As of now, I have about 6 years of work experience in IT (PT+FT). Here is the breakdown: 2 years-Computer Support Specialist, 3 years-Systems Analyst, 1 year- System Specialist (similar to Network Systems and Data Communication Analyst) and 6 months-Management Analyst.

Lately, I have been thinking about gaining a solid and recognizable skill in one specific area of IT and I was talking to few guys that I know about this idea. Majority of them suggested Linux (becoming Red Hat Certified Engineer). A few of them suggested Oracle DBA. And a couple of them suggested Business Analysis.

Which one has better value in long run? When I say value, I am talking about ease of finding job, job security, and salary?

Which skill has better future in Canada? Linux or Oracle or Business Analysis?

Thanks.

I guess a lot depends on where you intend to live.

Preferably Vancouver area, but no problem living anywhere, even Quebec.

I thought IT sector is big in Canada and a lot of people work in this sector and many people might have migrated to Canada based on IT skills. I guess I was wrong.

I don't think there's much of an IT industry in Canada. There are some computers but it's hardly California or even Slough.

Oracle DBA has been a well paid job for a long time, I suggest that it's a bit late for that now, better to look for the next fashionable database. That said, the force of history is unlikely to move away from relational database for the time being so Oracle skills will likely be portable and, anyway, the underlying structures of databases haven't really changed in the past thirty odd years.

Linux has the disadvantage of being free. Companies expect people who work on cheap implementations to work cheaply. It has the advantage that it's widely deployed, small towns will have Unix/Linux boxes.

Business analysis implies a knowledge of an industry, banking or insurance being the main computer intensive ones in Canada, if you don't know about these industries I'd suggest DBAing.

I don't see Oracle going out of fashion anytime soon - yes it's expensive, but it's also incredibly good at what it does....

Oracle DBA has to be the best option of the three.....

I don't think software being good is an important factor in its being popular but I'll bite. What is Oracle particularly good at?

the first commercially-available SQL-based database
the first database to support symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)
the first distributed database
the first database product tested to comply with the ANSI SQL standard
the first 64-bit database
the first web database
the first database to incorporate a native JRE
the first proprietary RDBMS to become available on Linux
the first database to support XML

Being the first to do something isn't the same as being good at it (I'm not going to split hairs over which of the above are true-ish). What I was wondering was what feature, if any, was being touted as the strength of Oracle today.

I don't think you are wrong there is a big demand for IT skills in CA not sure what skills where ? have a look at it skills under pressure in the WIKI pages

look at Dave and Jules threads/posts he is in NB but always willing to help people, also why don't you have a look at the expo show coming to Olympia in june there are lots of IT jobs there and they will advice you ? MY oh is IT we are hoping to make the move once we sell the house, good luck with it all,

there are other threads with IT on that have covered jobs esp in Kamloops and BC side ? hope that helps

Something slightly disturbing about this board is the way it makes NB and BC seem as if they're centres for computing. Outside of the board I don't get that impression at all.

There seems to be plenty of work there though also Torronto and Ottawa ?

Toronto, Ottawa and Quebec City are steady markets. I think the problem with locations having less employers is that while one may be able to get a job it's likely the only job in town. If it doesn't work out you then have to move to another city, that's something North Americans are used to, they'll move two states to go from burger flipper to manager of burger bar, but I don't think emigrating Brits are typically prepared to be nomadic.

I tend to push Oracle for very large business applications, for example our global SAP and BW environments both use Oracle databases and I would very much like to get our JDE environment onto Oracle as well but we'll need to get off the AS400 platform first

We also have a significant BI environment on SQL 2000 and quite honestly that is pretty poor. However I am now pushing through a move to SQL 2005 and 64 bit architecture which should give significant improvements. With SQL 2008 now coming through it does look like the gap between Oracle and MS SQL is closing very quickly.

MS SQL also has a much better licensing model with multi-core processors, for example I am going to use quad core on our new BI boxes and I only have to pay $20k per processor (not per core) and never have to worry about CALs. That is a big tick in the MS box.

If I had to pick any single piece of functionality to separate them, it would probably be Oracle RAC, they are doing some really nifty stuff with cheap linux boxes to provide high availability and scalability. Microsoft don't really provide anything quite as clever yet, but I have read some good stuff about HA in SQL 2008.

To be honest I think the questions in years to come will not be Oracle vs MS SQL, I think it may be these 2 (plus DB2 possibly) vs Open source, for example Enterprise DB has a very attractive cost model and supposedly is an easy migration from Oracle.

That's interesting. I see Oracle as a suitable database for medium sized applications, I think the largest Oracle database we support is about 8 terabytes, whereas the clients who have very large databases either use Teradata or mainframe databases; IMS or DB2. Are there Oracle database on the Winter group's big database list?

<he asked, too lazy to look for himself>

People who attempt database implementations on SQL Server/Windows make me cry. If it's a small enough application for that save yourself the hassle, buy a pencil and a Rolodex.