Interview Questions - Criss-Cross!

  • I've seen all the lists of questions for interviewers to pull out and start asking (sometimes) obscure and sometimes irrelevant minutiae that you wouldn't waste time memorizing when you can look it up in BOL or the pocket guide.

    How about if we discuss the criss-cross, what questions should the interviewee have on hand to ask that might help them avoid stepping in the minefield that has a sign out front that says "Great Opportunity For You!"?

    In addition to the usual how many server instances, databases, users, database sizes, what server versions, etc., I'll start with a few things I wish I had inquired more about before accepting the position I have now:

    1) Who is the current DBA? If there isn't a current DBA, who performs the duties of the DBA?

    2) Are programmers members of the sysadmin role? How many?

    3) If yes to #2, will those elevated privileges be dropped once the DBA role is filled?

    4) Are system administrators, network administrators, management and report developers members of sysadmin role?

    5) If yes to #4, are there any plans to scale back those elevated privileges once the DBA role is filled?

    6) Who else has administrative privileges on the database servers?

    7) Are there policies against performing maintenance?

    8) Do you have written DR plan?

    I'll probably think of some more once I have a little more time to consider questions I wished I had asked before accepting a particular position.

    And what good are questions without answers?

    The answers I'm looking for on 2 through 7 are:

    1) They should be able to identify who is going though the motions of this role, unless this is a new org that has no database servers

    2) Preferred answer - No (If they answer yes, but they also answer yes to #3, get it in writing.)

    3) Preferred answer - Not applicable. See #2

    4) Preferred answer - No

    5) Preferred answer - Not applicable. See #4

    6) Preferred answer - No one

    7) Preferred answer - No, because we understand never doing maintenance (log backups, index maint, etc.) is not a path to success

    8) Preferred answer - Yes

    Their answers should give you some idea of what the environment is like there.

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