Re: Job interview questions

On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 5:25 PM, MARK BRINSMEAD <mark.brinsmead_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> Hmmm. I am finding the opposite in mt region. I am losing out on
> opportunities because I am too experienced (too expensive, no doubt).
>
> Its true that I rarely see opportunities for (very) junior DBAs, say zero
> to 2 years experience. But the bulk of the opportunities I do see are for
> three to eight years. DBAs with ten years need not apply, it seems. This
> is especially true for contracting positions, where the client defines a
> minimum requirement of maybe 3 or 5 years experience, and then selects the
> lowest bidder meeting the minimum requirements. Very senior DBAs might
> have to undercut those who have half the experience if they want the work.
>
> Perhaps, though, we just don't see "junior" DBA positions advertised
> because "junior" DBAs are easy to find -- or to create. If you are willing
> to accept a DBA with little experience, just grab a promising developer,
> and send them to OCP school for 3 weeks. :-) There's no need to pay a
> placement agency for that!
>
> On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 4:37 PM, Iggy Fernandez <iggy_fernandez_at_hotmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>> A quick check of dice.com shows 46 listings for senior Oracle DBAs (
>> https://www.dice.com/jobs?q=title%3A%28sr+oracle+dba%29&l=) but only one
>> for junior candidates (
>> https://www.dice.com/jobs?q=title%3A%28jr+oracle+dba%29&l=). We complain
>> about the lack of senior candidates but we won't give junior candidates a
>> break. If we don't give them a break, the pool of candidates can only
>> shrink.
>>
>> Iggy
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2015 12:34:35 -0600
>> From: tim_at_evdbt.com
>> To: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
>>
>> Subject: Re: Job interview questions
>>
>> I'll take a whack here too...
>>
>> I think the intent behind asking obscure technical questions is to
>> initiate a conversation on a very specific technical topic. With luck, the
>> seemingly trivial question can reveal not only that the candidate is fluent
>> on the whole topic, but also something about how they relate to other
>> people and how they might fit in.
>>
>> For example, asking a question such as "*What is the common nickname for
>> an 'inconsistent' backup?*" (answer: "*hot*" or "*online*" backup) can
>> lead to several great follow-up questions about how backups are captured
>> and why they're recoverable. For example, if they get that right, you can
>> then ask if simply restoring an "inconsistent" backup is sufficient to open
>> a database successfully, or whether additional steps are necessary (i.e. "
>> *no*" and "*recovery rollforward with redo logs*" are good follow-up
>> answers). If you have a suspicion that the candidate is snowing you, then
>> you can ask whether datafiles are "locked" against writes while they're
>> being backed up or not, and find out if they have some whopping
>> misconceptions about how Oracle works.
>>
>> Getting these answers correct or incorrect is not really the point; lots
>> of good people get them wrong. In real life, people can google for these
>> answers.
>>
>> But how they interact with you during this conversation is very
>> revealing. Whether they know this stuff or not. Whether they freeze up
>> when faced with a complex problem, or whether they grow more engaged and
>> animated at the challenge. Whether they actually get angry when confronted
>> with their failure.
>>
>> If they know their stuff and answer correctly, again it is illuminating.
>> Some get cocky and rattle off the answer in an almost arrogant fashion.
>> Some are undoubtedly arrogant about it. Some are just matter of fact and
>> cool and collected. Maybe you want arrogant. Maybe you don't.
>>
>> Of course, the follow-up questions can go another way, into personal
>> experience and war stories. "*What is the scariest situation you've
>> ever encountered?*" Every infrastructure person has been scared stiff
>> at one point or another, and if they haven't, then they haven't done
>> anything. It's not fair to ask someone about their failures during an
>> interview, but I think it is quite kosher to ask someone about when they
>> were most frightened.
>>
>> So, an interview isn't merely a series of trivia questions to be scored,
>> summarized, and averaged. No doubt scoring correct answers is useful, but
>> there's much more. Good questions encourage the candidate to reveal
>> something about their own characters.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 6/4/15 12:02, Iggy Fernandez wrote:
>>
>> Dear TJ,
>>
>> I absolutely loved the blog post recommended by June and read every
>> word of it.
>>
>> I remember the interview at which I could not answer the question "how
>> do you enable block change tracking in a database?" (The answer is "alter
>> database enable block change tracking,") I don't want to work for Yahoo any
>> more.
>>
>> I remember the time when I could not get hired at Google because I
>> could not solve a riddle.
>> https://iggyfernandez.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/how-not-to-interview-a-database-administrator-part-i-the-google-way/.
>> I don't want to work for Google any more.
>>
>> I remember the worst interview of my life when the hiring manager walked
>> me to the door when I correctly answered a simple question about redo logs
>> (he was wrong).
>> https://iggyfernandez.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/the-worst-interview-of-my-life/.
>> I don't want to work for [let me protect the guilty] any more.
>>
>> Personally, I don't think the absence of particular technical skills
>> matters that much. They can always be learned by a motivated learner. I
>> would prefer a motivated learner rather than a really knowledgeable person
>> with a bad attitude or who never got anything done.
>>
>> The person's work history and the opinions of his/her previous
>> co-workers and managers is the information we need but we don't have it.
>> Only some LinkedIn accolades like "his unique skill taking on abstract
>> blue-sky corporate objectives and converts them into specific actionable
>> goals".
>>
>> The company takes a big risk by hiring me (how can anybody really
>> evaluate me in a few hours?) but the bigger risk is the one I take in
>> joining a company. The question I want to ask (but never do) is "Who am I
>> replacing? Why did they leave? What did they not like about the job? Can I
>> call them?" Also, "Do you believe in work/life separation?" Also, "Do you
>> ruthlessly lay of employees like [let me protect the guilty] in order to
>> achieve the quarterly earnings target?" Also, "how crazy is database
>> administration in your company; is it as wonderfully wonderfully
>> (wonderfully) smooth as eBay and Intel or as crazy and terrible as [let me
>> protect the guilty]." Also, "Do your team members go to NoCOUG conferences
>> and, if not, why not?" Excuse my NoCOUG plug.
>>
>> I would hire a young person or experienced person and teach them all I
>> know but companies don't like to do that. They do like to complain about
>> the shortage of good DBAs though. I once hired a person with very little
>> Oracle or DBA experience and asked him to work on certification. He
>> completed certification (8i) in nine months and, 15 years later, is still
>> with the same company as a glorified Oracle architect.
>>
>> For every technical hard-to-answer question somebody asks me that I
>> cannot answer (e.g. how do you fix wait event "X" on Exadata 12c Release
>> 2), there is a technical harder-to-answer question that I can ask them that
>> they can't answer. My favorite is "What is serializability of transactions.
>> Does Oracle provide it?" (the answer is "No").
>> https://iggyfernandez.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/dba-101-what-does-serializable-really-mean/ with
>> two additional links at the bottom.
>>
>> I have never met a DBA who could answer the question "what are the
>> deliverables of the DBA role?" to my satisfaction. How likely is it
>> that I will work on the deliverables if I cannot articulate them?
>> Installing security patches is not a deliverable, but a task. I would hire
>> a SQL Server DBA who could give me even a partial answer and was a quick
>> learner.
>> https://iggyfernandez.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/favorite-quotes-just-a-mess-without-a-clue/
>> .
>>
>> I have often been rejected for jobs because I was not competent enough *at
>> that time*. I have achieved all those competencies by this time but,
>> strangely enough, I no longer want those jobs any more. There are jobs out
>> there that I want but they won't hire me because I am not competent enough *at
>> this time*. C'est la vie.
>>
>> Just some random thoughts of course. Kindest regards and best of luck
>> finding and retaining great people.
>>
>> Iggy.
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2015 18:29:19 +0200
>> Subject: Re: Job interview questions
>> From: jure.bratina_at_gmail.com
>> To: tkiernan_at_pti-nps.com
>> CC: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> an interesting post I recently read:
>> https://amitzil.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/interviewing-a-dba-2/
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 4, 2015 at 5:50 PM, TJ Kiernan <tkiernan_at_pti-nps.com> wrote:
>>
>> For those of you who have conducted job interviews, what sort of
>> questions have you found to be effective in evaluating a candidate’s skill
>> level? I’ve started a list that consists of some Oracle trivia and some
>> open-ended work habit/personality type questions.
>>
>>
>>
>> Incidentally, I know of a Oracle DBA job opening in Omaha, NE. Please
>> contact me off-list if you’re interested in knowing more.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>
>> [image: NPS.png]
>>
>>
>> T. J. Kiernan
>>
>> Lead Database Administrator
>> National Pharmaceutical Services
>> P.O. Box 407 Boys Town, NE 68010
>> Direct: (402) 965-8800 extn. 1039
>> Toll Free: (800) 546-5677 extn. 1039
>>
>> E-Mail: tkiernan_at_pti-nps.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>

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