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:
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…
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.
Step 1: get a job as a developer or a sysadmin.
Step 2: stand near the database.
There's a fine art to running a productive meeting, keeping the discussion focused and scoping things tight to meet your scheduled finish time. Today's consulting lines post is about keeping people happy while still finishing meetings on time. Let's join a troubleshooting session where I've been brought in to help a client whose AlwaysOn Availability Groups are failing…
Some of my consulting lines are all about context. Let's just jump right into a project kickoff meeting with an architect and a few developers:
The Conversation
Me: "So, what pains is this SQL Server having?"
Phil I. Buster: "When I first started out here, we had SQL Server 2005. The app only had a couple of users back then, so as we added functionality, we decided to keep the business logic in the database. It wasn't too bad at first - "
This has grown to become one of my favorite consulting lines. I don't use it often, but used judiciously, it's a lifesaver. I use it a few different ways: Using This Line at the Start of the Meeting If you know in advance that the organizer (or some of the attendees) tend to ramble on…
Before I became a consultant, I was on the other side of the conference room table - we would bring in consultants, and I'd be amazed at all the cool lines they whipped out. Now that I'm the one giving advice, I like sharing some of my favorite consulting lines that you can use in…
I have to deliver a lot of bad news. It's pretty much my full time job. Nobody calls us when things are going well. (Well, they tweet us, because that's free.)
Sometimes, that bad news is very dangerous - especially for the company as a whole, or its customers.
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 a good sense of a developer's T-SQL skill level. Here are five questions that will give you a good idea how experienced and skilled a developer is.
tl;dr - I do not recommend this book.
I was so incredibly excited when it was originally announced. A book published by VMware Press, written by prominent VMware, SQL, and storage consultants? GREAT! So much has changed in those topics over the last few years, and it's high time we got official word on how to do a great job with this combination of technology. Everybody's doin' it and doin' it and doin' it well, so let's get the best practices on paper.
You've been doing this database thing for a while, and you're ready to get serious about it. What's the next step?
Step 1: Define your specialty in one sentence.
If you say you do everything, you compete with everyone.
You want to be the only one they want. That means you're:
Recently I saw a tweet that said, "If you can't read a query execution plan, you're not a production DBA."I love execution plans, and there are really great reasons to learn to read execution plans, but I disagree completely.Database Administration is not all about performancePerformance is only one component to database administration. Let's take Jill as…
Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed a subtle change to our site, swag, and PowerPoint templates over the last few months. Here's the evolution as seen in our company coffee mugs:
Far left, the one with the heart, is the current one, but the transition is a funny story.
On September 24, we published a blog post that we were looking for a new employee. We didn't advertise on any job listing sites (even though there are some really good ones out there). We tweeted about it a few times, but most of our publicity was that single post. We received more than 70 applications…
Hiring a DBA? Need to get a job description for the human resources folks? Here's how to get started.
First, decide whether it's a production or development DBA. Think of the database in terms of a fridge. When you run a restaurant, you need at least one (and probably several) refrigerators to keep your raw ingredients and your prepared dishes cold.
Fast - When developers ask how quickly a piece of code needs to run, don't say fast. Give them a finish line so that they can know when it's time to move on. "This query currently does over 15mm logical reads. We don't allow production OLTP queries that do over 100k logical reads - anything…
Whether you're just getting started writing a presentation abstract, or whether you want to double-check it, or whether you want to understand why your abstract wasn't picked, it's always the right time to step back and ask some big picture questions about your conference submission. The blessing and the curse of the active database community…
When I'm writing a presentation or blog post, I often start here:
It's a photo of me in my office in Dallas, Texas in 2004. When I look at that picture, I remember everything like it was yesterday. I can talk at length about everything on the bookshelf, on my desk, in my drawers (the desk drawers, that is).
If your New Year's resolution is to start presenting at user groups and conferences, congratulations! You're about to embark on a fulfilling journey that will enrich the lives of thousands of people. It's a blast. Now let's put some thought into the tool you're going to use. You're going to be working on these same…
