Re: interview a manager

From: Don Granaman <granaman_at_cox.net>
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 22:51:43 -0400
Message-ID: <00eb01c439d3$cd09a2e0$6401a8c0@dilbert>

I like these - and many of the other responses. I don't think you really need a professional interviewer to assess things like body language though. I wouldn't want to work for someone who got the job because they wore a nice suit and shmoozed the interviewer well. Hidden agenda, braggadocio, micromanagement potential, tendency to acquiesce to a [ better suit | more executive haircut | higher-level bureaucrat ] and such usually have a quite noticeable odor.

I've done this "pick a new boss" thing twice. The most notable was after growing from a one-DBA (me) shop to an 8-DBA shop, I was "appointed" manager (actually "director") of the data services group (deja vu?) by the CIO. In spite of initial assurances, the job devolved into much less a technical lead deal (as it was when informal) and more an "attend mind-numbing meetings all day, battle the corporate demons endlessly for the most obvious necessities, and become a power-point prodigy" deal. After a couple of months of this, I begged off - and was informed that I couldn't quit until I found a replacement.

You want someone who has a significant clue as to what kind of stuff you do, how it might be done - in general, and an ability to accept realistic estimates of cost and time required, has a sort of intuitive BS filter, but doesn't feel they have to offer "tips and techniques" ("the junk food of technical education" - to quote Tim) on every task. My "ideal candidate" when I was searching was a fellow who had been deep-geek technical background (wrote the internal sort code for Oracle 4, among other things), but had been managing a database group for the last 8 years and had a solid gold personality - the kind that can win inter-departmental battles without bloodshed. Unfortunately, for several reasons, I ended up with someone else.

-Don Granaman

Original Message ----- From: "David Green" <thump_at_cosmiccooler.org> To: <oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 8:55 AM Subject: Re: interview a manager

> What are you thoughts on working from home one or more days a week under a
> telecommuting program. Have you been involved in any studies or
> evaluations of the monetary savings and increases in productivity that can
> result from effective telecommuting.
>
> How do you insulate your team from external politics and agendas, while
> still communicating openly to the team?
>
> How would you respond or handle a situation whereby a DBA accidentally
> destroys some data or a database? What types of incidetns would you
> accept and what what you consider unacceptable?
>
> Is the candidate technical and if so at what level?
>
> What are your thoughts regarding ongoing training for technicians?
>
> ...
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I work on a team with one sysadmin, and 3 dba. For the last while, we
have
> > been managerless. However, this is about to change, today we are going
to
> > be
> > interviewing someone who will become the "project manager" for the
> > Database
> > Services group (that's our lovely name). What type of questions would
you
> > ask?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> >
> > Josh C.
> >
> > ps Mladen: I already plan on asking about the air speed of an unladen
> > swallow.
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Received on Thu May 13 2004 - 21:48:46 CDT