July 3, 2014 at 3:46 am
Hi Experts,
I need some guidance on this.
Recently I have attended a job interview for sql server database administration and was asked to speak about one of the critical issue you have faced as a dba. I have explained of one of the issue I had faced in my environment. I spoke of database was suspect and I was able to recover from backups and I have explained the root cause of the issue stating that it was disk issue which caused the problem and told that we replaced the disk and we are able to restore the tlog backups + taillog backup and I was able to bring the database online.
I don't know why the interviewer wasn't impressed with the answer.
I want to know from exceptional dba's, normally when they ask such questions, what kind of answers or scenarios are they looking for ?
Appreciate your inputs.
July 3, 2014 at 5:34 am
A safe recovery from a possible outage is a great story. I'm not sure why they were unimpressed. Maybe it was delivery. Maybe they were hoping for something more spectacular. I haven't been asked that question, but I can talk through a number of bad days as a DBA, what we did wrong, what we did right, what was changed in the process. Maybe you needed more drill down along those lines.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
July 3, 2014 at 5:54 am
vsamantha35 (7/3/2014)
Hi Experts,I need some guidance on this.
Recently I have attended a job interview for sql server database administration and was asked to speak about one of the critical issue you have faced as a dba. I have explained of one of the issue I had faced in my environment. I spoke of database was suspect and I was able to recover from backups and I have explained the root cause of the issue stating that it was disk issue which caused the problem and told that we replaced the disk and we are able to restore the tlog backups + taillog backup and I was able to bring the database online.
I don't know why the interviewer wasn't impressed with the answer.
...
Have you tried to contact the interviewer to find out why he wasn't impressed with your answer? That would be my first action.
qh
July 3, 2014 at 6:49 am
quackhandle1975 (7/3/2014)
Have you tried to contact the interviewer to find out why he wasn't impressed with your answer? That would be my first action.qh
That might not work well. Back when I was doing lots and lots of interviews, I never communicated directly with the interviewees. And, even when we got requests for feedback, legal required that we simply say that the person didn't fit our needs at this time.
If you can get it, great, but I would assume you'll never hear back.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
July 3, 2014 at 6:51 am
Perhaps they try to look neutral during an interview?
I'm definitely not calling myself an exceptional DBA, but it's an interesting topic. I think your answer sounds fine, but maybe they were also looking for you to develop your answer a bit further, and show how you have changed policy and practice where you work, to try to mitigate against the chance of it happening again (rather than simply being reactive).
July 3, 2014 at 7:03 am
Grant Fritchey (7/3/2014)
quackhandle1975 (7/3/2014)
Have you tried to contact the interviewer to find out why he wasn't impressed with your answer? That would be my first action.qh
That might not work well. Back when I was doing lots and lots of interviews, I never communicated directly with the interviewees. And, even when we got requests for feedback, legal required that we simply say that the person didn't fit our needs at this time.
If you can get it, great, but I would assume you'll never hear back.
Fair point, yes interview feeback can be a libelous minefield! The OP 's question is a tad vague and was just trying to ascertain why he thought the interviewer was unimpressed.
qh
July 3, 2014 at 7:21 am
I did tried to follow up with HR couple of times via email requesting for feedback. No response.
Again, as Grant mentioned I should have dig more deeper and make up a story and should have mentioned that to be proactive, i had setup alerts for corruptions errors , turn on page verify to checksum , configured dbmail... so on and so forth.
But thanks your inputs. I can do better for future interviews. Special thanks to Grant. Thank you all.
July 3, 2014 at 7:35 am
vsamantha35 (7/3/2014)
... make up a story ...
Let me first assume this is just an "English as a second language" moment and point out that "make up a story" would mean to invent one, to imagine a scenario. So, assuming that's not what you mean, I'd just advise you to not use that phrase in this area.
Now, let's also assume it is what you meant. Don't! If you just make up a story, a good interviewer is likely to spot it. Heck, even when I make up stories for some of the fiction articles I write, I base the technical stuff on things I've actually seen and done. They need to know what you know and understand what you've done and how you've done it. They're not hiring you for your ability to make up a story. But, the ability to tell a story with lots of details is something they are hiring your for.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
July 3, 2014 at 8:12 am
Hi Grant,
Don't take me wrong. I apologize if I used a wrong language or words. I used those lines , so that I need to explain it in more detailed and in terms of business impact and HA perspective. Once I am back from the interview I felt that I explained him in a very straight forward way...
Sometimes, I get the impression that the interviewers are expecting specific answer what they faced in their specific env and if they arent getting the answer, they start judging the people that this person doesn't know sql. I have also seen situations where the interviewers are so bad that they have already selected a guy from his circle and taking interviews just for the sake of taking the interview.
My personal take on this is, I would expect interviwer check the basics and take it from there. Try to grab as much info what the candidate knows abt sql server and should see the approach she is taking and not looking for answers!!
Again this is compeletely my personal opinion...
July 3, 2014 at 8:57 am
vsamantha35 (7/3/2014)
Sometimes, I get the impression that the interviewers are expecting specific answer what they faced in their specific env and if they arent getting the answer, they start judging the people that this person doesn't know sql. I have also seen situations where the interviewers are so bad that they have already selected a guy from his circle and taking interviews just for the sake of taking the interview.
I would agree with some of that. I have seen both problems as an interviewee.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
July 3, 2014 at 9:05 am
No offense at all. I just wanted to be clear. I did assume that you didn't mean to literally make stuff up.
As to interviewing, it's subjective. There just isn't a "this guy passes this test, we'll hire him" kind of approach to it. I actually don't care about your literal SQL knowledge when hiring, depending on what we're hiring for. But I do want to know if you're going to fit with the team. I do want to know how you deal with adversity, how you learn, what your plans & goals around expanding your knowledge are. That stuff is the most important. We can teach SQL Server to the right person. But you can't always teach teamwork, self-motivation and the rest.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
July 3, 2014 at 9:05 am
Grant Fritchey (7/3/2014)
...what we did wrong, what we did right, what was changed in the process. Maybe you needed more drill down along those lines.
It is a good idea to include the good and bad in those kinds of stories. While doing that, try to remember not to disrespect the place where the story took place.
A lot of the point to relaying a story where a problem occurred and you fixed it is to see a) how you fixed it, b) your attitude (are you arrogant about it), c) what you learned, and d) how did the "team" work together to resolve it.
That last one is a bit catchy. There may have been only one person, but the perspective employer may be an over the top team oriented shop (think agile).
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
July 3, 2014 at 9:25 am
SQLRNNR (7/3/2014)
A lot of the point to relaying a story where a problem occurred and you fixed it is to see a) how you fixed it, b) your attitude (are you arrogant about it), c) what you learned, and d) how did the "team" work together to resolve it.That last one is a bit catchy. There may have been only one person, but the perspective employer may be an over the top team oriented shop (think agile).
The opposite situation can also be tricky, i.e. where you work as a team and not as a one-person band. I attended one interview where the interviewer stopped me and asked me why I kept starting answers with 'we'. In my experience when things go wrong and you are part of a DBA team, the team works to resolve the issue rather than leaving it all to one person. Mind you, at that same interview, the interviewer bristled when I suggested that the liberal use of NOLOCK in an OLTP database was not necessarily a good idea. Think I touched a nerve....luckily I didn't get the job! 😉
Regards
Lempster
July 3, 2014 at 10:30 am
Lempster (7/3/2014)
SQLRNNR (7/3/2014)
A lot of the point to relaying a story where a problem occurred and you fixed it is to see a) how you fixed it, b) your attitude (are you arrogant about it), c) what you learned, and d) how did the "team" work together to resolve it.That last one is a bit catchy. There may have been only one person, but the perspective employer may be an over the top team oriented shop (think agile).
The opposite situation can also be tricky, i.e. where you work as a team and not as a one-person band. I attended one interview where the interviewer stopped me and asked me why I kept starting answers with 'we'. In my experience when things go wrong and you are part of a DBA team, the team works to resolve the issue rather than leaving it all to one person. Mind you, at that same interview, the interviewer bristled when I suggested that the liberal use of NOLOCK in an OLTP database was not necessarily a good idea. Think I touched a nerve....luckily I didn't get the job! 😉
Regards
Lempster
Yeah, I've almost always been part of a team and I've had to explain that in interviews. But, that's fine too. It shows you can do teamwork and then when you explain your individual contributions to the team, you look even better. Plus understanding what others do, recognizing that you can take advantage of the strengths of others, etc. I've never found it to be a bad thing to say "we" a lot. At least not so far.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
July 3, 2014 at 10:37 am
I was asked a similar question in an interview. The problem I used was a time out issue on our Finance system after upgrading from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005. I showed what I had done to try and solve the problem but also tried to show how I worked with the application team to solve the problem and how the problem was finally solved. The solution was to index a table that had no index. Identifying the index became a team effort as the SQL tools alone didn't find it.
Showed the interviewer my process from a SQL Server side, and that I was team player working with the app team as well to finally solve the problem.
From what you said, I am impressed.
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 25 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply