Hiring DBA's
- From: "Newman, Christopher" <cjnewman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:17:50 -0500
I thought the below post was pretty good. Having been both a DBA
manager and a DBA, I can tell you that the ideal mix of folks is people
who are super techie, and folks who are great people. The folks who are
super technical will teach the others, and, in turn, they will learn
better people skills, resulting in a solid team. If you look for first
for good work ethic and motivation when hiring, you'll be in good shape.
I'm ex-Army, and I got my first tech job with really no technical skills
and a BA in History. If I'd have been given a tough technical
interview, I might not have had the chance to show what a great hire I'd
be.
- Chris
From: caseydyke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:28:52 +1000
Subject: Re: RE: How do you conduct technical interviews ?
It's rare that I get to keep up w/these list these days but the mail
still flows and occassionally i have a peek. i'm responding to this
thread b/c as a manager of a group of dba's, it's quite important to me
and something i am pretty opinionated on.
we work in a reasonably high end environment for a very visible entity
here in Australia. lots of big systems, big projects, big pressure and
so on. we are highly projectised and delivery focused. we work in
between networks, storage, OS and development groups. that's probably
like quite a lot of groups out there, nothing out of the ordinary.
but what i feel as a hiring manager is it is *very* hard to find (i
think reflecting the sentiment of the original poster) _that_ dba. you
know, the one that goes the extra mile, doesn't faff around, gets the
job done, takes it seriously.
over time i've managed to build an eclectic team makeup that meets our
needs. but it hasn't been easy. i've turfed a number of dbas (we're
all contractors so "turfed" (or boned in local nonmenclature) simply
means no renewal) b/c their performance wasn't what i and the business
required.
and so often i find people in interviews that are db "administrators"
only. a lot know nothing about modelling. a lot really know nothing
about development, storage and even core OS issues. certainly not all,
but a lot. i also find some really just not good enough in a generic IT
sense. limited peripheral knowledge.
mind you, some people that had that broad mix, simply did not perform.
lots of good peripheral knowledge, but man o man delivering a project on
time was just impossible. another example is of fantastic out of left
field technical knowledge, but hopeless time management. leaving me
picking up project pieces w/my head in my hands, yet reluctant to rant
b/c i know the individual has "that idea" just waiting in the back of
their head. i had one quite unique situation where i was told "my 4
hours are worth 8 from others". so late arrivals, long lunches and
early departures were the norm. you're joking right? nope. boned.
maybe i am describing standard mgmt, but the main point is -- there is
no silver bullet. it takes time to build a team and even the best
hiring questions/practices might not be enough.
what i do look for is years in the game, peripheral knowledge and/or
interest, detailed knowledge (yes, for what we do -- i expect this),
SDLC understanding, programming of some nature, source control (!! geez
i've banged my head against the wall b/c people just "bung" code in)
opinions (opinions are very important to me), OS, storage and network
knowledge. and a sharp troubleshooting ability/ethos. that's key too.
lastly, commitment. define it. what does it mean to you. people w/out
commitment don't work too well in our shop and i dare say we're not
unique! quite often in interviews i go on gut feel. i rarely go in
"prepared", i just fire away. we never do less than 2 interviews. and i
always let other team members have a say. and more and more i am less
dba question oriented (tell me about the FRA) and more peripheral
question oriented (ie: describe, in reasonable detail, the ideal network
setup for a 3 node rac cluster).
OCP doesn't play much of a role for me. it's *very* easy to determine
what OCP means to a candidate. if someone looks me in the eye and says,
"look, i got the OCP to challenge myself and ensure i kept up w/11g new
features". bingo. that's it. very very very easy to determine whether
it means anything. i've always been amazed at the hollow debate it
initiates. to me it indicates motivation in the *right* candidate.
little else in "other" candidates.
dunno if that helps and it's pretty long-winded so if you've made it
down here, maybe it did. best of luck.
Chris Newman
Database Specialist
AITS, University of Illinois
217-333-5429
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