I've been in this field 25+ years, including time as an Oracle programmer. Now I manage hundreds, including some Oracle teams. My advice is:
1. Be patient - this doesn't happen overnight.
2. You should get some training and experience programming like your friend suggested, but the specific lanuage is not as important. What you need (what I would look for in a resume) is demonstrated ability to generate logically oraganized software code.
3. Gain experience in something more than just user interface applications. Building window-based GUIs and web sites is a nice start, but not enough for a solid Oracle programmer.
4. Gain expereince with data structures. In other words, develop software (often as part of a team) that reads, writes, and updates more than a single flat file.
5. A nice-to-have qualification is experience writing code to interface other software packages. For example, how can a company's Help Desk system get the latest information from its personnel system? You'll find that most of this job isn't about writing code so much as analyzing, testing, and tweaking the available interfaces.
6. If you can demonstrate the experience above, you are then the type of employee I would send for Oracle-specific programmer training. This is expensive, so see if your employer will fund it.
There is another route, but I consider this a path to ';light'; database programming - not the solid Oracle programmer earning the big salary in today's job market. You can ';grow up'; as an Oracle database administrator. Start with simple applications, perhaps using another SQL-based personal database package (e.g., MS Access). You'll learn install the core software and eventually some add-on applications. You'll learn to create and modify table structures and eventually manage alloactions and (to some degree) performance. You will learn to write and modify basic SQL statements and eventually more complex SQL programming. This will all translate readily to the Oracle environment. You'll be able to write report-generating SQL code for any Oracle database, as well as some data verification scripts. I see such resumes as solid and very necessary caretakers of Oracle databases, but not on the Oracle developer/programmer path you asked about.
Finally, keep in mind that programming might not ';click'; for you. As one colleague put it recently, ';Programmers are not created in school. First they are born programmers.'; You will know quickly if a programming career is right for you. Most people know during their first class, but it might take two or three if you get a weak instructor the first time.
Whatever path you follow, I wish you the best of luck.
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