Re: Trigger Code

Redd wrote:

>>there are other ways to do this, and there are some subtleties which could
>>make code that looks almost exactly like this not work -- so if the
>>candidates answers are being reviewed by a non-technical person, you
>
> really
>
>>won't know if he/she supplied valid code
>>
>>also, hopefully your dba candidate will recognize that the sample table
>>design hold derived data that is not maintained by this trigger (ie
>>oldquantity)
>>
>>and hopefully you will have a way of determining if the dba can do
>>dba-related tasks -- this is really a developer skill, although i would
>>expect a dba to have be have an excellent grasp on it
>>
>>;-{ mcs
>>
>>
>
> Just one question out of many that may be asked the applicant, just want
> to check the person overall knowledge.
>

Like Daniel, I'd be a little concerned that you have no one on staff with the
skill to test the candidates knowledge. Having a simple trigger question with
a single canned answer is not the best way to get rid of the pretenders.

To be honest with you I ran into something like this early in my career. It as
a simple FORTRAN programming problem. The scary part was they admitted to
having people on staff that couldn't solve the same problem. I ran away from
that job.

What Daniel and I are saying is that a trivial question like this MIGHT weed
out those that never did this before. But if that is the deepest you go into
verifying their skills and knowledge, you will not likely succeed in getting a
really good candidate.

I have interviewed many folks, and I never found questions like this to be
adequate in finding the skill level of the candidate.

(I'd offer my services at this point, but you may be as mad at me as you were
with Daniel. But were are both trying to help.)

-- 
Edward J. Prochak   --- Magic Interface, Ltd.
Ofc: 440-498-3700   --- 7295 Popham Place, Solon, OH 44139
on the web at       --- http://www.magicinterface.com
email: ed.prochak_at_magicinterface.com