MySQL Certification Update

[Carsten Pedersen]

Hi,

Approximately one year ago, I wrote to this mailing list saying

"You may not remember this, but at some point in the distant past
you signed up for this mailing list -- although we have always
promised it to be low-volume, once-per-year was not quite the plan
at the time the list was created :-) Starting with this mail, we
will make news of the MySQL certification program flow just a bit
faster."

Promises made are, unfortunately, not always promises kept. And I'm
very sorry for that. I hope that you find the news in this email
interesting enough to forgive me the lapse.

(if you're no longer interested in being on this list, instructions
on how to unsubscribe are at the bottom of this mail)

Contents:
* Get Certified at the MySQL Conference
* Certified MySQL Cluster DBA Certification Now Available
* Upcoming Certification: Certified MySQL Associate

The MySQL certification program keeps growing, and we are delivering
DBA and DEV exams every single workday. As you will see below, we
have some rather interesting additions to the program.


Get Certified at the MySQL Conference
=====================================
In case you didn't know, the MySQL Conference & Expo starts in Santa
Clara, California just a few days from now. The schedule is loaded
with great stuff and loads of interesting talks that should be of
huge interest to anyone interested in MySQL. This includes three
tutorial sessions with MySQL certification exam primers delivered by
our best teachers!

If that's not enough of an excuse to go, then we probably have just
what you need: MySQL certification exams at just $25 USD each! Yes,
that's a $175 discount from our normal exam price, made possible
because we have a lot of staff on-site already and can deliver many
exams all at once.

These exams are available to all conference attendees, and must be
taken on-site. You can sign up for the exams either when you
register for the conference on http://www.mysqlconf.com, or you can
buy an exam voucher once you get there.

And if you need even more certification-excuses: At the conference,
attendees can take the Beta version of the upcoming Associate exam
at no cost at all! See below for more information.


Certified MySQL Cluster DBA Certification Now Available
=======================================================
The MySQL 5.1 Cluster DBA Certification (CMCDBA) is a specialization
exam for those that design, deploy and administer MySQL Cluster
setups. Cluster certification is part of the DBA track, As such,
CMCDBA can be attained only by Certified MySQL DBAs.

The Cluster certification exam consists of a single exam, You can
find more information on the contents of the exam in our Candidate
Guide (http://www.mysql.com/certification/candguide#t35).

As always, best preparation for any MySQL certification exam comes
courtesy of our excellent training program, which also offers
cluster-specific training. For those wishing to do self-study for
the exams, we expect to have a Cluster Certification Study Guide
available in a month, perhaps two.

Roland Bouman, who is the main developer of the CMCDBA
certification, has written fairly extensively about the Cluster exam
on his blog: http://tinyurl.com/2oepvc


Upcoming Certification: Certified MySQL Associate
=================================================
Roland is also the main force behind our new Certified MySQL
Associate (CMA) certification.

The CMA certification represents a bit of a "side step" in the
development of the MySQL certification program thus far. Until this
point, we have concentrated on making certifications that bring
candidates to a higher and higher level. While doing this, we
received many requests from customers, candidates and also
internally to develop a more basic certification, a certification to
validate that the candidate has a good foundation in basic MySQL
skills and concepts without all the nitty-gritty details we expect
you to know as a CMDEV or CMDBA.

And thus, this new entry-level certification comes to light.
Although holding CMA certification is not a formal prerequisite to
attaining other certifications, you should consider starting your
MySQL certification path with the CMA certification. We recommend
the CMA certification for MySQL users that know the basics, but have
not yet attained the experience gained by professional MySQL DBAs or
Developers.

The exam contents reflect the basics needed to get started using
MySQL for application development and ad-hoc database administration:

    * Theory, Terminology and Concepts
    * Data Definition using SQL
    * Basic Data Manipulation using SQL
    * Advanced Data Manipulation using SQL
    * Transactions
    * Import/Export

More details about this exam will be available when the
certification exams are released.

The initial work on this exam has just been completed: The questions
have been authored and gone through initial battle-testing by MySQL
employees, and what we need now is some community feedback for the
exams. And so, on Wednesday afternoon, 200 attendees of the
Conference & Expo will get to sit the Beta-version of Associate exam
for no cost at all. Passing the Beta exam is just as valid as
passing the "release" version of the exam; the difference is that
you're expected to answer more questions and provide some additional
feedback to us. This is explained in more detail in the following
blog posting: http://bitbybit.dk/carsten/blog/?p=93

We expect the "release" version of the certification exams to be
available world-wide in early June.


Best regards,

Carsten Pedersen
Certification Manager, MySQL AB

--
Warning: Certification can seriously increase your wealth!
http://www.mysql.com/certification

Carsten Pedersen, Certification Manager
MySQL AB, http://www.mysql.com

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[Carsten Pedersen]

Apologies for this, but I have just been made aware of an error in
my previous mail:


> Upcoming Certification: Certified MySQL Associate
> =================================================

...

> And thus, this new entry-level certification comes to light.
> Although holding CMA certification is not a formal prerequisite to
> attaining other certifications, you should consider starting your
> MySQL certification path with the CMA certification. We recommend
> the CMA certification for MySQL users that know the basics, but have
> not yet attained the experience gained by professional MySQL DBAs or
> Developers.

...

> The initial work on this exam has just been completed: The questions
> have been authored and gone through initial battle-testing by MySQL
> employees, and what we need now is some community feedback for the
> exams. And so, on Wednesday afternoon, 200 attendees of the
> Conference & Expo will get to sit the Beta-version of Associate exam
> for no cost at all.

The free Associate Beta exam is offered on *Tuesday* afternoon from
5:30 to 7:30pm, *not* Wednesday as originally written.

Again, apologies for the inconvenience.

Best regards,

Carsten Pedersen
Certification Manager, MySQL AB


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