Re: Case study for interviewing Oracle DBA

On Sat, 26 Feb 2005 14:22:40 -0800, Ramesh FL <karai.ramesh@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> DBAs/technical people should be judged by what they know and what they
> will be able to do. 

I disagree. Yes if you are recruiting for a technical role you would
need some technical skills, and more importantly to be able to
evidence that you can acquire new technical skills, but really
technical knowledge is almost the least important part of the job.
Consider lawyers (because I want to take this outside of IT); Law is a
highly technical subject with big financial implications for an
employer just like IT. Successful lawyers though are those that can
best apply that knowledge in the service of their employer. Knowing an
1814 precedent is only useful if it is relevant to the corporation.
The degree is a pre-requisite the ability to benefit the employer is
the core rationale for employing someone. In fact I'd argue that if
you really, really just want skills then you aren't after an employee
but a contractor or consultant for a short period of time.

When I have looked at CVs (resumes for the french speakers among you) 
I have barely glanced at the technical skills, I'm looking for
evidence of real currency contributions to previous employers. The
ability to understand what the organisation is trying to do, with what
resources and in what timescale is key. Understanding when to rebuild
indexes is really rather uninteresting.

> To measure that a manager has to have a reasonable
> level of technical knowledge, among other things. If the manager does
> not have that knowledge and she/he is going to judge a tech person by
> a whole bunch of other criteria and they are going to get the wrong
> result.

The criteria that are used to justify the position *are* the important
criteria. There are no others. You of course may have your own agenda
in taking a given position (I know I do) but you will be judged on the
way in which you perform against the reasons for creating that
position in the first place.

-- 
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
http://www.niall.litchfield.dial.pipex.com
--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l

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