Re: Job interview questions
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2015 17:25:59 -0400
Message-ID: <CAAaXtLDG03GDv87X8otCiBq8OXTiCAh1QJeWkt+hJE1x4EB1Og_at_mail.gmail.com>
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
>
>
>
>
>
>
-- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-lReceived on Mon Jun 08 2015 - 23:25:59 CEST