May 29, 2008 at 1:15 am
GSquared (5/28/2008)
majorbloodnock (5/28/2008)
Matt Miller (5/28/2008)
Clustering your tied shoes might be tricky though.......:hehe::P
He, he.
Three-legged race, anyone?
I guess that would be an inner join... and has the usual performance problems associated with joins on unindexed legs ... er ... columns.
Either that or a distributed transaction, where a failure to commit on either side causes the whole transaction to fall over....
Semper in excretia, sumus solum profundum variat
May 29, 2008 at 7:46 am
majorbloodnock (5/29/2008)
GSquared (5/28/2008)
majorbloodnock (5/28/2008)
Matt Miller (5/28/2008)
Clustering your tied shoes might be tricky though.......:hehe::P
He, he.
Three-legged race, anyone?
I guess that would be an inner join... and has the usual performance problems associated with joins on unindexed legs ... er ... columns.
Either that or a distributed transaction, where a failure to commit on either side causes the whole transaction to fall over....
Just imagine the performance of the cross join version! (Okay, we are severely off-topic, but it is amusing!)
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
May 29, 2008 at 8:32 am
glad to see yall were able to take the tied shoe quiz and run with it...
cough cough... ok sad. But i do like it. it is a good 'test'
May 29, 2008 at 10:23 am
I'm curious, who are the sheep and who are the goats?
The comments so far bear out the consensus to ask appropriate follow up questions and not rely entirely upon test scores. This leads into the questions "What will this DBA being doing after they are hired?" and "At what level of proficiency do they need to be functioning - intro, intermediate, advanced" and perhaps "How much TSQL do you really expect them to write?"
Phil gives some tough but realistic questions for the OLAP Developer and are probably the best kind to get a real feel for what person can do in terms of TSQL.
Bigger picture, can the DBA candidate step you through what they would do to spec out a database server (and why) based upon a set of application specifications? Number of CPUs, RAID, file placement, etc. Do they need to be concerned about replication, log shipping, data base mirroring, clustering, Service Broker, etc.?
May 29, 2008 at 11:03 am
Brad McGehee hasn't just been sitting there on the top of this forum in the red band asking 'true/false' questions. He's just written a book for Simple-Talk called 'How to Become an Exceptional DBA' (Tony Davis mentioned this a fortnight back on DBW.) Brad lists what he considers are the essential skills. I was fortunate enough to get a sneak peek at it. Hmm. Essential reading! Just checking through the basic essential skills would take a lot of testing! I still believe though, that it is pretty obvious who is a good DBA just by observing them at work.
I had to recruit a DBA a while back. As well as the conventional interview, I gave the candidates such a dead-simple test. It was a database in full recovery mode that had gone 'suspect'. All the backups were there and all they had to do was to restore it, on another SQL Server machine on the same network, to the point that it had croaked, as quickly as possible. To my surprise, It was embarrassingly difficult for them, except for one guy who was quiet, and had few formal qualifications, and limited experience on his CV. He sorted it out in double-quick time and I recruited him then and there. It wasn't just the speed. but the pleasure he took in doing it, and the fact that he took notes as he went along. Yes, you're right, he turned out to be a phenomenally good DBA. Later on, he also showed me how to instantly remove a wheel-clamp off a car when I walked with him to his car. Talented.
Best wishes,
Phil Factor
May 29, 2008 at 11:13 am
Phil Factor (5/29/2008)
Brad McGehee hasn't just been sitting there on the top of this forum in the red band asking 'true/false' questions. He's just written a book for Simple-Talk called 'How to Become an Exceptional DBA' (Tony Davis mentioned this a fortnight back on DBW.) Brad lists what he considers are the essential skills. I was fortunate enough to get a sneak peek at it. Hmm. Essential reading! Just checking through the basic essential skills would take a lot of testing! I still believe though, that it is pretty obvious who is a good DBA just by observing them at work.I had to recruit a DBA a while back. As well as the conventional interview, I gave the candidates such a dead-simple test. It was a database in full recovery mode that had gone 'suspect'. All the backups were there and all they had to do was to restore it, on another SQL Server machine on the same network, to the point that it had croaked, as quickly as possible. To my surprise, It was embarrassingly difficult for them, except for one guy who was quiet, and had few formal qualifications, and limited experience on his CV. He sorted it out in double-quick time and I recruited him then and there. It wasn't just the speed. but the pleasure he took in doing it, and the fact that he took notes as he went along. Yes, you're right, he turned out to be a phenomenally good DBA. Later on, he also showed me how to instantly remove a wheel-clamp off a car when I walked with him to his car. Talented.
So - good DBA = able to jack cars and defeat police restraints? 😀
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
May 29, 2008 at 11:23 am
He was an ex-cop too and a martial arts expert! He had wonderful ways with developers who tried fiddling with production databases.
Best wishes,
Phil Factor
May 29, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Nightstick recalibration or just a crushing blow to the calcium knob?
--Jeff Moden
May 30, 2008 at 10:53 am
Amazing how much attention you can devote to someone when they have you in a sleeper hold:)
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
June 2, 2008 at 11:16 am
Jeff Moden (5/25/2008)
Stop wasting your money on a bunch of tests that don't and can't tell you anything real about a person for actual programming skills or the ability to work on a team... do the interview.
I agree with what everyone was saying about these tests. When I was job searching over a year ago, a company a recruiter had sent my resume to, wanted me to take a Brainbench test. This was in something I had only started to work with, so I wasn't that confident with it. Once I had finished the test, I was feeling there would be no way my score would be good enough to proceed to the interview. Turns out, I answered better then I thought or I guessed really well. If I remember correctly, I got an interview, but nothing from it.
For me, the U.S. Air Force got me used to taking multiple-choice tests. I am able to narrow down the choices and make an "educated" guess. Jeff is right about the interview, not only was the company able to understand me better, I was able to get a better idea of what they were truly looking for. Much better for understanding each other.
Ian.
"If you are going through hell, keep going."
-- Winston Churchill
June 2, 2008 at 11:33 am
My favorite is when employers think that a certification brings with it a plethora of knowledge and experience. I am not an advocate of cert's to hire. I am an advocate of hire trained educated folks who can apply their knowledge and research quickly and accurately when needed. Anyone can read a book and pass a test. Experience to me speak far louder than a test. Tests can be good baselines but still can miss a lot of important information about a person.
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