If you’ve heard about the lucrative salaries that Oracle certified database administrators can expect to earn, that alone might be enough to pique your interest in Oracle certification. But in addition to the high median salaries, fluency in Oracle software opens you up to flexible career options and a thriving job market. More and more companies recognize the need to prioritize database management, data security, and big data in order to keep up with technology trends.    

Investing in oracle database certification is a wise career move that will make a variety of different jobs available to you. Read on for a breakdown of three of the most in-demand roles that you can fulfill once you’ve achieved Oracle certification.

Database Administrator

While most database administrators (DBA) will inevitably have many varied tasks and duties, all their responsibilities fall under the larger umbrella of ensuring data integrity. As TechRepublic.com puts it, “the DBA has three basic tasks. In decreasing order of importance, they are: protect the data, protect the data, and protect the data.” What this means is that database backup and recovery are responsibilities that every DBA must prioritize.

Other core tasks of a DBA include software installation, data migration, database configuration, and database troubleshooting. Oracle database administrators must have an expert understanding of Oracle’s software and their company’s hardware prerequisites. DBAs make decisions about the deployment of releases and patches, and they must be able to plan long-term for database storage and capacity as their company’s data utilization naturally evolves.

Additionally, many database administrators are tasked with administering database access for other database users. Depending on the size of the company, this can involve troubleshooting for other database users, managing access, and providing basic training on database usage. Taking Oracle DBA courses and obtaining your certification will prepare you not only to take responsibility for your company’s data needs, but also to assist your colleagues that may be less experienced with Oracle than you are, but still need database access.

Database Security Engineer

Every DBA administrator has to think about data security to a certain extent, as that is a crucial part of ensuring data integrity. But large databases make attractive targets for hackers, which has resulted in database security emerging as a significant and fast-growing specialization within the field of database administration.

The three basic tasks that go into database security are authentication (creating and controlling logins), authorization (setting and controlling permissions), and auditing (tracking who has done what to the database), as reported by TechRepublic.com. Security engineers must have a thorough understanding of their company’s security model and ensure that security standards are universally enforced. Acting as the database security engineer is a big responsibility, and DBA training is the only professional training that can adequately prepare you to take on this role.

Big Data and Data Science

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about what exactly it is that data scientists do. In a nutshell, the job of a data scientist can be summarized as taking more of a “big picture,” analytical approach to their company’s data, as opposed to the database administrator role which is more focused on the routine details. Data scientists find patterns in large amounts of data and connect them to real-world decisions, according to Life Hacker. Data scientists use a number of tools and a wide range of skills to run their analytical models, such as Hadoop, Python, MapReduce, and others.

Navigating the world of big data requires not only a complete understanding of the nuts and bolts of databases, but also a background in statistics, software, and even the social sciences come in handy. In an interview with Life Hacker, data scientist Dan Mallinger explains, “data science begins by translating a business case into an analytics agenda. Much more time is spent developing hypotheses, understanding data, exploring patterns, and measuring impact than selecting algorithms.”

While a multidisciplinary background is useful for getting into data science, it would be a mistake to look at the educational requirements of this career and assume that big data is out of reach for you. Oracle DBA courses can provide you with the fundamentals you need to start exploring a career as a data scientist.

What Steps to Take

As you can see, Oracle DBA training can open up many doors in your career. If one or more of the jobs within database administration appeal to you, the next step is to get certified. Oracle Database 12C and 12C Release 2 certifications will tell every possible employer that your Oracle expertise can be trusted. Once you have become an Oracle Certified Associate (OCA certification), it’s possible to seek further Oracle DBA training to become an Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) next. As an IT professional, be sure to act soon to take this opportunity to increase your body of knowledge as well as the potential size of your paycheck.