BEA 8.1 Certified Administrator: System Administration Examination

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hi Folks.. I am planning on taking up this certification in 2 months time..
Looking for inputs from those who have taken up this certification in the past... Any practice papers on this exam also would do good..

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Is this a "European" cert? I've never heard of it.

 

Its a vendor specific cert (bea.com). Personally I would tend to steer away from vendor specific certs like that. They have a very limited scope, in that its only of use to companies who use that software.

I would only really go for vendor specific exams if I required it for my job (and even then only if work paid for it). I would personally suggest trying to find either a vendor-neutral DB cert or, if you have to go for a vendor-specific cert, get one that is mainstream use. Personally I'd never heard of this before you mentioned it.

 

Nope BEA are global, loads Indian and US companies use their stuff.

Nearly all the major IT vendors have cert programs now, its just some are more popular than others.

Many are quite expensive because the only real way to train is to take the approved courses, some even mandate this.

I'm considering a BEA cert myself, and if we're against vendor certs what the hell do you think Cisco and Microsoft are ?

It sounds like you are talking about Weblogic 8.1, its a J2EE Application Server, theres loads of them about, Websphere is another. Its nothing to do with databases really.

Weblogic 8.1 Is already out of date but as with all cert programs they may be lagging behind.

 

You may be right... but in 10 years, I've never supported a company who used it... nor have I even heard of it before today.

 

This reminds me of QI where they go, and now for 'General Ignorance' !

Just because you have or haven't seen something in 10 years may or may not be a good indicator, depends what companies, industries, technologies etc you've been exposed to, you probably haven't used SCADA, TIBCO, CORBA, or many other things does this make them irrelevant ? Application servers have existed before COM and COM+ and .Net. In windows case the OS and the COM+/.Net framework combine to provide application server style functionality.

 

Well would potential employers know what that cert is? I bet they wouldn't. Go for stuff that is relevant not just because it's out there and "looks" interesting.

If I were a potential employer I wouldn't know what that cert is for because it wouldn't be relevant to my business.

So what would be the point in going for it? In the vain hope that you may get an employer in the UK that may happen to use that vendor?

As you said Indian and US companies use this product, did you say that UK companies use it? No you didn't so what use would it be, unless you want to emigrate to India or the US.

Lets stick to relevant certs here, not certs that you hope will take off in x amount of years.

 

I've used various versions of J2EE Application Servers, mainly Weblogic in production for the last 4 years in the UK.

As we normally say, you should have experience BEFORE the cert, therefore no I would not reccomend someone that didn't know anything about the product or the companies that use it to take the cert, just as with other certs like SAP etc. Does this make the cert irrelevant, well thats a whole another issue...

Its not a mass market cert, you seem to be assuming that only mass market certs have value. The CCIE is not a mass market cert yet people think it has value.

Depends on whether you prefer to get a job based on experience alone or you also want a piece of paper and the knowledge you have covered all the sylabus.

I'd say that since this place is called 'Cert' forums its a fair question, who decides whats relevant or irrelevant, you ?

 

I never said they were irrelevant. I'm sure they are very relevant to a company that uses them. I simply said that I haven't seen or heard of BEA before, and thus, may not be widespread, and thus, may not be a great certification choice unless you're working in a company that uses it. Don't jump to conclusions... ;)

 

Ok maybe I overreacted a little, the point is that one or two employers may absolutely want a person with this cert and be prepared to pay for it, while yes righty as you mention alot of others won't care for it at all.