I was told that same thing in an interview. He said "I don't know is not a good answer. I don't know, but I know where to find out." is much better.
-----Original Message----- Sent: Monday, July 22, 2002 9:54 AM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L even so, I'd rather have someone tell me "my mind has gone blank, but I know I can look it up in this manual" --- KENNETH JANUSZ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 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 -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Vergara, Michael (TEM) 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).
