Why experienced DBA try to embraces to younger DBAs in interviews?

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Why experienced DBA try to embraces to younger DBAs in interviews?

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PaulB-TheOneAndOnly SSC Guru Points: 66772 More actions · Answer 1

baghel_ramdas (1/15/2010)
...now I understand who can evaluate a DBA?
My answer is - only experienced DBA can.

:blink: Was this a surprise?

_____________________________________
Pablo (Paul) Berzukov

Author of Understanding Database Administration available at Amazon and other bookstores.

Disclaimer: Advice is provided to the best of my knowledge but no implicit or explicit warranties are provided. Since the advisor explicitly encourages testing any and all suggestions on a test non-production environment advisor should not held liable or responsible for any actions taken based on the given advice.

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004339 More actions · Answer 2

I agree with the final conclusion here... only experience can rate experience. Even a Software Development Manager may not know enough to interview a DBA candidate to make sure they get someone who can help them.

HOWEVER... I have sat in on interviews where some DBA's did nothing more than showoff by asking really arcane questions and nothing else. Make no doubt about it, DBA interviews are tough (as they should be) but folks have to remember that they're doing the interview to find someone of value (knowledgeable, able to think on his/her feet, can hack a bit of pressure, knows how and where to find answers, can learn new stuff) and is not there so the interviewer can impress the interviewee with the "holyness" of the interviewer. 😉

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Matt Miller (4) SSC Guru Points: 124210 More actions · Answer 3

Jeff Moden (1/15/2010)
I agree with the final conclusion here... only experience can rate experience. Even a Software Development Manager may not know enough to interview a DBA candidate to make sure they get someone who can help them.
HOWEVER... I have sat in on interviews where some DBA's did nothing more than showoff by asking really arcane questions and nothing else. Make no doubt about it, DBA interviews are tough (as they should be) but folks have to remember that they're doing the interview to find someone of value (knowledgeable, able to think on his/her feet, can hack a bit of pressure, knows how and where to find answers, can learn new stuff) and is not there so the interviewer can impress the interviewee with the "holyness" of the interviewer. 😉

Agreed. It can also be useful to remember that a bad fit might simply be a misunderstanding. I've been on both sides of a bad interview caused by a misunderstanding as to what the role required (such as a position requiring 100% OLAP skills with no hint of those skills in the job req, or a recruiter handing another job req than the position I was going to interview for). While it might be tempting to do otherwise, just cut to the chase and don't leave the candidate to dangle: no sense in beating someone up just because you feel they wasted your time.

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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?