CSSUG

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Meeting Date July 19, 2007 Topic How to Hire a
DBA by Chris Shaw
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User Group Update

• Charlotte is growing
• So is SQL Server
• Up 28 from 2006 (Gartner RDBMS Report)
• Great opportunities
• Admin, develop, support, etc
• What about the group?
• Over 350 registered users
• Great response

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Upcoming Meetings

• Andrew Kelly
• Performance expert SQL Server MVP
• Brian Knight
• Author and SQL Server MVP
• Rick Heiges
• Noted Speaker PASS Board Member

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Todays Speaker

• Chris Shaw
• 1 rated speaker 2007 PASS
• Managed large cutting-edge SQL Server Enterprises
• NASCAR fan

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Presentation Title
How to Hire a DBA
Chris Shaw Chris.Shaw_at_SQLonCall.com
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Goal of this session

• At the conclusion of this session you will be
  better prepared to go through the hiring process
  of a DBA as the employer or as the candidate
  looking for a new DBA position.

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Why this topic?

• Nightmare interviews I have had.
• Mayo on my sandwich and its my birthday!
• Im outta here!
• Something more than over-the-counter
• How many interviewers does it take to change a
  light bulb (or to hire a DBA)?

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Hiring a DBA

• Discussion Points
• Defining the search
• Posting the position
• Resumes
• Interviews

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Define what the company needs

• What is the needed experience level?
• What is the workload?
• What kind of DBA does the company need?

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Experienced Employees

• Positives
• Learning curve is not as steep
• Growth of current knowledge base
• New ideas

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Experienced Employees

• Negatives
• Cost
• They may be looking for a promotion that is not
  going to be there any time soon.
• Too many chefs in the kitchen.
• Possibility of losing the employee to the
  consulting sector.

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Workload

• Have a predefined list of what will be expected
  in the first month of work.
• Place clearly defined goals on the workload where
  the progression toward those goals can be easily
  tracked.
• Decide within the first 30 days if the new DBA is
  the right person for the position they have been
  hired for.

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What kind of a DBA do you need?

• Database Administrator
• Database Developer
• Database Architect
• Mixed Roles

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Database Administrator

• Backups
• Restores
• Installs
• Updates
• Configurations
• Firefighting

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Database Developer

• Stored Procedure Writing
• Performance Tuning
• Index Tuning
• Roll Scripts
• Rollback Scripts

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Database Architect

• Database design
• Future planning
• Dataflow design
• Data dictionaries

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Posting the position

• Make the posting clear on expectations and
  position tasks.
• Highlight the benefits.
• Highlight the history of the company.
• Supply a link to the companys web page.

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Resumes

• Key items to watch for.
• Key items to watch out for.
• Cover Letters

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Key items to watch for

• Mission Statements or Objectives
• Past Employment
• Organizations
• Certifications
• Salary

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Mission Statements or Objectives

• With cover letters becoming a thing of the past,
  make sure that the Mission Statement has been
  customized.
• Check to see if it is more creative than the
  standard develop a long term relationship with a
  company that is mutually beneficial.

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Past Employment

• Look for details on what they did in their past
  employment.
• Look out for over-the-top dollar amounts
• Ask questions during the interview about the
  accomplishments that are listed on the resume,
  for example
• How did you save the company 10 million dollars?
• How long did that take?
• Did you manage that project?
• What was managements reaction?

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Organizations

• Are they a member of any professional
  organizations?
• PASS
• Local SQL Server User Group
• Other User Groups
• Any organization where they hold a leadership role

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Certifications

• What certifications are listed?
• MCSE
• MCDBA
• A
• Do they have comparable experience to a
  certification?

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Salary

• If the salary is listed,
• And the rate youre offering is lower than what
  they were receiving at their last place of
  employment, they may only be there long enough to
  find a new job.
• And the rate youre offering is much higher than
  what they were receiving previously, pay close
  attention to where their last employment was and
  their experience.
• If it looks to good to be true, chances are it
  is!

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Key Items to Watch out for

• Microsoft Office Products
• Lack of information or filler
• Address
• Education

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Microsoft Office Products

• I call this the E-Mail bug.
• if you list expertise w/ Outlook on your resume
  youre not the guy Im looking for
• Exceptions
• MVP Status on an Office product
• Advanced Certifications
• Advanced or pertinent knowledge
• Mail merge
• Access pass through queries

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Filler

• Too much formatting
• Organizations other than professional where they
  are not in a leadership position.
• Bird watchers
• Marine Corp Veterans
• Hobbies
• Personal non-relevant information
• My goal is to grow the largest African Violet in
  the world.

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Address

• How long will it take them to get to the office
  if there is an emergency?
• Is there an extended commute? Will this lead
  them to look for a new position?
• Are they planning to move if their address is too
  far away?

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Education

• Did the candidate receive the degree that they
  started courses for?
• What was the major?
• Do they have a Masters degree in biology? If so,
  why are they not working in the biology field?

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Cover Letters

• With growing popularity of some web sites that
  auto submit resumes, I have been seeing a number
  of resumes come in without a cover letter.
• If a hard copy of a resume is turned in, I always
  look for a cover letter.

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The Interview

• The I dont know answer
• The trick questions
• The scale of questions
• Examples of questions
• The hard questions
• Grading the interview

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The I dont know Answer

• This is an acceptable answer, and that should be
  made known to the candidate during the interview.
  
• How does the candidate handle not knowing the
  answer? Did they stumble and get frustrated, or
  make something up?

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The I dont know Answer

• Did the candidate get nervous and let it
  interfere with the other questions?
• Did the candidate tell you they didnt know and
  then shared how they would research the question?

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The Trick Questions

• I place 2 trick questions in every interview
• Many questions could have multiple answers. I add
  these to see how someone handles the I dont
  know answer, or to see how creative they are.
• I am also looking to see if they start making
  something up. If I have clarified the I dont
  know answer is acceptable, this counts against
  them.

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The Trick Questions

• Examples
• What steps would you take before creating a
  server level role?
• What is the sysPW table used for?
• What is the difference between SQL Server 2000
  Developer Edition and Enterprise Edition?

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The Scale of Questions

• Group your questions into levels of difficulty.
  This will give you an idea of the candidates
  knowledge.
• I have 5 to 6 questions in each group.
• There should be some very difficult questions to
  answer.

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Scale 1 Examples

• What is RAID? Give an example.
• What are a couple of the differences between DBO
  and SA?
• Give an example of a built-in Database Role?

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Scale 2 Examples

• What steps would you take to improve a poor
  performing query?
• What is the difference between the sysusers and
  the syslogins tables?
• What DBCC commands do you commonly use? What do
  they do?

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Scale 3 Questions

• What is De-Normalization and why would you use
  it?
• What are your thoughts on Embedded SQL vs. Stored
  Procedures?
• Describe the different kinds of replication that
  you can set up in SQL Server. What are the agents
  that are involved?

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The Hard Questions

• What would your previous employer say is your
  best asset?
• What would your previous employer say is your
  area that needs the most improvement?
• When you are presented with a stressful
  situation, how do you handle it? Give an example?

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Grading the Interview

• I personally dont like the candidate to know how
  they are doing on the interview while I am asking
  questions.
• I dont mind letting them know how they did after
  the interview is over.
• I believe that it adds to the nervousness.

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Grading the Interview

• Use a scale to record whether an answer is
  correct or not. This will save you time in having
  to grade it after the interview.
• I use 1-10
• Or , or 0

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Your Reactions

• Your reaction may cause stress in a candidate.
  That may be your goal, however, if this stress is
  created, there is a chance that the candidate
  will start missing questions they may normally
  answer correctly.
• However, this is a good preview on how they may
  handle stress.

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Your Reactions

• I prefer not to correct a candidate during an
  interview. If they ask me if they responded
  correctly to a question, I tell them I am willing
  to discuss it after we have completed the
  interview.

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What you should look for during the Interview

• Focus
• Personality
• Where is the candidate in their professional
  growth?
• Would employment be a Win/Win situation?

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Focus

• Did they stray away from the questions?
• Where the answers too crisp and short?
• Where were they looking? Were they focused on the
  interview? Were they bored or watching the clock?
  

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Personality

• If there is more than one DBA in the group, a
  second interview with the other DBAs present may
  show how the candidate will work as a team
  player.
• If there is a second interview, I do the
  introductions and then let the candidate ask
  questions to the team. If they have no
  questions, I ask about the candidates background.

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Where is the candidate in their professional
growth?

• What are their goals?
• Do they take part in Pass Conferences, Read
  articles, write articles?
• Are they a leader or a follower?
• Are they over-qualified?

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Would it be a Win\Win situation?

• In every interview I give, I explain that I want
  the candidate to be in a win/win situation.
• The candidate needs to be able to further their
  career.
• The employer needs to be able to fill an open
  position.

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So how do you decide?

• Do they meet the companys needs?
• Will they fit in with your group?
• Is it a Win/Win situation?

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Your Actions and Reactions

• Shake hands
• Dont fidget
• Keep eye contact
• Show interest

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If you get the chance, ask questions

• Asking questions shows your interest.
• If bonuses are part of the compensation package,
  how many times have they paid bonuses out in the
  last 4 years?
• Can you meet the team?
• Can you tour the work area?
• How does the management work on team building?

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Questions
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Thank You
Chris Shaw Chris.Shaw_at_SQLonCall.com
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