September 10, 2013 at 5:09 am
I was approached by a recruiter about a DBA position.
As part of the process I had to sit two technical tests, similar to what you would sit in the MS certification exams. The problem was though, I got the distinct feeling that the tests were written for the non english speaking market and translated to english.
This meant alot of the questions did not make sense in the slighest and I made my best attempts to interpret them and answer occordingly.
Has anyone had any similar experiences with this kind of approach to screening candidates? When recruting in the past or when attending previous interviews there has always been technical questions which I would expect but this automated testing was ridiculous.
For example one question was mutiple choice answers asking which were relevant to the error 1435, no error text was given. I personally do not memorise the descriptions for each and every error number and would not expect anyone to do so.
I have fed this back to the recruiter and have yet to receive the outcome of the test but I found the whole thing a bit odd.
MCITP SQL 2005, MCSA SQL 2012
September 10, 2013 at 7:31 am
I'd agree that asking what is relevant to a particular error number is silly. Very few people I know have error numbers memorized since you always get some kind of description returned as well. I know 824 and 825 are related to IO delays but can't tell you exactly which is which. Who doesn't look these things up when the time comes?
Jack Corbett
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September 10, 2013 at 10:29 am
I've never seen anything like that. But it was nice of the company to show you that working there would suck before you waste time on an interview.
Eddie Wuerch
MCM: SQL
September 10, 2013 at 3:13 pm
That was pretty much my thinking. Ill see what the recruiter comes back with. To be honest I was not looking for a change but there is no harm in testing the water.
MCITP SQL 2005, MCSA SQL 2012
October 18, 2013 at 4:19 am
I thought I would post an update on this, the company were indeed a shambles. Surprisingly I scored 93% on the worlds most bizzare SQL test. They then proceeded to tell me that I had the best score by 20% over all the other candidates which was a nice ego boost, but then decided to tell me that they could not afford the advertised salary.
They asked if I woud take 15K less than they had advertised, considering I'm a senior SQL DBA with 12 years experience, on a permenant contract for a world wide organisaton that had not applied for the postition but been head hunted by them I was not particularly happy.
They openly admited that they advertised the post at a much higher salary hoping that they would get a candidate for much less in the hope they would find someone who was unhappy with their current job.
A complete and utter waste of my time, and definetly a company and recruiter I will never consider employment through again.
MCITP SQL 2005, MCSA SQL 2012
October 18, 2013 at 4:35 am
RTaylor2208 (10/18/2013)
They asked if I woud take 15K less than they had advertised, considering I'm a senior SQL DBA with 12 years experience, on a permenant contract for a world wide organisaton that had not applied for the postition but been head hunted by them I was not particularly happy.
That is TERRIBLE!
November 25, 2013 at 12:29 pm
I would ask them if they are familair with the English idiom "bait and switch."
November 26, 2013 at 12:10 pm
In many jurisdictions, what they did could be considered fraud, and make them liable for civil or criminal liabilities.
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