It’s all relative.

I have met my fair share of so called DBA’s.

Due to the position I was hiring for, I was looking for someone who knew SQL well.

Not to put a title on it, senior or junior, but they needed to know SQL well as there was no one above them.

One “Expert” with 8 years of experience I interviewed was truly amazed by a LEFT OUTER.

In 8 years he had never seen one. He called himself a senior DBA. The reason being, he was the only DBA at the company. Truthfully, that would make him the most senior DBA, by the same token, a Senior DBA.

As far as the performance tuning questions go, I to have had some interesting ones.

A guy claimed to be brilliant at performance tuning. It became clear that when  he inherited the system, there were no indexes. He started adding indexes to tables until things speeded up. When asked what his criteria for an index was he said trail and error. When asked about how it impacted data modifications, the look on his face said “I am confused” but he replied, with confidence, “Why would it affect inserts? Indexes speed things up”

Yes, relative to what he had, he was brilliant at it.

With some, note some these people, there is hope. You can’t crucify someone just because they have been stuck in a small company as the senior DBA. Granted, if you looking for someone who knows, fine, but I am all for seeing potential in people who claim to be senior and are not.

If the arrogance of the perceived position is to great for them to want to learn and correct their ways, they will always remain a large fish in a small bowl.