May 29, 2013 at 2:39 am
Hi, I've recently taken on a role that involves overseeing some of our IT services, and one of them includes managing our CRM system. It's run on a SQL database system (2008) and I have to hire a DBA to manage it. I've had more than a few applications already and some of them have qualifications like MCITP.
Do I need to contact Microsoft to verify if these are genuine?
Thanks very much in advance.
Chris
May 29, 2013 at 3:14 am
Hi Chris,
I think you can do this over the internet if you have an access code.
This article seems helpful http://www.ehow.com/how_5635234_check-microsoft-certification.html
Dave Morris :alien:
"Measure twice, saw once"
May 29, 2013 at 3:36 am
Terrific! Thanks very much, SeatedElephant:-)
May 29, 2013 at 3:40 am
Glad it helped Chris. Always best to check the credentials aye..
Dave Morris :alien:
"Measure twice, saw once"
May 29, 2013 at 4:05 am
If you need a practice one you can try TranscriptID 1070318 with Access Code R1chardW.
May 29, 2013 at 4:41 am
On a side note, don't rely too much on certifications. Except for the advanced certification, Microsoft Certified Master (MCM), most of the certifications are extremely straight-forward tests that people can easily pass by using answer dumps online.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
May 29, 2013 at 4:55 am
Thanks additionally to Richard and Grant.
Richard, there appeared to be an internal error on the MCP site, but I'll try again another time.
Grant, I've been looking around and it does appear that there's a lot more to it than basic certifications. I've found a few pointers with Interview Questions, so I'll look into those.
Thanks again
May 29, 2013 at 5:01 am
One suggestion, get a consultant who really knows SQL Server to do the final technical interview of anyone you think might be a good fit. There are published interview questions for SQL Server, but they also publish the answers. I'm pretty convinced the one largest resource I've seen for that was intentionally helping people scam interviews.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
May 29, 2013 at 6:28 am
Lots of cheating going on it seems:-(
Having looked round this site (mostly) and done a bit extra reading, there are many functions that I don't think we utilise. A DBA worth their salt should be able to do backups, restores, write stored procedures, functions, and look after statistics, indexes and such like.
We have a test environment, so I could just get second stage applicants to show me in practice that they can do those?
Best
Chris
May 29, 2013 at 6:32 am
chris.dunbar (5/29/2013)
Lots of cheating going on it seems:-(Having looked round this site (mostly) and done a bit extra reading, there are many functions that I don't think we utilise. A DBA worth their salt should be able to do backups, restores, write stored procedures, functions, and look after statistics, indexes and such like.
We have a test environment, so I could just get second stage applicants to show me in practice that they can do those?
Best
Chris
Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Any decent DBA should be able to write a backup command for a single database without referencing books online.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
May 29, 2013 at 7:57 am
I had to go through this exercise myself a few years ago. I wrote up an "interview" sheet and limited myself to 10 questions. I had 5 technical ones and 5 that were about their approach to situations. I had one technical question that was a trick; if they answered that they'd used a specific feature in 2005 they were scamming the interview, since the feature wasn't introduced until 2008. 😀
If they made it past the technical questions, we could proceed with the ones that were about thought process. I found that most candidates had the technical ability and some experience to begin with. If not, the technical questions were designed to weed them out.
Honestly, I found that the candidate's approach to situations was more important than their technical ability. Their approach to problem-solving tells you their thought process and how they're going to perform. The do-everything-manually doesn't sit well with me. A steady, measured approach by someone with the eye of a developer is what I was looking for. The thought process questions also sparked more discussion than the technical ones, which gave more insight into how they'd perform.
I hope this helps.
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