"What do you hate/find-frustrating about Oracle?" (Let me count the ways...
<process terminated with ORA-22053>) That could easily be the most
revealing interview question ever conceived! I love it!!!
I'm amazed at the number of times someone that is supposedly qualified can't
answer a very simple, but unexpected, practical question. I used to always
start out with a few "indicator" questions to determine strengths,
weaknesses and which way to go. One such was "If you find a file named
'afiedt.buf', how was it probably created?" That particular question caught
two very "confident" applicants without the foggiest clue a few years ago.
One was the "Oracle Wizard" at his current company. (Seriously. It was the
official job title on his business card! ... even though he had been out of
college less than a year.)
The other was an extremely smug 7 & 8 OCP DBBS who claimed many years of
experience and opened our conversation, immediately after the handshake and
introductions, with "I'm one of the best Oracle DBAs around - if not THE
best.". When I asked this question after a few minutes of pleasant
generalities, his smirk disappeared, his jaw dropped and he just sat there
staring at me with the best "deer in the headlights" look I've ever seen.
[It must not have been in the Self Test Software Practice Exams or the Exam
Cram books.]
BTW: Grant: Can I buy that .sig from you?
Don Granaman
[OraSaurus & NOCP]
----- Original Message -----
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2002 1:23 AM
Rachel Carmichael[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] wrote:
> >this goes back to a thread from maybe a year ago... what sort of
> >questions do you ask on interviews.
> >
> >I may ask other questions based on what we are specifically looking for
> >or building off something the interviewee says but I always include the
> >following questions:
> >
> >1) what was your worst nightmare as a DBA and how did you resolve it
> >2) what are you most proud of doing
> >3) how do you learn new things about Oracle
> >
> >gee, not ONE multiple choice question among them!
>
[stops lurking for a change]
I always throw in
"What do you like most about Oracle?" and "What do you hate/find-frustrating
about Oracle?". Most can answer the first, but you can often get a good
idea of what people have (or haven't!) experienced with their answer to the
second.
Ciao
Fuzzy
:-)
[goes back to lurking]
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The contents of this post are my opinions only
If swallowed seek medical advice
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Author: Don Granaman
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