RE: Case study for interviewing Oracle DBA

I have found this thread interesting. One of the most popular books on job hunting is "What Color is Your Parachute". Highly recommended. Its main point is like Bambi says, in moving resumes from the big pile to the little pile, a lot of people consistently get culled out. Unless your resume is an obvious fit for the job, you are passed over for a resume that is. The HR person may always pull out the resumes with college degrees first, for example, and if you don't have one, you may always get passed over.

   The answer from this book is to bypass the system. Figure out a creative way to get past HR and speak directly with the hiring manager. As many people on this list have said "if I get to present myself directly, then they understand just how good I am". The book is full of ideas on how to do this. For us DBAs the answer is often to network. Attend your local Oracle User Group meetings. Even though this Oracle-L list is international, I have made contact with several local DBAs through it. Then when an opening appears at XYZ company, you contact your friend at XYZ company who can at least give you some insights on what they are looking for, maybe put in a good word for you, maybe deliver your resume directly to the hiring manager. If you strongly need a job, contact everybody you know and someone may hear of an opening before HR even hears of it.

   Rachel, the way you described your situation makes me wonder if HR has a legitimate concern that the company interests were overridden. Normally they are expecting that a formal job description is drawn up, several candidates are interviewed, and the most qualified candidate is selected. It may just be the way it was explained to HR made it seem this step was overlooked.

Dennis Williams

-----Original Message-----
From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org [mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of rachel carmichael
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 9:22 AM
To: davewendelken_at_earthlink.net
Cc: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: Re: Case study for interviewing Oracle DBA

My point was, bypassing HR and going to the tech people first is not necessarily a good thing.

Believe me, I do know how to soothe the ruffled feathers, too many years dealing with (and surviving without a scratch) corporate politics. I wasn't asking for advice, just pointing out that you don't always win by bypassing HR.

Nothing in life is certain. Other than the fact that at some point, you're going to die. I have never understood the mindset that says "oh but they aren't treating the people well". There is no "they" when you think of a corporation, it's not a person, has no feelings. And in any case, the employees are not the ones that management is trying to keep happy, the stockholders are. Different set of priorities

On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 06:34:20 -0800 (PST), david wendelken <davewendelken_at_earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> >...he decided that recruiting me would be a good thing for his
> >current company. Okay, fair enough, we skipped the HR initial crap,
> >saved the company money (no recruiter's fees). EXCEPT, HR still has to
> >be in the process at some point, and now they are annoyed with both me
> >and my friend because "we did this backwards". Do I start the
> >interview with HR at a disadvantage? You bet. Will it hurt me? Still
> >to be determined, we are still in the "trying to find a date that
> >everyone can manage for the interview" stage.
>
> I guess I'm not sure what your point is.
>
> The hiring manager has decided to hire you.
> HR might gum it up, might not.
>
> Had you gone the other path (send resume to HR and hope friend ever saw
it), do you think your odds would have been better? Couldn't HR have mucked that up too?
>
> People and organizations do **not** have von Neumann (sp?) architectures
that support algorithms that guarantee the same result for the same input. As a profession, we just need to "get over it" when it comes to this issue.
>
> No matter what course of action you take with another person or
organization, there's a chance that it will go well and a chance that it will go horribly. It's all a matter of determining what improves the odds and adapting to circumstances - particularly when event outcomes don't match what you expect or want.
>
> So, when the HR interview comes around, smooth those ruffled feathers, be
charming, point out the advantages to the company that you mentioned earlier, and don't give them an excuse to reject you. And hope for the best, because it's possible that no matter what you do, they'll screw it up for you.
>
>
> --
> http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>

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