April 18, 2013 at 7:49 am
For example, one of the best interview questions I ever heard was: "If I asked you to make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, what would you do?" You can tell A LOT about a person by how they answer that.
What can you tell from the answer? I would consider this question as insulting and say so.
April 18, 2013 at 8:11 am
OCTom (4/18/2013)
For example, one of the best interview questions I ever heard was: "If I asked you to make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, what would you do?" You can tell A LOT about a person by how they answer that.
What can you tell from the answer? I would consider this question as insulting and say so.
I think the reply to that would be: Sudo make me a sandwich (http://xkcd.com/149/)
Another good response (perhaps) would be "Do you have a peanut allergy?" (safety)
Or "What kind of jelly? What kind of bread?" (resource allocation)
Or "Do you want that for lunch or during our 9:30am interview?" (time budget)
Asking questions to further define the scope of the project is a hugely valuable step. Too frequently the eager beaver ends up as roadkill from assuming the deliverable then delivering incorrectly.
I guess it falls under the reality check: Are we solving the problem right and are we solving the right problem?
April 18, 2013 at 8:30 am
Mike Dougherty-384281 (4/18/2013)
OCTom (4/18/2013)
For example, one of the best interview questions I ever heard was: "If I asked you to make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, what would you do?" You can tell A LOT about a person by how they answer that.
What can you tell from the answer? I would consider this question as insulting and say so.
I think the reply to that would be: Sudo make me a sandwich (http://xkcd.com/149/)
Another good response (perhaps) would be "Do you have a peanut allergy?" (safety)
Or "What kind of jelly? What kind of bread?" (resource allocation)
Or "Do you want that for lunch or during our 9:30am interview?" (time budget)
Asking questions to further define the scope of the project is a hugely valuable step. Too frequently the eager beaver ends up as roadkill from assuming the deliverable then delivering incorrectly.
I guess it falls under the reality check: Are we solving the problem right and are we solving the right problem?
ha, my first thought to the peanut butter/jelly sandwich was 'who is this sandwich for', e.g who is eating it.
i know the question was 'if i asked you to make me a sandwich', but i read that as 'if i gave you an instruction to make a sandwhich rather than 'i want a sandwich, make it for me'!.
April 18, 2013 at 8:31 am
OCTom (4/18/2013)
For example, one of the best interview questions I ever heard was: "If I asked you to make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, what would you do?" You can tell A LOT about a person by how they answer that.
What can you tell from the answer? I would consider this question as insulting and say so.
Heh... I think I'd tell the interviewer to make it themselves.
Wayne
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes
April 18, 2013 at 8:32 am
lshanahan (4/18/2013)
You may also want to think about asking questions such as, "Do you work better in the morning or evening?" or "If you did get the job, tell me how to manage you."
Oh... these are good. I have to remember them.
Wayne
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes
April 18, 2013 at 8:34 am
John_P (4/18/2013)
This is a little off topic, but we now include a simple quiz with all of our job posts. Something like: "Here's a list of people, a list of tasks and who is assigned to what task. Please define a database to store this info. Write a query that lists all of the people and their tasks. Write a query that shows all unassigned tasks." REALLY basic stuff! Embarrassingly simple! It's amazing how wonderful someone's resume looks and how awful they answer the quiz. I don't even bother looking at their resume if they can't do SIMPLE quiz.
I have a couple of "lab" things I do for in person interviews, but I like this also. I see this moving in to what I do in the future.
Wayne
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes
April 18, 2013 at 8:45 am
Personally, I'm not opposed to folks asking for questions. Steve mentioned lots of good reasons for them.
What I am opposed to is providing the answers to said questions. If you need to know these answers, look them up for yourself. And I think that this is what most people on this site are really opposed to.
And in case you want some more interview questions, check out this link[/url] on my blog. (You'll have to find the answers out for yourself though...)
Wayne
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes
April 18, 2013 at 8:54 am
If some interviewer asked me to make him a PB&J, I'd tell him to throw my application in the trash, because I wasn't interested in working for such a clown outfit.
April 18, 2013 at 9:03 am
After making the sandwich, please look at these ink patterns and tell me what you see.
Cheers
April 18, 2013 at 9:34 am
I read in amazement some of the answers on here. I agree to a point with someone who posted earlier about arrogance. There are people who in the past had answered questions by requesting they get hired as a consultant to get their answer. Arrogance? YES.
But fortunately that person is in the minority.
When I interview a person, I don't know what I am going to ask them until after the first question. Then we have a conversation rather than a question/answer session. We will follow a variety of paths exploring their abilities and goals. I usuall start with asking them to tell me something about themselves or a project that I cannot see on their resume. It's amazing at what you can learn about a person, their skills and processes they will follow to get a resolution. They are also more at ease once we get going.
BTW - I to was taken out for one of those breakfast/brunch ones where I was watched. For what i don't know;-)
If someone asks me a question, I don't try tio decide if their is an underlying motive. I try to answer it without asking for a contract to be signed first. If it is a student then I try to provide information without the answer to steer them towards the solution.
Steve Jimmo
Sr DBA
“If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under." - Ronald Reagan
April 18, 2013 at 9:36 am
A recruiter asked me to interview for a rather prestigious firm in Fort Worth Texas some years ago, after he saw my background. When I found out one of the first steps was to take an standardized test, online, I declined. I told the recruiter, I was not interested in working for an organization that viewed "What is the minimum memory required for a SQL Server installation?" as a valid way of assessing talent. After several years working in enterprise class environments, its uncommon for to think in terms of minimum. After talking more, he convinced me to take the test; this was not that type of organization.
After being convinced, I logged in and read question #1: "What is the minimum memory required for a SQL Server installation?" I logged out, contacted the recruiter and moved on.
There's other aspects to this challenge.
1. The talent pool strength for SQL Server DBA is becoming increasingly diluted, as more and more candidates try to enter the workforce, pursuing a respectable compensation. If you're currently working as a DBA or plan to do so, make sure you understand your technology. I believe this is who so many organizations have established "bull pens" for the SQL Server DBAs. Since it's seems difficult to assess a candidate, they'll bring in 6-8-12 DBA's and sort things out on the floor. Meanwhile, the organization suffers and the reputation of a DBA is reduced.
2. Don't confuse these facets as a candidate or as hiring organization: aptitude, experience, and skills. Having aptitude to be effective can vary depending on the role and responsibility you're pursuing. When considering a candidate's experience, I look at the details on the resume. It's a red flag if specific details are not enumerated about the quantity, size or metrics associated with the platforms supported. Either there's not an appreciation for the importance of these details or there's not the experience. While the SQL Server feature set continues to expand, there's continued pressure to expand your skillset. IMO, knowing how to use 4 features well is typically more valuable than having cursory familiarity with 8 features. This all leads to the "magic quadrant" of these facets: JUDGEMENT. This is one of the most crucial things to consider and the most elusive to evaluate.
When interviewing a candidate for a SQL Server DBA position, a colleague insisted I ask a series of niche questions, which he encountered in response to specific situations ... sort of a 'stump the chump'. The plan was I would ask the candiate one question (as the technical lead), and turnover the balance of time to my colleague. The candidate was provided a whiteboard, a marker and one question, "How does SQL Server work?". Thirtry minutes later, after detailed, vigorous dialoge covering query processor, buffer pools, backups, scheduling, server hardware and storage (plus some more topics), I could confirm this candidate understood the platform at a sufficient level. This relatively quick conversation gave us time to discuss many, many aspects of SQL Server. More importantly, I received insight into the thought process of this candidate (and the reciprocal was also true). He was HIRED.
April 18, 2013 at 9:54 am
Several years ago I interviewed with Microsoft. First round, over the phone.
I was asked to provide instructions to get from my home to the office - presume that they were looking for clear and complete ("proceed north on Main Street" vs. "hang a ralph just past the Piggly Wiggly"). Or maybe they really did want to ensure that I would be able to find my way in if they offered me a face-to-face. 😛
I was also given the "you're in a room with three light switches..." brainteaser question - presume that they were looking for someone to remain composed and logical when thrown a curve. :hehe:
This stuff was amusing to me at the time - and I've never had another interview where I was surprised by a question.
April 18, 2013 at 10:39 am
If I interview somewhere, and they can't see the value I bring, I don't want to work there.
If someone performs better in an interview, they deserve the chance. If someone fakes it and the company can't figure that out, they deserve what they get.
I don't see how providing information to anyone hurts me or anyone. It is up to me to do my best in an interview, I can't worry about what anyone else does.
I say, provide whatever assistance you can. I think true value to someone looking to break into the field would be to direct them to repositories of information. Other value is pointing to information on how to do well in an interview. The only thing I would limit would be something like a brain dump site, which I don't see you doing or being in line with what you are asking. My impression based on your desire to help, and things you have posted, is that whatever you do will be fine.
Dave
April 18, 2013 at 11:04 am
Kingston Dhasian (4/18/2013)
I would help the OP if I feel the person has taken some effort in trying to find answers themselves and is not plain lazy.I have found numerous posts where the OP could have done some basic things mentioned below and found the answers themselves
1. Looked up in Google or BOL
-- They probably don't do this as they are bombarded with numerous links and feel lazy to go through them to find the best one.
2. Try creating a scenario in testing environment and see the results
-- Laziness again in my opinion
If I feel the OP is just lazy, I just ignore and move away.
But, if there is a genuine effort from the OP's side to learn, I think most of us over here do help.
I agree with this. Happy to answer specific questions when the OP has tried. Usually ask them to try if they ask "how should I use mirroring" or something similar.
April 18, 2013 at 11:21 am
You don't really need to work from a script of canned questions and answers. Managers and HR can ask the high level questions. But it's important to involve technical people in the interview process, those peers who the candidate would actually be working with. They'll know what to ask, because they know exactly what's expected.
Also, tell the candidate up front that all new hires are required to sign an "employment at-will" contract. If they don't measure up, then they'll just get dumped back on the curb with a ding on their employment history. (Well, OK, you probably don't want to phrase it that way... but you can imply it. 🙂 ) The point is that a poser, or just someone who doesn't have confidence in themselves, will take that into consideration and pass over the job.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
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