Jeff Moden (1/31/2015)

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yoshii (1/31/2015)

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not sure where's this thinking of "reading interview questions = cheating a job" coming from. there're billions of people on earth. there are people trying to cheat a dba job. but, there are people out there with experience and knowledge, however don't have good interviewing skills.

BWAAA-HAAA-HAAA!!! Ah, my young friend, you've got it all wrong. Where did anyone say it was cheating in any of the previous posts on this thread? :blink: I sure as hell didn't. So far, you're the only one. Think about that for just a minute before you produce another outburst and read on. I've got some good stuff for you if you're willing to listen and understand. Seriously...

Heh... ironically, what you posted about them saying "take a deep breath and calm down" is probably the best advice there is. Go in, be yourself, and take every question as an opportunity to show your stuff. Pretend you've been working with them for a thousand years.

an interview usually last 45min to an hour. for phone screening it may only be 30min. It takes quite a skill to show ur skills and knowledge to a stranger within a short time-frame. it goes without saying that there maybe tricks built-into questions. It goes without saying that interview settings are not mean to be the most comfortable chitchatting session. Psychological effects also play a role.

Ok... let me play your words against that... "not sure where this thinking of "them trying to trick you"" comes from. Consider that a lot of people are "book smart" and have memorized a whole bunch of things by rote memorization. Interviewers are well aware of that problem and don't want to hire someone that can, for example, recite what the rote definitions of what a Clustered and Non-Clustered index are. They want someone that can use the similarities and differences of each to the advantage of the system and the code. There's only one way to find that out and that's to ask some of the questions that you call "trick" questions. For example, if you just sit there waiting for the next question after you've done such a recital of the basic definitions of the two, then you can expect someone to ask "OK, good. Can you tell me what Non-Clustered Indexes have in common with the Clustered Index, why that's important, and when you would choose one over the other?" or "What can you add to a Non-Clustered index to sort of make it behave like a smaller version of the clustered index"? And, is it a "trick" question to give you some column names in a table and ask which one(s) would make the best clustered index and why?

You can avoid such questions by anticipating that such follow-up questions will be asked and answering them as part of your answer on what the differences and similarities are. You say that it takes "quite a skill show ur skills and knowledge to a stranger within a short time-frame". No it doesn't. All it takes is the understanding that the more you can correctly spill your guts about things they've asked you simple questions about, the better off and more impressive you're going to be. Just be careful not to be arrogant about it because they're also evaluating for whether you'll "fit in" with the team.

Here's another example of what I'm talking about. To loosen up the interviewee, I tell them that I'm going to ask them some simple questions and that I never ask trick or even esoteric questions. Then I ask them how to get the current date and time using T-SQL (it's actually amazing how many people I've interviewed that don't know the answer to that simple question, but we'll save that for another discussion on "resume liars, fakers, and posers").

Of those that actually do know the answer, most answer with either GETDATE() or CURRENT_TIMESTAMP or both (if I'm lucky) and then they just freakin' sit there instead of strutting their stuff! Anyone can regurgitate the name of those one or two functions including those that ONLY know the answer(s) to the question without understanding anything about the functions. Here's how I end up answering such a "simple" question when I'm being ingterviewed. Ready?

"There are currently six functions in T-SQL that will return some form of the current date and time. GETDATE(), CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, and SYSDATETIME() are nearly identical in that they all return the current date and time according to the clock in the server. GETDATE() and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP are accurate to 3 miliseconds as a DATETIME data-type and SYSDATETIME() is accurate to 100 nano-seconds as a DATETIME2(7) data-type. At the max, both take 8 bytes of storage but, at the expense of what can be displayed, DATETIME2 can take as little as 6 bytes. You could use the 4 byte SMALLDATETIME but you have to be really careful of the "minute" rounding into the next day. There are two additional functions that will return the UTC version of a DATETIME and DATETIME2 data-type and one that will return the "datetime offset" version. I don't use those last 3 very much so I don't have them memorized but I know where to find them in 'Books-Online'. The range of DATETIME-based functions is 1753 through the year 9999. The DATETIME2-based functions have a range that starts in year 0001. I question how accurately though because the current Gregorian Calendar wasn't 'universally' accepted until sometime just before 1753. Since the DATETIME data-type doesn't take up that much extra room and has some serious advantages in the calculation and aggregation of duration over DATETIME2 and the other newer data types, I generally stick with the DATETIME data-type unless there's some compelling reason not to such as increasing the possibility of portability."

Something less than 2 minutes to say that and I now have their full attention. If they cut me off somewhere in all that, that's OK. I consider that a part of the "fit in" test. Depending on how they've cut me off, it might be a good indication to me that I might not actually want to work for them. You see, I'm not the only one being interviewed. I'm also interviewing them for attitude, thoughtful communication abilities, and whether or not I could actually "fit in" with the team. 😉

Could YOU answer that "simple" question in such detail? Maybe not. But if you just say "GETDATE()" and sit there like a dog waiting for the next piece of cheese to be balanced on your nose, you're not going to make as good an impression as you could. Offer up what you do know. It's not like you have to "plead the 5th" during the trial known as a "job interview". 🙂

You should see how I answer the "Why is a manhole cover round" question...

"The standard answers are that circular objects are easier to mill to a tolerance, the pipes they cover are usually round, you get the greatest diameter/width for the given amount of material making it a very strong shape as well, you don't have to align them in any fashion to properly set them in place, and their constant diameter makes it impossible to drop the cover into the pipe provided that the hole is a tiny bit smaller and also of constant diameter and proper rigidity. On that last point, circular and spherical objects are NOT the only shapes with a constant diameter." That's when I go into a short explanation of Reuleaux geometrical shapes and Meissner bodies. Then I show them the trick of how to pass a quarter through a hole in a piece of paper the size of a dime without tearing it while explaining that the paper represents some people's perceptions and limitations and the quarter represents that "impossible task" that they insist cannot be done with SQL Server and T-SQL. 😛

I don't think it's appropriate to assume one's trying to cheat a job when he's reading interview questions. but, I do think it demonstrates that he is doing his homework for researching and getting familiar with the situation he's gonna face. I would think anyone would be scare to have an employee who doesn't get as much as information he can when he's on or before an assignment. A interviewee's assignment is the interview. When resolving a critical situation at work, I get as much as the information (either from technical side or business side) I can in order to exercise best judgement for my boss and my company. I see no reason not to do the same for my own critical matter, which is interviewing. I think it's an act of being responsible to myself.

I would appreciate you asked my intent of purchasing at the first place, instead of pretending to ask me to review the content of the training video. I did give you a sincere review of the training video.

and why spent money on it? brent ozar is pretty successful in his SQL Server Training and does have good products. I would like to see if they have different perspective on interviewing.

Lastly, I do think one can cheat on a certification, but I don't think anyone can cheat a dba job just by memorize all those interview questions. DBA requres not only technical skill, but also much of process of thinking skills, research and evaluation skills, decision making skills... and etc. It should be easy to identify who is memorizing the answer, who does have experience.

Anyways, i sepnt too much time on this thread.

Heh... if all that's what you think is the reason I asked, then you need to spend a LOT more time on this thread because I'm telling you much more than what you paid Brent's group for. For what it's worth, you just failed the first tests of effective communication and fit by not actually determining what or why something was asked before jumping to the wrong conclusion. 😉 If you want to be a DBA, you need to grow a bit thicker skin and never jump to such conclusions without much more information.

The reason I asked at all instead of just blowing you off like I do most folks with the type of question you asked is because you seemed to want to do some proper homework, although you did complain later about the overly simple questions (that could be a good thing or a bad thing). And that's the whole point I'm trying to make if you'll take the chip off your shoulder long enough to hear and understand. If you think any of the questions on an interview deserve a one or two word answer or a rote definition, you're dead wrong. All sorts of fakers and posers can do that.

The real question behind every question that an interviewer asks is "What does this person actually know and what will (s)he bring to the table if we hire him/her"? Expounding on such simple questions will demonstrate that you not only know your stuff but that you've actually used them and that you can communicate that knowledge, as well.

If you want questions to practice with, do a Google search whether they're T-SQL or System questions. That's why I said I don't understand why anyone would pay for such a thing. If you understand the point I've been trying to make about what to do during an interview and practice that using those questions a guidelines and actually do understand what you're saying, then you'll be golden.

I can't help you get that thicker skin you'll need or get you to drop that silly chip off your shoulder, though. The best way to get a thicker skin is, like I said, pretend you've worked with and have known the interviewers for a thousand years. As for the chip on your shoulder, make sure that you actually understand what's going on before your alligator mouth overloads your hummingbird butt. ;-):-D

And take all of that as a form of "tough love" from a fellow DBA that's been where you currently are.