My interest in the Oracle Autonomous Database Cloud 2019 certification started in September 2019 when I took this exam while attending the OOW19 (Oracle Open World 2019) at San Francisco, California, USA.
Back then I failed the exam for many reasons, lack of studying (what matters a lot), pressure and so on but I am not here to make excuses because it would not change the results. So since then, I was involved in more projects where I could not only work with Oracle but also with Amazon Cloud and this made it possible to have a comparison between Oracle Cloud and what is out there in the market. And even though I started my studies with Oracle Autonomous certification I wanted to give another try hence I would like to change the status of my profile below:
Since the second attempt, many things have changed, 8 months have passed and I am no longer in the USA instead I am back in Sweden, where I live. Different from the last time, I did study and what I must mention is the unusual situation that we are living in worldwide with this pandemic of Covid-19. Due to this unusual situation, many people have been working from home and Oracle Corporation started some programs of free-education and courses until May 15, 2020. Therefore If you didn’t know about that, run and enjoy it through the link below:
Oracle Ramps Up Free Online Learning and Certifications for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Oracle Autonomous Database : https://www.oracle.com/corporate/blog/free-certifications-oracle-oci-autonomous-033020.html
Luckily, the Autonomous exam that I was studying for is included in the free-certification package and then I booked my exam to take at home. To do the exam at home you have to take some pictures of the place you are going to take the exam, which is easy; proving that you are you by showing some ID document and then go to the next step that it is to check the system requirements to take the exam. At this last step, it was when things have gotten a bit messy. The program used to take the exam is only accepted in Windows and Mac systems and mine was Red Hat Linux. Therefore I had the brilliant idea that any IT guy would have: install one of these OS in a virtual machine. So I downloaded the Oracle Virtual Machine, installed the Windows 10 (64-bit) system and started the program to run a pre-check before the exam and then I got an error saying that the program isn’t allowed to run a virtual machine. Then I got a new problem now, what shall I do?
I had two options: Either I would ask a friend to borrow their notebooks or I would still book the exam in an Oracle Testing centre since Sweden despite many other countries was not in lockdown. However, the fact that the country was not in lockdown doesn’t mean that things are normal. Only one of many Oracle Testing centres were open and everyone here is urged to stay at home if they are at all sick (even a mild cough or sore throat), practice social distancing, avoid non-essential travel within the country, work from home if possible, follow good hygiene practices, and avoid non-essential visits to elderly people or hospitals. Furthermore, people aged over 70 or in risk groups are advised to avoid social contact as much as possible.
To avoid to bother my friends and their privacy, I had to go out anyway, I opted to book the exam in an Oracle Testing location. So I booked the exam for May 7, 2020, at 11:30 am. When I arrived at the location, I was told to grab the alcohol that they were offering and clean my hands despite we kept our distance. Even though I had already two lotions of alcohol in my pocket 😀 . After all the preparations for the exam, I could finally start and this is the result as below: I passed!
Regardless of the situation that we are facing right now. I hope it will end soon. For an example of this certification: Sometimes we are not in a good moment but in the end, things always end up well. I wish you all hope, motivation, positive thoughts and all health to face this together and soon we will be all getting together in the Oracle User conferences over the globe.
Hi! I am Bruno, a Brazilian born and bred. Former Oracle ACE, Computer Scientist, MSc in Data Science, over ten years of experience in companies such as IBM, Epico Tech, and Playtech based in three different countries (Brazil, Hungary, and Sweden) and joined projects remotely in many others. I am super excited to show you my interest in Databases, Cloud, Data Science, Data Engineering, Bigdata, AI, Programming, Software Engineering, and data in general.
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