December 23, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Actually, this is something that many of my clients have asked me to do: participate as a technical interviewer in their engagement of prospective employees.
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December 23, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I can't believe I've missed out on 50 pages of this discussion (especially the beer recommendations (Guinness for daily upkeep, Cave Creek Chili Beer for those times when a hangover just isn't complete without a little acid reflux)).
I've encountered a lot of unfortunate people who became the annointed DBA by no fault of their own and it seems to me that there were 2 responses to that situation. Most of them tried to get someone else to do the bare minimum work necessary to keep their environments going (many of the poor questions come from these folks) while a few decided that any job worth doing was worth doing well and began to educate themselves as quickly as they could through any means available. Some of those folks decided, in the end, that the selfless and solitary life of a DBA wasn't for them and eventually wandered off to other less meaningful careers. Very few found our profession as essentially challenging as I believe most of us do. The common characteristic I have found in the folks who succeed at this noble art are the one's whose curiosity always got the better of them.
Which brings me to the problem I see with a lot of the posts. Too many folks are happy with the answer with no idea as to why it works. They get a job done, but they gain no knowledge.
Anyway, happy holidays everyone. Stay warm and stay dry!
December 23, 2008 at 5:52 pm
bitbucket (12/22/2008)
Jeff'sYa gotta love it when the ops cooperate.
Learn from them as well as love it ! ! !
Oh, hell yes... that and other peoples posts, right or wrong.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
December 23, 2008 at 5:53 pm
David Webb (12/23/2008)
Too many folks are happy with the answer with no idea as to why it works. They get a job done, but they gain no knowledge.
I hate it when folks have no intellectual curiosity about a question they've asked. I understand being under the gun, but holy cow.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
December 23, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Yes, while I don't have as many answers as several of the folks here, I swear I want to start some of the replies I do have with:
First you stand on your left leg and sacrafice a chicken...
In my darker moments, I'm pretty sure that the response to that might end up being:
OK, now what...
December 23, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Heh... reminds me of the "SOFH" ("SysOp From Hell") series... google it... the stories are hilarious.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
December 24, 2008 at 1:14 am
SQLBill (12/23/2008)
I think in the economy some people are getting into jobs that are 'over their heads'. I remember seeing on one of my tech sites a person posted that they had lied on their resume so they could get a higher paying job and actually got it. They were letting everyone know that it was from what they learned on the tech site that they were able to lie well enough to get the job. They also posted that they knew they would be on the site daily to do their job since they really didn't know anything about SQL Server.
I posted a link to one of those earlier in this thread. I'm not going hunting for it now, but essentially the person said "Remember when you answer people's questions you may be saving their jobs". Person was a dev who somehow took a senior DBA job at a large company with a couple of 24x7 systems, and used the forum for everything. It's almost a year on and the questions are getting scarier. I'm just waiting for the unrecoverable disaster to happen.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
December 24, 2008 at 4:16 am
"Padded" resumes really get me. I interviewed more than 30 candidates for a position at my last company. It was amazing how many people would put "Expert in MDX" on their resume and know nothing about it.
I even had a recruiter send me the EXACT same resume for two different people (different names, at least). I went through the roof and told the recruiter I never wanted them to send me another candidate.
December 24, 2008 at 5:46 am
Michael Earl (12/24/2008)
"Padded" resumes really get me. I interviewed more than 30 candidates for a position at my last company. It was amazing how many people would put "Expert in MDX" on their resume and know nothing about it.
I hate that. I spent 6 months or more interviewing first for an assistant, later for a replacement. "Performance tuning expert" != "I once got a procedure running faster by trial and error"
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
December 24, 2008 at 5:51 am
At least they were able to open Management Studio and run the query.
December 24, 2008 at 6:46 am
I guess the thing that bothers me the most in all of this is that many of the people that reply to these posts do so in a way that fosters the same continued behavior. Responses should be done in a way that encourages people to read information on their own and dig a little bit so that they grow rather than providing an answer to every detailed question that someone asks. It's one thing when someone is in the middle of a production issue or a serious performance problem but, when it is something clearly in the realm of design or development there should be a push towards doing most of that work on their own.
Its funny but I remember when I first started coming to this site I would get responses from people like Steve and Brian that would almost always encourage me to do the work. They would give hints and then would say stuff like "sounds like fun" or "have fun".
So, probably a bit late in adding my input but there is a fault that needs to be owned by those that reply as well as by those that post.
David
@SQLTentmaker“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose” - Jim Elliot
December 24, 2008 at 7:33 am
Michael Earl (12/24/2008)
At least they were able to open Management Studio and run the query.
Well there was this one guy (who claimed to be a performance tuning guru and have a good knowledge of admin tasks) who told me he'd fix a corruption problem (bad page checksum) by writing a VB program.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
December 24, 2008 at 7:35 am
I hope you hired him on the spot! :w00t:
December 24, 2008 at 9:20 am
DavidB
I guess the thing that bothers me the most in all of this is that many of the people that reply to these posts do so in a way that fosters the same continued behavior. Responses should be done in a way that encourages people to read information on their own and dig a little bit so that they grow
A few pages back I posted the link to an OP post to which I did not know the answer, but did some (extensive) searching of MS, and posted the links to what I had found. That OP did the reading (as I did after the posting), came back with how well it worked and posted additional links that he uncovered.
It brings back old philosophers says that "He who helps others helps himself" that is the heart of this community and makes it so worthwhile and valuable to all of us.
December 24, 2008 at 9:29 am
GilaMonster (12/24/2008)
Michael Earl (12/24/2008)
At least they were able to open Management Studio and run the query.Well there was this one guy (who claimed to be a performance tuning guru and have a good knowledge of admin tasks) who told me he'd fix a corruption problem (bad page checksum) by writing a VB program.
He was just showing he could "think outside the box". :rolleyes:
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