June 19, 2009 at 11:10 am
GilaMonster (6/19/2009)
One I asked once (in an interview for senior position) was how to repair a torn page without losing any data. Anyone want to guess the answer I got?
Gail, that's funny as all heck. 😀 Just saw the answer elsewhere (won't spoil your fun here). I know less than nothing about torn pages, but even I know *that's* not the right answer!
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How best to post your question[/url]
How to post performance problems[/url]
Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]
"stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."
June 19, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I work in the financial industry and while all of the above technical questions are important, I am trying to spend not more then 20 mins on them. What more important ( at least for me) how candidate could deal with stress, business users, other DBA's, long hours and most important his previous industry experience. So within 45 mins(max 1hr) you can figure out if this person fits the position or not. If he cannot answer some of the 'tricky' questions-it is not a big deal, if you like your candidate and he pass the majority of your questions, then most likely he is smart to learn at work.
We were inteviewing recently about 10 candidates, most of them have all kind of MS certifications and most of those guys cannot even pass thru the intermidiate technical questions!
June 20, 2009 at 7:22 am
barsuk (6/19/2009)
I work in the financial industry and while all of the above technical questions are important, I am trying to spend not more then 20 mins on them. What more important ( at least for me) how candidate could deal with stress, business users, other DBA's, long hours and most important his previous industry experience. So within 45 mins(max 1hr) you can figure out if this person fits the position or not. If he cannot answer some of the 'tricky' questions-it is not a big deal, if you like your candidate and he pass the majority of your questions, then most likely he is smart to learn at work.We were inteviewing recently about 10 candidates, most of them have all kind of MS certifications and most of those guys cannot even pass thru the intermidiate technical questions!
Totally right! Nothing replace experience especially when you work in a stressful environment. Certs. is just part of the equation and also, real world is different than Microsoft world. I've seen stuff so rare that even Microsoft engineer never seen before or they just did changes on service pack to fix bad MS-SQL behavior.
Yeah, your is a good point.
June 20, 2009 at 7:45 am
Hi akash,
prepairing yourselve with questions that maybe are going to be asked in an interview is not a good idea as one of the guys just stated before. i myself am a dba for 10 years now for oracle and sql server for 2 years. you should just use your common sense and not let them fool you. oke i live in the netherlands and we are just a little bit more sober. i thus don't know what the american or other countries interviews are. what i do know that people are people. the best thing to also know is the company and what they stand for and what there expectations are. be confident of yourselve. i don't think they are goning to ask you to make a database or to solve a problem when you're there. memorise the questions asked and answers given in the interview because some people like to ask the same question twice and if you give another answer than the first time they will notice that.
hope this helps you to be confident of yourselve and not to get nervous.
good luck on your jobinterview
Bryan
June 20, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Michael Valentine Jones (6/18/2009)
Matt Miller (6/18/2009)
..."What is normalization and why is it important?"...
Just say that “normalization” is theoretical nonsense that so-called gurus like Date and Celko throw around to try to impress people, and it has no practical value in the real world.
I totally agree that "normalization" is theoretical nonsense in most of DBA work. Knowing or not knowing this does not hurt anything. It is similar like "what is a data model?", "what is a process model?" and "how do you integrate them? " etc
June 20, 2009 at 10:33 pm
akash.suryan (6/18/2009)
Thanks Grant.....I will love to see those questions please let me know.....
You missed the point. After the first two or three questions, the questions are mostly not planned. They change as the conversation progresses... just like what happens on the job.
I agree with Gail and Grant... studying for interview questions is useless. Either you've actually done something or you've only read about it... and the interviewers will be able to tell.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
June 22, 2009 at 4:37 am
When I was interviewing, I never went in with a memorized list. The problem is that questions vary from company to company and interviewer to interviewer. If they asked me a question I didn't know, I'd admit to it and tell them how I planned to find the answer.
Also, you get questions that have no right answer, like "How do you troubleshoot X problem?" The only way you can fail this question is to not have an answer. Everyone troubleshoots differently.
One question I tend to ask is "what kind of research tools do you use?" I expect to hear the name of support forums (like this one) and Books Online and maybe even a collection of book names. But when people don't have an answer to that, it worries me.
As others have said: Just relax and be honest about everything. If you know it, you know it. If you don't, unfortunately it'll show.
June 22, 2009 at 5:15 am
Hi Bryan van ritter,
Interesting to know that you work in Netherlands, I always want to work and live in netherlands though I does not belong to Nethlands I am an Indian but heared about the place and people there so want to spend a good portion of my life there.
it will be great if you can help me, to find a job there.
Please reply.
June 22, 2009 at 5:29 am
akash.suryan (6/22/2009)
Hi Bryan van ritter,Interesting to know that you work in Netherlands, I always want to work and live in netherlands though I does not belong to Nethlands I am an Indian but heared about the place and people there so want to spend a good portion of my life there.
it will be great if you can help me, to find a job there.
Please reply.
I think, if you are sincere and hard working and have got sufficient knowledge, your dreams willl definitly come true. No need to depend on anyone as well...
June 22, 2009 at 5:41 am
San (6/22/2009)
akash.suryan (6/22/2009)
it will be great if you can help me, to find a job there.I think, if you are sincere and hard working and have got sufficient knowledge, your dreams willl definitly come true. No need to depend on anyone as well...
Akash, this is a forum for administering SQL Server, not on finding jobs. There are other forums for this sort of stuff, including a SQL Jobs listed to the left. Also, you should investigate sites like Monster or Dice for job hunting.
I'm going to ask the Mod to move this thread to the appropriate forum now.
June 22, 2009 at 5:52 am
jeffrey yao (6/20/2009)
Michael Valentine Jones (6/18/2009)
Matt Miller (6/18/2009)
..."What is normalization and why is it important?"...
Just say that “normalization” is theoretical nonsense that so-called gurus like Date and Celko throw around to try to impress people, and it has no practical value in the real world.
I totally agree that "normalization" is theoretical nonsense in most of DBA work. Knowing or not knowing this does not hurt anything. It is similar like "what is a data model?", "what is a process model?" and "how do you integrate them? " etc
I love it when people believe that... makes finding jobs to fix bad databases so much easier. 😛
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
June 22, 2009 at 6:46 am
Jeff Moden (6/22/2009)
jeffrey yao (6/20/2009)
Michael Valentine Jones (6/18/2009)
Matt Miller (6/18/2009)
..."What is normalization and why is it important?"...
Just say that “normalization” is theoretical nonsense that so-called gurus like Date and Celko throw around to try to impress people, and it has no practical value in the real world.
I totally agree that "normalization" is theoretical nonsense in most of DBA work. Knowing or not knowing this does not hurt anything. It is similar like "what is a data model?", "what is a process model?" and "how do you integrate them? " etc
I love it when people believe that... makes finding jobs to fix bad databases so much easier. 😛
I agree, it has kept me gainfully employed for a number of years fixing databases where the original developer considerd normalisation to be of no real value, and from the sounds of it there will be plenty of more work to come:)
June 22, 2009 at 7:43 am
"Why, no, Sir. We don't be needin' no real-ational database type tool. Just gimmie Lotus 1-2-3 or that thar x-el spreadsheet and I kin give you the best durn database you ever did see. Without usin' that silly normal stuff everybody's bin talkin' 'bout."
@=)
June 22, 2009 at 8:38 am
steveb (6/22/2009)
Jeff Moden (6/22/2009)
jeffrey yao (6/20/2009)
Michael Valentine Jones (6/18/2009)
Matt Miller (6/18/2009)
..."What is normalization and why is it important?"...
Just say that “normalization” is theoretical nonsense that so-called gurus like Date and Celko throw around to try to impress people, and it has no practical value in the real world.
I totally agree that "normalization" is theoretical nonsense in most of DBA work. Knowing or not knowing this does not hurt anything. It is similar like "what is a data model?", "what is a process model?" and "how do you integrate them? " etc
I love it when people believe that... makes finding jobs to fix bad databases so much easier. 😛
I agree, it has kept me gainfully employed for a number of years fixing databases where the original developer considerd normalisation to be of no real value, and from the sounds of it there will be plenty of more work to come:)
Sorry if my irony wasn't thick enough to detect, but just for the record I do think databases should be normalized. :blush:
I recently asked a developer why the tables in his design had no primary keys, no constraints of any kind, no indexes, all columns were nullable, and dates were stored in varchar(8) instead of datetime. His reply was that my concerns were entirely theoretical, with no value in the "real world".
June 22, 2009 at 8:56 am
Michael Valentine Jones (6/22/2009)
Sorry if my irony wasn't thick enough to detect, but just for the record I do think databases should be normalized. :blush:
Heh... I know you better than that, Mr. Jones. 🙂 I could feel the sarcastic wit. There was enough irony in your statement to build a battle ship and I enjoyed every minute of it. Well done! 😀
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
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