And perhaps that is the best goal for an interview, balance. Recognizing that
incredible people are amazing and have different ways of interacting - and even
seeing the world.
Heaven knows my world looks much different than that of others I know. :)
Robert G. Freeman
DBA, Troublemaker, Malcontent
Businessolver
On Mar 14, 2016, at 12:19 PM, Kellyn Pot'Vin-Gorman
<dbakevlar@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:dbakevlar@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
I don't think anyone is saying the technical competency during an interview
isn't important. I think we all can agree that too many have seen interviews
where its all about competing to see who is the smartest person in the room....
:)
The best DBA and Development teams I've worked on and commonly they've often
been combined, are the ones where a list of skills that BALANCED out the team
members already in place, was created before anyone started interviewing
candidates
My favorite DBA to work with is incredibly skilled in OLTP and had no real
interest in OLAP, other database platforms, but was always willing to learn.
He was quiet and liked to be left in a corner to just work. I was an OLAP DBA
who loved all database platforms and was told I spoke more in my interview than
this DBA had done in six months working there. We supported each other's
environments 100%, but respected them and each other. I probably went to lunch
with the guy twice in the three separate times we worked together, but if
anyone messed with him, I was the first one to pick up a "battle axe" to defend
him. He in turn, quietly finished little projects in my massive workload that
I missed.
It was an excellent partnership and the kind that you like to see in an IT
shop. What questions do you need to ask in an interview? Like everything else
in the technical world, it depends... :)
Kellyn
<http://about.me/dbakevlar>
[Kellyn Pot'Vin on about.me]
Kellyn Pot'Vin-Gorman
about.me/dbakevlar
On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 10:57 AM, Howard Latham
<howard.latham@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:howard.latham@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
My thoughts Entirely. A practical test beats any certifications or memory tests.
On 14 March 2016 at 16:42, Mohammed Bhatti
<mohammed.bhatti1@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:mohammed.bhatti1@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Excellent post, Robert! Exactly my thoughts and this is how I've approached
interviewing candidates (except for sitting them down at a terminal).
My own experience with Oracle docs for some of the IDAM stuff in particular, is
that between 11.x.x.x and 11.x.x.y the documentation can be vary greatly. It
gets very frustrating. Pretty hard for any candidate to keep up with that rate
of change.
--
mohammed
On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 12:31 PM, Robert Freeman
<rfreeman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:rfreeman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Respectfully, I find the notion of DBA interview questions along these lines
tedious, at best and not a realistic measure of a DBA’s value, worth or
knowledge. Such questions open way to many psychological issues – stress, fear,
pressures for many people. These kinds of questions that are not a good measure
of a DBA’s ability to actually do the job. Sitting and answering questions
under stress is nothing like recovering a database under pressure. At least,
that’s true for me. I worked with Exadata for five years. Start asking me
questions in this manner, I’m pretty sure I’d sound like I could barely spell
Exadata let alone manage it. Yet – I assure you – if that thing craters – you
probably want me fixing it. I know more than a few customers certainly did when
that was my focus.
Who the devil is possibly going to remember every detail on a product where the
documentation could easily reach the depths of the Marianas Trench? Then, with
each question missed, factor in the “Oh blast, I just screwed up” count going
up and the likelihood of finding the answer to the next question in the bright
lights of an interview just go way down, and down and down. This is not how one
measures the worth of the DBA, nor his/her experience – at least that’s my POV.
For consultants who’s every next assignment is nothing like the last assignment
– so what if they spent the last 12 months working with encryption – if they
have spent the next 6-months working with some other gnarly feature, the
cobwebs of encryption are well beyond easy and instant recall. If you have
photographic memory – my hats off to you – I don’t. I remember concepts,
architecture and basic how-to’s… the details change so quickly, with each
version in many cases, that there is little value to stuffing them in my head
anyway.
What do I find the most effective way to gauge a DBA’s skill? I look at their
resume, sit them at a computer and ask them to find me an answer to a problem
that is relevant but that they have never faced (or they faced long ago and
could not remember to save their life). Let me see their basic knowledge and
research skills in action. Let me see how they are going to GET the relevant
answers to a problem that they have never faced, under some due pressure. How
intuitive are they at getting to the answer? That’s what I want to see. How
creative are they, yet how structured are they? That’s what I find important.
Then – let’s have an open book practical exercise. Create a database for me –
using an OS you are familiar with, and without using the DBCA. Have not done it
in a while – great, here are is the documentation – here is a list of physical
disks all ready to go and here are the tablespaces, sizes and related schemas –
no GO! Give them a reasonable amount of time to complete the task and measure…
I think that the trough of interview is a legacy we can do without….
My opinion, of course…. I’ve been wrong before, I’ll be wrong again..
Robert
From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>] On
Behalf Of Anton
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2016 4:54 AM
To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Oracle DBA Interview Questions
hello =) best question in my interview was: when selects without any funtions
can do redo ?
On 03/08/2016 02:56 PM, rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I've put togehter some questions for Oracle DBA's; however one of my co-workers
say the questions are a bit tough. Said "we don't want to scare a potential
employee." Can y'all comment, are these questions too hard? Should I include
more Backup and Recovery? What are your thoughts? -Rob
1. Make a column not null, but you have null values in the column. How
would you approach the problem?
2. How would you change the encryption algorithm on a tablespace.
3. Can you rekey (rotate keys) for encrypted tablespaces?
4. What process would you use to encrypt data in an existing tablespace?
5. How to you rekey change the encryption algorithm on an encrypted column?
a. Alter table <table name> rekey using ‘<encryption algorithm>’;
6. A junior DBA deleted some archive logs prior to them being applied to
the standby database. How do you get the standby database resynced?
7. You have encrypted a set of columns, there are existing indexes on
those columns. When you encrypted the columns, did the index get encrypted?
8. You ran an datapump backup of encrypted data, you did not specify
encryption in the datapump command line, is the datapump file encrypted?
9. In rman, you have executed CONFIGURE ENCRYPTION FOR DATABASE ON; What
encryption algorithm will Oracle use?
a. select algoritm_name, is_default from V$RMAN_ENCRYPTION_ALGORITHMS;
10. How do you find out what users still have the default password?
a. dba_users_with_defpwd
===================================
Robert P. Lockard Oracle ACE
President Oraclewizard.com<http://Oraclewizard.com>, Inc.
"When given the choice between two evils, I always take the one I have not
tried." Mae West
(cell) 571.276.4790<tel:571.276.4790>
(office) 410.766.6960<tel:410.766.6960>
(fax) 410.766.0332<tel:410.766.0332>
twitter @navonpilot
youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/n4281k
blog: http://www.oraclewizard.com
--
Howard A. Latham
