Hi TJ,
i was involved in such job interviews and asking questions many years ago (as i
was a permanent employee) and retrospectively i really sucked at it. I
just asked all of these concept / how-to questions and so on, but the only
thing that i learned at this time was "i am doing this for X years" is not
like "i am doing this for X years".
A few years later i met a really great Oracle team lead who opened my eyes
about such interviews. I was contracted to solve an Oracle performance
issue for this client and we talked about his open perm positions at lunch. He
told me about their previous performance issues and asked me how i
think about it and how i would have analyzed/solved them. Afterwards i realized
that this was an inofficial job interview as he offered me a perm
position later on. I rejected gratefully, but told him that i really learned
how to do a job interview.
1) Do not ask about his/her technical skills in manner of a simple test.
2) Let him/her tell a story and listen! Prepare 2 or 3 issues that you recently
faced/solved and tell the candidate about it. Ask about his/her
opinion. Follow him/her through the process of troubleshooting the issue. It is
not a problem at all, if he/she chooses a different way, but ask
him/her why he/she does it this way.
You probably notice very quick, if the person is skilled or not in such a
process. Just memorizing the documentation or whatever will not help him/her
very much (e.g. like OCAs or OCPs can be passed nowadays). The basic Oracle
knowledge is mandatory in such a process, but you also get an idea about
her/his creativity, troubleshooting skills and systematic analyctics. You may
also get a nice discussion, if you are little lucky and so you can also
see his/her articulation/discussion skills. Is he/she mind opened? Does he/she
also listen and try to understand what you mean and why you dit it this
way?
You may also want to check out Kerry Osborne talking about this topic (the
first 5 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI9do1DEm08
Best Regards
Stefan Koehler
Freelance Oracle performance consultant and researcher
Homepage: http://www.soocs.de
Twitter: @OracleSK
TJ Kiernan <tkiernan@xxxxxxxxxxx> hat am 4. Juni 2015 um 17:50 geschrieben:--
For those of you who have conducted job interviews, what sort of questions
have you found to be effective in evaluating a candidate’s skill level?
I’ve started a list that consists of some Oracle trivia and some open-ended
work habit/personality type questions.
Incidentally, I know of a Oracle DBA job opening in Omaha, NE. Please
contact me off-list if you’re interested in knowing more.
Thanks,
T. J. Kiernan
Lead Database Administrator
National Pharmaceutical Services
P.O. Box 407 Boys Town, NE 68010
Direct: (402) 965-8800 extn. 1039
Toll Free: (800) 546-5677 extn. 1039
E-Mail: tkiernan@xxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:tkiernan@xxxxxxxxxxx>