Required Skills for the Job of SQL Developer / PL/SQL Developer

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I have been learning Oracle SQL and PL/SQL for almost a year now, and have decided that I would like to pursue a career as a SQL Developer or a PL/SQL Developer.

What skills are required to be a suitable candidate for a job as a developer? Are there any great resources for what skills are required for the job? Finally, what resources are available to learn these skills, if I need to brush up on them or introduce myself to them?

jaramill

Very broad question, but  I'll chime in with my thoughts

1. Read books on the languages SQL and PL/SQL (Steven Feuerstein's bible on PL/SQL is my goto)....IN that order.
   1. SQL
   2. PL/SQL.
2. Get certified --> https://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/ou_product_category.getFamilyPage?p_family_id=350&p_mode=Certification
   1. This will force you to actually READ the documentation of the language you are using as an Oracle PL/SQL developer.  Once you know it per the documentation you will feel WAY more comfortable in programming correctly and at a higher level. I never did this in the beginning of my career but later in my career.
3. Also learn both O/S [operating system] environments you'll be programming in (Windows and Unix) via the many variants of shell programming.
4. It doesn't hurt to participate in these forums by asking thoughtful questions or just reading questions and the answers from many prominent members.

That's my 0.02 cents

jaramill

Very broad question, but  I'll chime in with my thoughts

1. Read books on the languages SQL and PL/SQL (Steven Feuerstein's bible on PL/SQL is my goto)....IN that order.
   1. SQL
   2. PL/SQL.
2. Get certified --> https://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/ou_product_category.getFamilyPage?p_family_id=350&p_mode=Certification
   1. This will force you to actually READ the documentation of the language you are using as an Oracle PL/SQL developer.  Once you know it per the documentation you will feel WAY more comfortable in programming correctly and at a higher level. I never did this in the beginning of my career but later in my career.
3. Also learn both O/S [operating system] environments you'll be programming in (Windows and Unix) via the many variants of shell programming.
4. It doesn't hurt to participate in these forums by asking thoughtful questions or just reading questions and the answers from many prominent members.

That's my 0.02 cents

Marwim

Test your skills at Oracle Dev Gym - Initiated by the above mentioned Steven Feuerstein

Preferably before you go for certification.

GregV

Hi,

I've said it before, but to be a PL/SQL developer you first need to have a good command over writing efficient queries. I've heard many people complaining not having received a training on PL/SQL, but they don't even know how to exploit the power of SQL queries. A PL/SQL program is valued by its queries, so if they are not written well the PL/SQL program is useless. In my current company they are 20 years late in terms of development, still using cursors to browse the data.

A good understanding of how the Oracle database works is also a plus. For example, you would want your program to minimize redo generation, make the best of features such as native parallelism, bind variables, etc.

EdStevens

GregV wrote:Hi,I've said it before, but to be a PL/SQL developer you first need to have a good command over writing efficient queries. I've heard many people complaining not having received a training on PL/SQL, but they don't even know how to exploit the power of SQL queries. A PL/SQL program is valued by its queries, so if they are not written well the PL/SQL program is useless. In my current company they are 20 years late in terms of development, still using cursors to browse the data.A good understanding of how the Oracle database works is also a plus. For example, you would want your program to minimize redo generation, make the best of features such as native parallelism, bind variables, etc.

And to the above I would add "get familiar with Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference"  and Database Development Guide

Without knowledge of the Packages and Types Reference, one will spend a lot of time re-inventing the wheel.

jaramill

And to add, another place to STUDY for exams that lead to certification is a member of this forum (who usually posts on the Certification forums as I do sometimes) is Matthew Morris.  Former Oracle employee and author of several practice guides for Oracle certification exams.  He breaks it down even further with many suggestions on books to study and links to documentation, etc....  I learned a lot from his guides and links.

Here's his website --> Oracle Certification Prep

And I agree with what others have said about SQL coming first.  The definition per the documentation is: (I bolded, italicized, and underlined the key part of the definition):

"PL/SQL, the Oracle procedural extension of SQL, is a portable, high-performance transaction-processing language. This overview explains its advantages and briefly describes its main features and its architecture."

And lastly, having a basic understanding of programming in general helps (i.e. a college degree in computer science is ideal).