Re: Interviewing experiences with novice interviewers

Well, generally speaking, if a non-dba interviews a prospective DBA it means that there probably isn't a qualified DBA to ask the questions or that they are 'much too busy'. Either situation doesn't seem like an Idea working environment. I would instead ask to meet with the DBA team to see if they are worth working with. From personal experience, the technical interview in very large companies usually means very little. When I interviewed for IBM I answered every question correctly and included all the usual stuff they like (documentation, communication, processes, etc) They still told me I was a Semi-SR. I took the job anyway (the pay was better and I needed the money at the time) and later became friends with the guy that interviewed me and he told me that his boss had ordered him to never say anyone was 'Sr'. The reasons behind that are unimportant, but I was a little annoyed when I found out that I was earning the same as people who couldn't deal with a simple database restore... (One of the many reasons I left IBM for...)

I guess my answer is that you should probably ask yourself if that's really the company you want to work for (assuming you have the luxury of turning down a job).

Now as to ways to handle the interviewers, if they come out and tell you that they are not Oracle experts, then ask whether you will be given a technical interview by a DBA, and try to use short answers, don't be afraid to throw in some technical term or shorthand DBAs may use and ask if they'd like you to explain the concepts to them as you introduce them. Avoid any areas you may have trouble with... and throw in some buzz word now and again. (24x7, High Availability, reliability, performance, documentation).

hth
Alan.-

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 1:46 PM, Martin Klier <usn_at_usn-it.de> wrote:

> Another cool strategy: Ask back when possible. Many situations allow the
> experienced DBA to say "How is this parameter set on the assumed
> machine" or "what is the last ORA error in the assumed logfile". Did
> this in the past, with great success - with experienced and unexperieced
> interviewers. If you do it right, both kinds can be impressed. If you do
> it wrong, yu are the fool. :)
>
> Imtiaz Merchant schrieb:
> > off the net for interviewing experienced professionals? These people
> > judge you, not by your answers, but whether your answer matches the
> > answer they have obtained from the net.
> >
> > How do you deal with these situations?
>
> Regards
> Usn
> --
> Usn's IT Blog for Linux, Oracle, Asterisk
> http://www.usn-it.de
>
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>

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