RE: Remote DBA

Well, the technical interview is a requirement for me (are there interviews where you're not supposed to evaluate their technical skill, except when someone else that you trust has already done so?).

And we pretty much require references, however, it's always the last step before we make an offer, and we only check references if we're mostly convinced they're the right hire (i.e. if we're iffy on you, we would never use references to try to make up the difference). And we always let the candidate provide the names at their convenience, and talk to people in advance, and schedule things based on the references' schedules, etc. We know providing and being references is complicated and annoying, and hence we try to make sure we do it sparingly, and at everyone's but our convenience.

As far as who works really well in those remote situations, I think it's two kinds of people (my mental nicknames for them): - "ticket closers"
- "lone rangers"

Ticket closers are operational folks who just have a knack and discipline for working through issues one by one. They don't get caught down the rabbit hole on a low-importance issue and spend six hours on it, nor do they try to tackle a job way above their pay grade and waste three days before asking for help - they triage, address as best they can, escalate or ask for help if necessary, then close and move on. Having these folks on your team is great, because they can help make sure the issue churn is addressed - they won't be designing the long-term strategic plans for 2011, but they'll keep the wheels on the bus.

Lone rangers are people who you can give a big problem to, and turn them loose, and just wait for them to come back. Usually senior team members in targeted roles, you say things like, "Hey, we need to figure out how we're going to be doing DR once we migrate off the EMC platform in 2011", and off they go. Sure, you'll get emails, and draft documents, and be invited to conference calls, but they are really just keeping you apprised of what's going on - if you left them alone, they'd still come out with generally the same report at the end.

In both cases, the key thing is that neither type of person requires immediate/direct handholding, the kind that requires being able to walk over to the other person's desk and talking face-to-face whenever anything crops up. I worked with a person years ago who was very bright, but you had to keep your eye on them, or else you'd find that the problem they'd set out to solve at 11am on Monday had morphed into another problem they'd noticed along the way on Tuesday, and come Wednesday, the second problem was about 20% solved, and the first problem had been forgotten in the shuffle. Those sort of people are the kind who do poorly in remote environments, as well as people who require frequent/constant feedback on how they're doing.

As far as how to tell the difference in an interview - I think the references are the best. You ask questions about how much oversight people require, what sort of problems they enjoyed doing vs. others, what their attention span was like, etc. etc.

Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: alanbort_at_gmail.com on behalf of Guillermo Alan Bort Sent: Sun 9/26/2010 6:44 PM
To: Matthew Zito
Cc: kerry.osborne_at_enkitec.com; oracle-l-freelists Subject: Re: Remote DBA  

Well, my concern is that if you are hiring someone from another country it's hard to measure their exprience. I've often found it hard to assess someone's experience in an interview (in those annoying interviews where we are not supposed to evaluate the technical skill of the interviewee) based just on general questions. I've also had the other kind of interviews, where I can ask anything I want and get a good idea of their skill and whether it's plausible they have the experience they state in their resume.

Conducting a proper technical interview is a very good option, and references are not always possible, I usually don't put them in my resume and if I am asked for references then I specifically tell contact my references and ask for their permission to supply their contact, so this takes one or two days.

What makes the right kind of person for work from home? How do you evaluate this in an interview (remote or otherwise)?

cheers
Alan.-

On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 6:46 PM, Matthew Zito <mzito_at_gridapp.com> wrote:

        Oh, I hit send too soon. Of course, you expect that you have to verify the experience of the person you're talking to. If they can't verify employment, pass tech interviews, have professional references, etc., it's a non-starter.         

        But if you can do those things, it's possible to have the right kind of people be able to work from home.

        Matt         

	--
	Matthew Zito
	Chief Scientist
	GridApp Systems
	P: 646-452-4090
	mzito_at_gridapp.com
	http://www.gridapp.com
	
	
	
	-----Original Message-----
	
	From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org on behalf of Kerry Osborne
	Sent: Sun 9/26/2010 5:42 PM
	To: cicciuxdba_at_gmail.com
	Cc: oracle-l-freelists
	Subject: Re: Remote DBA
	
	No.
	
	I wouldn't hire anyone whose experience I couldn't verify. I've hired several people I haven't met in person though. Skype works pretty well.
	
	Kerry Osborne
	Enkitec
	blog: kerryosborne.oracle-guy.com
	
	
	
	
	
	
	On Sep 26, 2010, at 4:27 PM, Guillermo Alan Bort wrote:
	


	> Hi List,

	>

	>     I've been reading a lot about remote DBA services, these appear to be companies based on different locations that provide customers with DBA services while having all the DBAs physically in one location (or a limited number of locations). These services are usually hired by companies whose primary focus isn't IT.

	>

	>     My question now is...would this work in reverse? Having several DBAs working out of their own homes in whatever city or country they want for a single company (or for one of the remote DBA services)? I understand the complexities of having people without Green Cards or working VISAS working for US based companies, even if they are now physically in the US.

	>

	>     This one may be for recruiters or decision makers: Would you hire somebody you've never met (or met only by phone) who lives in another country (worst case) and whose experience you can't verify if they asked for half of what an on-site DBA would?

	>

	> Thanks in advance

	> Alan.-

	
	
	--
	http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
	
	
	
	

--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l