.
Oracle Fusion Financial consultant.
PLSQL Developer.
Middleware Administrator.
NetSuite Developer.
Hyperion Essbase consultant.

Now you must ask yourself these questions, there are no correct or incorrect answers for these questions, remember the goal is to have a good understanding of other aspects and job risks.

• What is the job I am interested in?
• Which oracle product this job is related to?
• Is it required in my country?
• Is this job having any risks of being disappeared after several years due to changes on technology?
• Am I able to work for long hours writing code for an application or it is better to work on managing a servers and infrastructure?
• Am I willing to study and learn again when a new generation of oracle technology emerges?
• In case of losing jobs due to cut costs or financial crises, Is this job will be easy to be dropped on your company or it is more safe?
• What is the expected salary when I hired on this job?
• How I will be promoted when I hired on this job?

Step 3: Chose your Oracle Career Path.

Now you have selected your job and know in which category it is related in addition to its related product so it is time to follow your Oracle career path.

Suppose you are willing to be Oracle fusion financial consultant, moreover you now know how to write SQL scripts, so what is the next step?

What actions you need to take to increase your opportunity to get your dreamed Oracle job?

Step 4: Start Oracle training program:

The action you need to take is learning oracle financials and know what the best recourses for learning oracle fusion – remember Oracle financial consultant is an example.

Oracle provides Cloud Applications learning subscription which allowing you to access its learning tools including oracle Labs and Oracle materials, this subscription is more expensive than other options which costing you around 4995$ US dollars, but it is worthy.

Oracle also provide it free learning tools Free Entry Level training for technical globe, which is very useful if you need to start leaning for free.

Oracle Financial has five main modules/applications which you should be aware of, (General ledger, Payables, Receivables and collection, Cash Management and fixed assets).

Be sure that you understand the business itself before learning its configurations. if you are not an accountant and willing to be Oracle fusion financial consultant you may find some obstacles on understanding its topics like journal entries and trial balance, depreciation and so on.
It is not necessary to be an expert accountant but at least you should know the accounting principles in order to speak the same accounting language, if you are struggling with accounting, you can choose different fusion path like oracle HCM or SCM.

Step 5: Be Oracle Certified.

After committing in one of oracle learning programs, it will be very important to get oracle certification,

This certification has a vital role in getting your first job.

It will cost you around 245$ to buy oracle Exam.

You can explorer the certification programs on Oracle website to find the certificate you are interesting on.

Here are some Oracle certification examples:

• General Ledger 2022 Implementation Professional | 1Z0-1054-22.
• General Ledger 2023 Implementation Professional | 1Z0-1054-23.
• Payables 2023 Implementation Professional | 1Z0-1055-23.
• Receivables 2023 Implementation Professional | 1Z0-1056-23.
• Oracle Inventory Cloud 2023 Implementation Professional | 1Z0-1073-23.
• Oracle Payroll Cloud 2023 Implementation Professional | 1Z0-1050-23.
• Oracle Project Management Cloud 2023 Implementation Professional | 1Z0-1057-23.
• Oracle Recruiting Cloud 2023 Implementation Professional | 1Z0-1069-23.
• Oracle Revenue Management Cloud Service 2023 Implementation Professional | 1Z0-1059-23.
• Oracle Talent Management Cloud 2023 Implementation Professional | 1Z0-1052-23.
• Oracle Account Reconciliation 2023 Implementation Professional | 1Z0-1087-23

Step 6: Apply for Oracle jobs with average salary.

When an organization is looking for oracle experts to hire, they always have two salary patterns.

First is an organization which needs to pay minimum salary for the job, that’s why it asks for two years’ experience or fresh graduated.

Second salary pattern is companies which pay higher salary for experienced consultant, that’s why you should start your first steps by asking for the minimum salary in order to get companies hiring you.

I know many of oracle experts who have worked their first year almost for few dollars to get experience and planting height income seeds.

Mistakes you should avoid:

Being hired for a company as oracle consultant is not the destination for you, there are many mistakes you should avoid in order to protect yourself from being kicked out of your job.

Here are some of the most common mistakes which can cost you a lot.

One of the common mistakes is to be restricted with one technology and not considered changes which takes place on the market, those who was working as oracle forms developer few years ago will find themselves kicked out of their job if they didn’t try to learn the new generation of oracle developing tools.

Other mistake we noticed is being stuck when your roles is shrinking. Oracle database administrator now is facing big challenge of transforming market from on-premises database to cloud, Application’s database now is managed by Oracle, as a result many DBAs has lost their jobs, so you need to be flixable and change quickly to the closet similar specialist, they can learn oracle cloud administration for example.

Not considering age factor is another mistake you can make, developer who exceed the age of 40 should know that most companies hire someone who is willing to work more hours with less salary.

So, it is important to shift from technical role to managerial role like project manager, Application support Manager.

One of other mistakes we found is to stick to technical skills and neglect business understanding, if your role to configure finance applications or HCM module, your technical talent is useless if you are not understanding the operation itself.

Poor communication skills, as an analyst or consultant having poor communication skill is awful.

Simply because you are working closely with end users, managers, project manager and stockholders, who are your customers, you must see issues from their perspective not from yours.

Usually end users – your customers – will not consider your technical talents and skills, they can only consider your way of communication.

If you feel that one of your disadvantages is communication, then it is time to learn this for your career.

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