Re: Case study for interviewing Oracle DBA

On Sat, 26 Feb 2005 14:22:40 -0800, Ramesh FL <karai.ramesh_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> DBAs/technical people should be judged by what they know and what they
> will be able to do.

I disagree. Yes if you are recruiting for a technical role you would need some technical skills, and more importantly to be able to evidence that you can acquire new technical skills, but really technical knowledge is almost the least important part of the job. Consider lawyers (because I want to take this outside of IT); Law is a highly technical subject with big financial implications for an employer just like IT. Successful lawyers though are those that can best apply that knowledge in the service of their employer. Knowing an 1814 precedent is only useful if it is relevant to the corporation. The degree is a pre-requisite the ability to benefit the employer is the core rationale for employing someone. In fact I'd argue that if you really, really just want skills then you aren't after an employee but a contractor or consultant for a short period of time.

When I have looked at CVs (resumes for the french speakers among you) I have barely glanced at the technical skills, I'm looking for evidence of real currency contributions to previous employers. The ability to understand what the organisation is trying to do, with what resources and in what timescale is key. Understanding when to rebuild indexes is really rather uninteresting.

> To measure that a manager has to have a reasonable
> level of technical knowledge, among other things. If the manager does
> not have that knowledge and she/he is going to judge a tech person by
> a whole bunch of other criteria and they are going to get the wrong
> result.

The criteria that are used to justify the position *are* the important criteria. There are no others. You of course may have your own agenda in taking a given position (I know I do) but you will be judged on the way in which you perform against the reasons for creating that position in the first place.

-- 
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
http://www.niall.litchfield.dial.pipex.com
--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l