Re: Designing a DBA interview process to validly measure candidate abilities.
- From: goran bogdanovic <goran00@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: fmhabash@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 19 May 2013 23:27:13 +0200
this two traits are quite important and not related strictly to DBA work
... and they are equally applied to any type of job.
If we get a candidate which have them developed, great ... lucky you ;-)
But how candidate developed them? On his/her own (natural talent) or maybe
some other way?
On the other hand, the responsibility of managers and team-leads is (among
others) to develop this two traits in each team member.
I am a supporter of the idea that each (well, almost each) person has the
potential to be a high-performer ... self-directed and self-motivated.
That person needs direction & coaching from me to begin developing his/her
full potential.
So, the key word is 'potential' ... that's what I try to drill-out during
interview and this requires your ability as interviewer to spot it.
Try to combine both technical and non-technical questions ... construct a
situation in which he/she was never been (even simple life related one) and
ask him/her to find the 'way out'.
This can be DBA-work related but I usually construct a non DBA-work related
one ... you can be then very surprised by candidates answers.
Interviewer reminds me of Sport Scout ... ;-)
On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 5:19 PM, Dba DBA <oracledbaquestions@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> Ask a broad range of questions. No one is an expert at everything. Try to
> avoid the trap of asking about specific features or things you have done at
> your project. I have seen people have an urge to basically show off when
> they interview. It isn't really important if the person knows how to do
> your solution, it is important if he/she understands it and can help solve
> complex issues. People can always pick this up. If they don't do well on a
> subject move on to something else. This way you can see what they are good
> at.
> I also like to look at their resume. If they claim they are good at
> something hit them on it.
> Don't worry if they can't remember syntax off the top of their heads. It
> isn't hard to go look at your RMAN scripts or the web to remember the
> syntax.
>
>
> See if they understand how the DB works. Tom Kyte asks all candidates to
> draw a picture of the Oracle DB and its processes. Not a bad questions, but
> don't expect people to have this memorized. Its easy to forget stuff. Just
> look for general understanding.
>
> If there is a performance problem ask them to talk about their technique. I
> like to also throw in that you are dealing with someone who doesn't know
> databases well and just wants it to work. So it is hard to get useful
> feedback from this person. So its more real life.
>
> Parts of the interview should be tailored to the kind of job you have. If
> its 24x7 support where you rotate pagers... (you want to see the expression
> on their face when you tell them this), go you get paged at 2 AM on
> saturday morning and the page says 'DB down'. This is your first oncall
> rotaton. We have mediocre documentation. What do you do to try to figure
> out what is going on?
>
> You are talking to a mid-level java developer. He doesn't understand why
> his query which runs a loop 500,000,000 times is slow. It was fast when it
> looped 3 times in dev. How do you explain this to him without making him
> feel stupid.
>
> Most shops use unix. So ask him a few simple unix questions to see if the
> person can get around. I might hand him a shell script(simple one) and ask
> him to explain it. unix syntax can be goofy so don't worry if the person
> doesn't remember all the bits and pieces.
>
>
> stuff like that. Look for their approach to solve problems. Try to find out
> if this is a 'lets solve stuff'' or a sit there and work to you can go 'not
> my fault' person. There are a number of government projects where you are
> expected to work to not my fault if you do more, you can get fired. So in
> the DC area I have to see if the person is totally tied to not my fault or
> not.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 4:18 AM, <Christopher.Taylor2@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > I find its easier to get a question posted here and love the breadth of
> > knowledge sharing that goes on.
> >
> > Maybe we should start an "Ask Oracle-L" site? :)
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:
> oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> > On Behalf Of Michael Dinh
> > Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2013 12:23 AM
> > To: fmhabash@xxxxxxxxx
> > Cc: oracle-l
> > Subject: Re: Designing a DBA interview process to validly measure
> > candidate abilities.
> >
> > I started as Junior DBA and would read asktom daily. It takes motivation,
> > drive, thirst to get there. Ask the question.
> >
> > --
> > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
> >
> >
> > --
> > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>
>
>
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