One thing to keep in mind is that it is easy to get "rattled" during a job interview and have your mind go blank on you. This is especially true with computer technical types who are basically introverts. Some years back when I was a corporate controller I interviewed a young lady for a admin type position. Her interview was a total disaster. She took the typing test and completely messed it up. But there was something about her skills that came through and I hired her. I was never sorry that I did. She could type up complicated tax forms that were always 100% correct. She was a model employee.
Sometimes you have to go by your gut feel. Answers to technical questions are not the complete picture. My $0.02 worth, Ken Janusz, CPIM ----- Original Message ----- To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, July 22, 2002 9:58 AM > Ok, I need to vent a little. > > Last week, I was asked to do some tech interviews over > the phones for a mid level DBA position. Someone with > about 2-3 years experience. > > I don't consider myself a real smart DBA, nor do I > think that I ask particularly tough questions. The > questions that I ask potential candidates are soley > based on what is on the resume. So I figure if > someone has, say, hot backups or SQL tuning on their > resumes, I'd expect them to be able to hold a fairly > intelligent conversation about these topics. No such > luck! > > What really frustrated me, and what I really want to > get out of my system, is that nobody that I talked to, > had a real good concept of hot backups. Forget about > recovery. I asked each and every candidate who > claimed to have done hot backups, just give me a high > level overview of how you do a hot backup. Don't care > about syntax, just give me the mechanics. The answers > I got were completely off base, baffling and > frustrating. Some of these folks claimed to have 5 > years experience!!! > > 'Well, we use scripts to do these, so I'm not sure how > these are done...' (But it says on your resume you've > done this???) > > 'Oh, I take the tablespace offline, and copy the > datafile to tape...' (Unless I'm mistaken, that's not > how a hot backup is done, right?) > > 'Well, I use the export utility, and as the backup > starts, it is written to the dump file.' (Huh? What?) > > 'During this time, everything is written to the redo > logs and not to the tablespace...' (You've been > reading one of those books, haven't you?) > > I also asked them how they'd put a tablespace in > backup mode. Simple enough, right? Not one of them > got it right. Not even close. Didn't have clue as to > what I was talking about. Fair enough, you don't > know. Well how about a simple recovery scenario. I > asked every candidate how they would do an online > recover of a datafile while the database was still in > use. No ideas. Not even close. > > I dunno, perhaps I'm spoilt by being a member of this > list? Perhaps I expect every candidate to be as > knowledgeable as you guys? Perhaps I'm asking too > much? > > Rant over. Thanks for listening. > > mkb > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better > http://health.yahoo.com > -- > Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com > -- > Author: mkb > INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 > San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message > to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in > the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L > (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may > also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: KENNETH JANUSZ INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
