June 30, 2015 at 3:20 pm
GoofyGuy (6/30/2015)
None of the following are technical questions, they're just simple and conversational, but they reveal a lot.
One question I often ask is, 'What are the title and author of the last book you read?'
It evokes some rather interesting responses.
Personal, Lee Child.
June 30, 2015 at 3:45 pm
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (6/30/2015)
GoofyGuy (6/30/2015)
None of the following are technical questions, they're just simple and conversational, but they reveal a lot.
One question I often ask is, 'What are the title and author of the last book you read?'
It evokes some rather interesting responses.
Personal, Lee Child.
"Why you should run like hell when someone asks stupid questions during an interview" by Ben Dover 😉
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
June 30, 2015 at 3:52 pm
Jeff Moden (6/30/2015)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (6/30/2015)
GoofyGuy (6/30/2015)
None of the following are technical questions, they're just simple and conversational, but they reveal a lot.
One question I often ask is, 'What are the title and author of the last book you read?'
It evokes some rather interesting responses.
Personal, Lee Child.
"Why you should run like hell when someone asks stupid questions during an interview" by Ben Dover 😉
"Disaster Recovery Using DBCC TimeWarp" by The Thread
For best practices on asking questions, please read the following article: Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help[/url]
June 30, 2015 at 4:47 pm
Alvin Ramard (6/30/2015)
Jeff Moden (6/30/2015)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (6/30/2015)
GoofyGuy (6/30/2015)
None of the following are technical questions, they're just simple and conversational, but they reveal a lot.
One question I often ask is, 'What are the title and author of the last book you read?'
It evokes some rather interesting responses.
Personal, Lee Child.
"Why you should run like hell when someone asks stupid questions during an interview" by Ben Dover 😉
"Disaster Recovery Using DBCC TimeWarp" by The Thread
Now there's a book that would be interesting. 😉
July 1, 2015 at 12:21 am
Ed Wagner (6/30/2015)
Alvin Ramard (6/30/2015)
Jeff Moden (6/30/2015)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (6/30/2015)
GoofyGuy (6/30/2015)
None of the following are technical questions, they're just simple and conversational, but they reveal a lot.
One question I often ask is, 'What are the title and author of the last book you read?'
It evokes some rather interesting responses.
Personal, Lee Child.
"Why you should run like hell when someone asks stupid questions during an interview" by Ben Dover 😉
"Disaster Recovery Using DBCC TimeWarp" by The Thread
Now there's a book that would be interesting. 😉
Indeed. Awesome title, Alvin. It really should be a book since so many folks find out the hard way about backups and restores.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
July 1, 2015 at 7:29 am
Jeff Moden (7/1/2015)
Ed Wagner (6/30/2015)
Alvin Ramard (6/30/2015)
Jeff Moden (6/30/2015)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (6/30/2015)
GoofyGuy (6/30/2015)
None of the following are technical questions, they're just simple and conversational, but they reveal a lot.
One question I often ask is, 'What are the title and author of the last book you read?'
It evokes some rather interesting responses.
Personal, Lee Child.
"Why you should run like hell when someone asks stupid questions during an interview" by Ben Dover 😉
"Disaster Recovery Using DBCC TimeWarp" by The Thread
Now there's a book that would be interesting. 😉
Indeed. Awesome title, Alvin. It really should be a book since so many folks find out the hard way about backups and restores.
Too many horror stories with backups. Remembering one person being interviewed for a DBA position was asked about the different types and how you might use them. As an example, he suggested weekly fulls, daily logs, and hourly differential. He wanted to argue when the interviewer mentioned that he might have the last two mixed up. ... SCARY!!! ... :w00t:
For best practices on asking questions, please read the following article: Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help[/url]
July 1, 2015 at 8:02 am
GoofyGuy (6/30/2015)
None of the following are technical questions, they're just simple and conversational, but they reveal a lot.
One question I often ask is, 'What are the title and author of the last book you read?'
It evokes some rather interesting responses.
Anger Is An Energy - John Lydon
I'm a DBA.
I'm not paid to solve problems. I'm paid to prevent them.
July 1, 2015 at 8:27 am
GoofyGuy (6/30/2015)
None of the following are technical questions, they're just simple and conversational, but they reveal a lot.
One question I often ask is, 'What are the title and author of the last book you read?'
It evokes some rather interesting responses.
I'm currently context switching between the following two books, which I have on my night stand.
Seth Godin - 'Lynchpin'
Brian Hicks - 'Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew'
If we're talking about the most recent technical book I've read then:
'The Kimball Group Reader: Relentlessly Practical Tools for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence'
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
July 1, 2015 at 8:33 am
Alvin Ramard (7/1/2015)
Jeff Moden (7/1/2015)
Ed Wagner (6/30/2015)
Alvin Ramard (6/30/2015)
Jeff Moden (6/30/2015)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (6/30/2015)
GoofyGuy (6/30/2015)
None of the following are technical questions, they're just simple and conversational, but they reveal a lot.
One question I often ask is, 'What are the title and author of the last book you read?'
It evokes some rather interesting responses.
Personal, Lee Child.
"Why you should run like hell when someone asks stupid questions during an interview" by Ben Dover 😉
"Disaster Recovery Using DBCC TimeWarp" by The Thread
Now there's a book that would be interesting. 😉
Indeed. Awesome title, Alvin. It really should be a book since so many folks find out the hard way about backups and restores.
Too many horror stories with backups. Remembering one person being interviewed for a DBA position was asked about the different types and how you might use them. As an example, he suggested weekly fulls, daily logs, and hourly differential. He wanted to argue when the interviewer mentioned that he might have the last two mixed up. ... SCARY!!! ... :w00t:
A DBA who doesn't know backups...sigh. I know there are multiple types/flavors of DBAs nowadays, but I would argue that the first thing on any list for a DBA is the backups. You need to know how to take them, when to take them and where to store them. This leads to the entire purpose for taking them, which is how to restore from them. You have to know that you can restore when you need to, which means both practice so you know how and verification so you know your backups are viable.
I guess I know how the rest of the interview went.
July 1, 2015 at 8:47 am
Alvin Ramard (7/1/2015)
Jeff Moden (7/1/2015)
Ed Wagner (6/30/2015)
Alvin Ramard (6/30/2015)
Jeff Moden (6/30/2015)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (6/30/2015)
GoofyGuy (6/30/2015)
None of the following are technical questions, they're just simple and conversational, but they reveal a lot.
One question I often ask is, 'What are the title and author of the last book you read?'
It evokes some rather interesting responses.
Personal, Lee Child.
"Why you should run like hell when someone asks stupid questions during an interview" by Ben Dover 😉
"Disaster Recovery Using DBCC TimeWarp" by The Thread
Now there's a book that would be interesting. 😉
Indeed. Awesome title, Alvin. It really should be a book since so many folks find out the hard way about backups and restores.
Too many horror stories with backups. Remembering one person being interviewed for a DBA position was asked about the different types and how you might use them. As an example, he suggested weekly fulls, daily logs, and hourly differential. He wanted to argue when the interviewer mentioned that he might have the last two mixed up. ... SCARY!!! ... :w00t:
The Phoenix Project
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
July 1, 2015 at 8:50 am
Ed Wagner (7/1/2015)
Alvin Ramard (7/1/2015)
Jeff Moden (7/1/2015)
Ed Wagner (6/30/2015)
Alvin Ramard (6/30/2015)
Jeff Moden (6/30/2015)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (6/30/2015)
GoofyGuy (6/30/2015)
None of the following are technical questions, they're just simple and conversational, but they reveal a lot.
One question I often ask is, 'What are the title and author of the last book you read?'
It evokes some rather interesting responses.
Personal, Lee Child.
"Why you should run like hell when someone asks stupid questions during an interview" by Ben Dover 😉
"Disaster Recovery Using DBCC TimeWarp" by The Thread
Now there's a book that would be interesting. 😉
Indeed. Awesome title, Alvin. It really should be a book since so many folks find out the hard way about backups and restores.
Too many horror stories with backups. Remembering one person being interviewed for a DBA position was asked about the different types and how you might use them. As an example, he suggested weekly fulls, daily logs, and hourly differential. He wanted to argue when the interviewer mentioned that he might have the last two mixed up. ... SCARY!!! ... :w00t:
A DBA who doesn't know backups...sigh. I know there are multiple types/flavors of DBAs nowadays, but I would argue that the first thing on any list for a DBA is the backups. You need to know how to take them, when to take them and where to store them. This leads to the entire purpose for taking them, which is how to restore from them. You have to know that you can restore when you need to, which means both practice so you know how and verification so you know your backups are viable.
I guess I know how the rest of the interview went.
The interview didn't go well. Interviewer scored him as 4 out of 10. Management hired him since he was the best they interviewed. He was hired for a short contract position related to implementing partitioning. I don't think we were any closer to do any partitioning when he left.
Shortly after that, IT was outsourced to IBM and then things really started to go downhill.
For best practices on asking questions, please read the following article: Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help[/url]
July 1, 2015 at 8:55 am
Eric M Russell (6/30/2015)
There is a certain type of candidate who all seem to share the same basic resume, which seems impressive on the surface (a tag cloud with 30 different technical skills), but none of them live up to it. It's as if there is a plastic DBA / Developer factory somewhere that presses them out from the same mold, complete with an identical back story and new suit.None of the following are technical questions, they're just simple and conversational, but they reveal a lot.
"I have your resume here in front of me, but could you briefly go over your work history for the past 10 years; the name of each company, your title, and a little detail about the role and day to day responsibilities ?"
"So what is motivating you to leave your current position at company X ?"
"Tell me about the last database performance issue you resolved."
"So, switching gears a bit, tell me, what in your opinion are three of the most important things that separate a good DBA / Developer from a bad one."
I have to respond to this, especially when you say that it appears there's a DBA/Developer factory pressing out people all using the same mold. That reminds me of a time, early in my career, when we hired some guys fresh from the local university. They had excellent credentials and grades, and yet they struggled that first year. On their one year anniversary one of them told me that he was very unhappy with his computer science degree, because it didn't prepare him for the real world environment. When he was in school he'd get assignments something like, "Using quick sort find the middle value or derive it if there's two." But when he got into our work environment he didn't know how to handle mangers request when they asked for a report, "showing all of the machines performance with that thingy in the upper right corner." They just didn't know how to handle people's ambivalent language; how to dig out what it is they really wanted, rather than just what they said.
Now that was a number of years ago. I certainly hope that the local university has improved on how it trains new developers and DBA's. But I suspect that there's still room for improvement.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
July 1, 2015 at 9:10 am
Rod at work (7/1/2015)
I have to respond to this, especially when you say that it appears there's a DBA/Developer factory pressing out people all using the same mold. That reminds me of a time, early in my career, when we hired some guys fresh from the local university. They had excellent credentials and grades, and yet they struggled that first year. On their one year anniversary one of them told me that he was very unhappy with his computer science degree, because it didn't prepare him for the real world environment.
I'm probably going to be a little insulting in this, but...
Your company was partially to blame there.
You cannot take new graduates and expect them to magically perform like someone with multiple years of experience. No matter how good the university, no matter how well they teach the students, they can't reproduce the kinds of chaos, complexity and politics you get in real world companies.
Tossing a new grad in the deep end is planning for failure.
My company takes new grads in every year. They get a 2-month training course that builds on what they learned at university, then they are put onto a dev team with other experienced developers for the next 4 months. Then we consider them junior developers.
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
July 1, 2015 at 9:11 am
GilaMonster (7/1/2015)
Rod at work (7/1/2015)
I have to respond to this, especially when you say that it appears there's a DBA/Developer factory pressing out people all using the same mold. That reminds me of a time, early in my career, when we hired some guys fresh from the local university. They had excellent credentials and grades, and yet they struggled that first year. On their one year anniversary one of them told me that he was very unhappy with his computer science degree, because it didn't prepare him for the real world environment.I'm probably going to be a little insulting in this, but...
Your company was partially to blame there.
You cannot take new graduates and expect them to magically perform like someone with multiple years of experience. No matter how good the university, no matter how well they teach the students, they can't reproduce the kinds of chaos, complexity and politics you get in real world companies.
Tossing a new grad in the deep end is planning for failure.
My company takes new grads in every year. They get a 2-month training course that builds on what they learned at university, then they are put onto a dev team with other experienced developers for the next 4 months. Then we consider them junior developers.
Point taken, Gail. I'm not insulted at all. Better to learn from my peers than not. Thank you for the feedback.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
July 1, 2015 at 9:13 am
Rod at work (7/1/2015)
Eric M Russell (6/30/2015)
There is a certain type of candidate who all seem to share the same basic resume, which seems impressive on the surface (a tag cloud with 30 different technical skills), but none of them live up to it. It's as if there is a plastic DBA / Developer factory somewhere that presses them out from the same mold, complete with an identical back story and new suit.None of the following are technical questions, they're just simple and conversational, but they reveal a lot.
"I have your resume here in front of me, but could you briefly go over your work history for the past 10 years; the name of each company, your title, and a little detail about the role and day to day responsibilities ?"
"So what is motivating you to leave your current position at company X ?"
"Tell me about the last database performance issue you resolved."
"So, switching gears a bit, tell me, what in your opinion are three of the most important things that separate a good DBA / Developer from a bad one."
I have to respond to this, especially when you say that it appears there's a DBA/Developer factory pressing out people all using the same mold. That reminds me of a time, early in my career, when we hired some guys fresh from the local university. They had excellent credentials and grades, and yet they struggled that first year. On their one year anniversary one of them told me that he was very unhappy with his computer science degree, because it didn't prepare him for the real world environment. When he was in school he'd get assignments something like, "Using quick sort find the middle value or derive it if there's two." But when he got into our work environment he didn't know how to handle mangers request when they asked for a report, "showing all of the machines performance with that thingy in the upper right corner." They just didn't know how to handle people's ambivalent language; how to dig out what it is they really wanted, rather than just what they said.
Now that was a number of years ago. I certainly hope that the local university has improved on how it trains new developers and DBA's. But I suspect that there's still room for improvement.
I wouldn't expect someone a year out of university to know the ropes in terms of how the business works and mastering tools; they're still an intern at that point. It's too bad that the IT industry doesn't have a master / journeyman model like other professions. There are a lot of smart folks who are tossed into the deep end of the pool and expected to either sink or swim.
In my previous comment, I was thinking more along the lines of outsourcing firms staffed by an army of posers with paper certifications.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
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