October 3, 2012 at 11:01 am
I seen a post very similar to this on here today from CptCrusty1 however I'd really like to set up a test for an interview candidate. Like CptCrusty1, I'm more of a developer with limited DBA experience, so I'm at a bit of a loss, how do you test someone at something when they should be better at it than you are?
Anyway, we'd like someone to hit the ground running, doesn't need to be a master at DBA work (so no SQL-Rainman ideas please!!!), but needs to be comfortable optimizing things, re-structuring existing data models, backups and recoveries, and overall maintenance/administration.
For example, I'd like to maybe simulate a server that is bottlenecking or crashing somewhere, and let the candidate fix it, that kind of thing. Ideally whatever test I give, it should take a mid-level DBA maybe about an hour to complete.
Any ideas on what, and just as importantly, how, to set some test(s) up?
Thanks!!!
October 3, 2012 at 11:23 am
I've done that before.
Set up a copy of Express Edition SQL Server on a laptop, put it in the interview room, and let them go to town on it.
It's easy enough to set up a couple of databases with test data and "real life" problems in them. If you want advice on specific problems, contact me via e-mail and I'll send you some suggestions. (Same reason to keep it private as interview questions, as per the other thread you mentioned.)
Otherwise, dig through the forums and articles here on SSC a bit, pick a few interesting problems, and set up your laptop SQL with those problems. If they're out of articles that discuss how to solve the problems, or threads where the problem was solved, you'll have an idea of what the interviewee should do. And if they do something you didn't expect, that's even better, because then you can ask them to explain what they did.
One of the best tests of an expert vs an "authority" is can they explain it clearly to a layman. An "authority", in this context, is someone who can talk the talk, knows the words, but hasn't the faintest clue how to put it to practice. An expert (or professional) can explain something without getting into techno-babble. It's less efficient to avoid the technical terminology, but it can be done by anyone who really understands it.
So, if you create a situation for them to find and resolve, and they can explain (a) what was wrong, (b) how they fixed it, and (c) why they chose the solution they did, it's a pretty fair bet that you have a winner there.
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