Interviewing

“Out of the stuff on your resume, what are you the proudest of, the most excited about? When I’m interviewing a candidate for one of my clients, I’ll usually start with this question to help understand the resume. See, recruiters seem to actively encourage folks to keyword stuff their resume: to dump in everything and…

How to Hire a Junior DBA

Last Updated December 24, 2017

When you’re hiring a Junior DBA, ask yourself a few questions: “What job did they have before this?” Someone who’s currently employed as a Junior DBA isn’t looking for another Junior DBA job: they’re looking for a Senior DBA job. Because of that, you have to rethink how you write the job description and minimum…

Announcing Our New DBA Job Interview Q&A Course.

Last Updated April 5, 2017

Whether you’re applying for a DBA job or getting ready to hire a DBA, you probably don’t know what questions to ask to tell if somebody really knows what they’re doing or not – or what answers to look for. There’s the classic tired question, “Tell me the difference between a clustered and nonclustered index,”…

Screenshot Interview Question: “What would you do if you saw this?”

Last Updated February 14, 2017

In this week’s episode of our screenshot interview series, you’re applying for a database professional position who will be on call. You’re not necessarily the DBA, but you’re a member of the team on rotation. While you’re on call, you get an email from the help desk asking if there’s a problem on the production data…

SQL Interview Question: “Tell me what you see in this screenshot.”

Last Updated May 28, 2016

You’re a data professional working with (or at least applying to work with) a company using the StackOverflow database (I’m using the March 2016 version today). Your users are complaining that this stored procedure is slow: usp_GetPostsByOwnerUserId They didn’t give you parameter 26837 – I’m just giving you that so you can see an execution plan.…

SQL Interview Question: “Talk me through this screenshot.”

Last Updated May 20, 2016

After writing about “For Technical Interviews, Don’t Ask Questions, Show Screenshots”, lots of folks asked what kinds of screenshots I’d show. Here’s this week’s example. I show each screenshot on a projector (or shared desktop) to the candidate and say: What’s this screen from? What does the screen mean? If it was a server you inherited from…

What I Look For When I’m Hiring Database Professionals

Last Updated April 7, 2016

Matan, Guy, and I recording the podcast On today’s episode of the SQL Server Radio podcast, I talk with Guy Glantser and Matan Yungman about what we look for when we’re hiring. In the broadest sense, don’t think junior or senior: I’m hiring someone for what they already know, or I’m hiring someone for their…

SQL Interview Question: “Talk me through this query.”

Last Updated April 24, 2016

Last month’s post “For Technical Interviews, Don’t Ask Questions, Show Screenshots” was a surprise hit, and lots of folks asked for more details about the types of screenshots I’d show. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share a few more. Normally I’d show this query as a screenshot, but for easier copy/pasting into comments, I’m…

For Technical Interviews, Don’t Ask Questions. Show Screenshots.

Last Updated February 14, 2017

When you’re hiring a DBA, sysadmin, or developer, you’re not paying them to answer Trivial Pursuit questions all day long. You’re hiring them to look at a screen, connect a few dots, and interpret what’s happening. So for a position, I build a PowerPoint deck with a bunch of screenshots from the actual environment they’ll be…

Five Interview Questions to Ask SQL Server Developers

Last Updated March 9, 2015

Doug Lane

“If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?”“A tree with a job.” When it comes to hiring a SQL Server developer, we can pepper candidates with HR-type questions (“Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a co-worker and how you resolved it.”) but that doesn’t give us…

Quiz: Are You the Next Brent Ozar Unlimited Consultant?

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Kendra Little

Company News, Interviewing, SQL Server

Hey SQL Server DBAs — we’re hiring! Here’s a quick five question quiz. Give yourself one point for every ‘yes’: Have you been a database administrator for a few years? Does planning how to keep an application reliable and safe from disasters sound like fun? Do you love helping people make SQL Server go faster? Would you…

Sample SQL Server Database Administrator (DBA) Job Descriptions

Last Updated June 5, 2017