We just went through this cycle again.

Basically we chose experience and programming over the MCDBA. Had a candidate with the MCDBA, decent experience. No real programming background. He wasn't our first choice.

We brought on contract a different candidate with a good deal of mainframe programming experience and a bit more DBA experience. Certification credentials were less: only an MCP... having passed SQL Server 7.0 Admin.

The experience and programming were the deciding factors. Thus far we've not been disappointed in our choice. But I will say this, since we do a lot of Active Scripting and deal with a lot of VB developers, had a third candidate come along with heavy VB experience, he would have probably been chosen ahead of the guy we took. Fundamental understanding of MTS/COM+, ADO, and VB has been crucial to working on a problem app in my organization.

K. Brian Kelley

bk@warpdrivedesign.org

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/bkelley/