June 30, 2008 at 12:58 pm
I work for a small company and have to trade many many hats (not saying others do not) but in a small IT department I am just not confined to SQL server.
I applied for a DBA position where the company sounded more interesting than the position.
Not sure if I am going for the wrong reasons but the HR didn't have a phone interview just asked when can I come in and that the current DBAs have put together a test to take.
I love interviews, it gives me a chance to explain the work I have accomplished with little direction/funds allowed.
However a test just is rubbing me the wrong way and for once in my life I may just call back and say 'not interested'
Again being a well-rounded IT specialist and a realist and will get stumped if questions are thrown at me on the cuff like, give me the parameter to adjust file growth (ALTER DATABASE / FILEGROWTH) or which counters do you use on perfmon and why? I have the answers but I may require to look them up.
Am I just panicking when I shouldn't? Anyone else have similar experiences?
June 30, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Are you sure it is a written test? It may have been communicated to you poorly.
I am a believer that there are questions that a non-dba can ask and keywords they should look for in responses. I have given recruiters questions like "Give an example of a join hint" and given them things to look for in responses, but I believe questions like this can only be used to weed out people who are simply dishonest on their resume. My biggest problem I have had with them is actually dishonest recruiters.
If they really sit you in a room and give you a written test, I would be concerned in two ways. First, they are likely to have made poor hiring choices in the past based on the same type of thing. Second, this is a test created by their existing DBA's - suggesting they have multiple DBA's that thing they can judge programming and DBA talent with a written test. If that really is the case, I would keep looking.
June 30, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Thanks for the response, I may even call back the HR recruiter and ask if this is written or verbal. Because I think if it is written I do not what any part of it.
There is no way in the world as much as I am valued at my current company can I answer off the fly on replication, then T-SQL query writing do's and don'ts, installation, backup/restore, type of indexes to use, when to use a trigger, UDF, etc...
I would like to see an interview of 'you have a database in suspect what did you do to remove it from the current state and how do you monitor or try to prevent the situation from reoccuring'
Now that is something I can answer off the fly 😉
June 30, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Nah, go take it. If it's really a question & answer type of test, you'll probably pass. It's likely to be one of those filters that HR puts in place to try to weed out the real losers before they take up the employee's time. But it might be one of those really fun "here's a database, let's play" kind of tests. Bill Wunder published one a while back. I had one sprung on me in the middle of an interview. I got a few questions wrong. But one of the answers they told me was wrong, I was pretty sure I had right. I explained to them what I thought I had done. After a little bit a light went off over one of the testers' head and he ran out of the room. He came back a little while later saying that I was right and they were wrong and he had just implemented the corrected code in production. I was the first person to catch their error. I didn't get the job (they liked another guy better), but I had a blast interviewing with them. It was a great learning experience.
"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
June 30, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I agree it is all about how they do it. I certainly like to have prepared questions when I interview, and having someone write answers and then go through them with the person afterwards could certainly speed up my usual process.
So, you should go take the test - if nothing else to see how their process is. You can always simply walk out in the middle of it. I have walked out on interviews a couple of times - the look on an interviewer's face when you say "Ya know, I don't really want to work here" can be worth the time.
June 30, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Really not getting the warm fuzzy now...I realize that this company is small
But the HR recruiter just called my wife and asked what time is the interview with me
Read that again, the recruiter is calling me to confirm the appointment that SHE had setup with me
My wife gave her the time and she said thank you about 5 times...
Everyone makes mistakes...but...
At this point I am thinking of going to the interview...drunk...
June 30, 2008 at 2:38 pm
jsheldon (6/30/2008)
Thanks for the response, I may even call back the HR recruiter and ask if this is written or verbal. Because I think if it is written I do not what any part of it.
Why not? What do you have to lose, other than a few hours of your time?
Many companies do tests these days because resume padding is becoming a common occurrence.
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
June 30, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I should look at this half-full shouldn't I ? You are right and before a long weekend what do I have to lose?
Thanks Gail for the positivity on Monday!
June 30, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Heck, even if you fail the test, so long as you don't tie too much of your ego into passing, you can probably learn from it.
The worst that could happen is someone walks into the room where you took the test, shoots you in the head and chest with a high-caliber handgun, and says, "no, you got them all wrong, you are a total failure, and we just got an execution order and a presidential pardon for eliminating someone as loooserish as you from the gene pool". I mean, heck, that would be really humuliating and most people would have trouble adjusting to that kind of insult. 🙂
The best that can happen might vary. If you pass the test with flying colors, because it was at the difficulty level of, "you have two buckets of water, one is five gallons, the other is two gallons; how many buckets do you have?", it's a little different than if you pass with flying colors and the test expected you to be able to out-SQL Jeff Moden, GilaMonster, et al., and point out the mathematical flaws in the original theory of relational databases.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
June 30, 2008 at 4:19 pm
If you have the time, and think you might want the job, there is no harm in taking the test.
The worst that can happened is that you don’t get a job offer, leaving you in the same position you are now.
July 1, 2008 at 8:01 am
Go take it. It's a good learning experience and who knows what will happen.
I've given tests like this and they're almost always basic screens. It's to prevent someone from wasting time if they don't know any T-SQL. No point in interviewing if they don't know anything.
If you aren't sure on something, write an explanation in there someone will read it and they might call you back.
I've also seen these as a way of generating questions for an interview.
July 2, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Well to end the suspense I took the test...and passed...the test was easier than I feared.
questions like what is the performance difference from DELETE FROM and TRUNCATE TABLE, how do you change the name of a column and which command is used, a group by sql script that required the HAVING clause, pros and cons of using too many non-clustered indexes, log file is at 30% users state that trans log is full what do you do, server is non-responsive what are the tasks you do ranking important to least important
The company is small and everyone is friendly, 4 people introduced themselves as they walked down the hall so you can tell they are close knit
I won't take the job though and interviewing with the COO he gets the vibe I have the knack of overall program development/support than straight code. They are looking to create a position for my skills, honored/flattered that they would go to that length will see...
(the SQL job was more or less ETL all day long 10 hours a day including Saturdays and 10% travel to sites...no thanks)
July 2, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Sounds like, if they get the right job for you, it might be a good opportunity.
I figured the test would be something like that. I wouldn't be able to answer the rename a column one without checking BOL (I've done it, but not something I have memorized from repeated use), the rest sound quite easy.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
July 2, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Neither could I, I know it is within the ALTER TABLE command and that's what I put as my answer
I didn't give very detailed variable specifics when naming trans-act commands...
July 2, 2008 at 1:56 pm
You didn't know it was a mostly ETL job going in? Company either made a mistake or weren't getting any responses to begin with so changed the JD.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
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