Personally, I think certification is a minimum bar. It forces the candidate to
study backups, security, high availability, new features, etc. Yes, there are
wonderful dentists who never went to dental school (or don't rely on X-rays and
modern gadgets) but they are the exceptions that prove the rule.
Iggy
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2015 08:20:38 -0700
From: raza.siddiqui@xxxxxxxxxx
To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
CC: neil_chandler@xxxxxxxxxxx; tkiernan@xxxxxxxxxxx;
dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; niall.litchfield@xxxxxxxxx;
Herald.ten.Dam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Job interview questions
Been following this thread with
interest.
Not sure if I might've missed it, but what role does having some
sort of certification (OCA, OCP or OCM) have in this equation ?
In addition, if said certification is not with the latest
release, does that still have value ?
Regards
Raza
On 6/9/2015 11:02 PM, Neil Chandler
wrote:
The most important aspects of a candidate are personality and
attitude.
When I was a hiring manager, I used to have the "remote
office" test; if you hire the candidate and have to work with
them all week in a remote office with no other human contact; at
the ending the day will you be happy to go for a beer/meal with
them or will you feign tiredness and go hide from them in your
hotel room? This works remarkably well as a yardstick.
The very best teams I have built have always had a good
attitude and personality.
If you like your (potential) colleagues and they exhibit
competence and have a positive collegiate attitude, hire them.
Regs
Neil.
sent from my phone
On 9 Jun 2015, at 20:33, TJ Kiernan <tkiernan@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Thanks
everybody for your insightful responses. If you have
more, please keep them coming.
I
think I was overly cursory with my description of both
“skills” and “Oracle trivia.” The sort of trivia I was
thinking was along the lines of, “How does Oracle store
a date?” Ideally, the candidate can answer correctly,
but as long as they don’t spout off the NLS default,
we’re in decent shape and all the better if the
conversation travels down the implicit conversion is
evil rabbit hole.
Evaluating
a stranger’s personality, technical knowledge, how they
apply that knowledge under duress, and their willingness
and ability to learn in the space of an hour (or however
long it takes) is no small task. This thread has helped
me crystallize my thoughts as well as give me some good
topics of discussion to bring up.
Thanks,
T.
J.
From:
oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of David Fitzjarrell
Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2015 1:01 PM
To: niall.litchfield@xxxxxxxxx;
Herald.ten.Dam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Job interview questions
And,
of course one from column A and two from column B
... (may be carbon-dating myself with that one).
Some
of the best interviews I've conducted have led to
'unexpected' places, much in the way Tim describes.
You CAN learn much about the candidate from posture
and delivery during the interview. I agree it's not
about 'how many you get right' but how well they
'recover' from an incorrect or incomplete response.
Those who can take the pressure show it during the
interview. I have no issue with a confident
candidate, but I do take exception to an arrogant
one. I'm adding to a team, and arrogance is a sign
the potential candidate may not be a team player.
An
interview isn't a trivia contest:
"In
which Oracle release did the redo vector first
appear?" (Version 6)
it
should be a learning experience for both parties,
Yes, I like to know what ground the candidate has
covered in his/her career (if only to prove that
his/her 8 years of experience is progressive
experience, not the same first year chores
multiplied 8 times) but if a candidate has
determination and a desire to succeed any 'holes' in
their experience can be dealt with later (not every
DBA has worked with RAC, for example). I will look
at websites that tout 'Oracle interview questions
and answers' to see what someone thinks is important
and to see if the answers provided are actually
correct. I don't have a 'canned' set of questions
since I rely on the resume/CV to point me in the
proper direction for a given candidate, basing my
questions on his/her experience. Of course there
are candidates who have done nothing more than use
OEM/TOAD/etc to manage databases and know only
where the button lies for increasing the size of a
data file, for example. Those interviews don't last
long.
I've
been successful in selecting candidates when the
need arose; maybe that's the result of 26+ years of
'in the trenches' experience. I've also had
interviews go on longer than originally planned
because the candidate was engaged and willing to go
down the paths that opened up from previous
questions. Such candidates have made welcome
additions to the team.
Of
course your mileage may vary. :)
David
Fitzjarrell
Principal author, "Oracle Exadata Survival Guide"
