You know, I've come to the conclusion over the past cpl weeks of interviewing candidates, that asking 'how would you rate your SQL Server skills, out of 10?' gives a wonderful, almost INVERSE indicator of the actual skill of the respondant.

Anyone claiming to be a 8 or 9/10 clearly hasn't yet understood all the intricacies and massive body-of-knowledge SQL Server hides from lay-users. Somebody claiming to be a 'maybe a 6 or a 7...there's a lot in there...' is more promising as at least they know there's so much still to learn/lookup.

Below a 5 just shows a supreme lack of confidence again, so they're back with the 8's and 9's in the 'no hire' pile if SQL Proficiency is required for a role.

Next time you're hiring, try asking this question, see if our results are similar?