Why most candidates fail the interview in the first five minutes =tg= Thomas Grohser Why most candidates fail the interview in the first five minutes

select * from =tg= where topic = =tg= Thomas Grohser Senior Director Technical Solutions Architecture email: Thomas.grohser@nttdata.com tg@grohser.com Focus on SQL Server Security, Performance Engineering, Infrastructure and Architecture Wrote some of Close Relationship with SQLCAT (SQL Server Customer Advisory Team) SCAN (SQL Server Customer Advisory Network) TAP (Technology Adoption Program) Product Teams in Redmond Active PASS member and PASS Summit Speaker @@Version Remark SQL 4.21 First SQL Server ever used (1994) SQL 6.0 First Log Shipping with failover SQL 6.5 First SQL Server Cluster (NT4.0 + Wolfpack) SQL 7.0 2+ billion rows / month in a single Table SQL 2000 938 days with 100% availability SQL 2000 IA64 First SQL Server on Itanium IA64 SQL 2005 IA64 First OLTP long distance database mirroring SQL 2008 IA64 First Replication into mirrored databases SQL 2008R2 IA64 SQL 2008R2 x64 First 256 CPUs & >500.000 STMT/sec First Scale out > 1.000.000 STMT/sec First time 1.2+ trillion rows in a table SQL 2012 > 220.000 Transactions per second > 1.3 Trillion Rows in a table SQL 2014 > 400.000 Transactions per second Fully automated deploy and management SQL 2016 AlwaysOn Automatic HA and DR, crossed the PB in storage SQL vNext Can’t wait to push the limits even further

Agenda Why I am talking about this The 3 stages of grief Q&A ATTENTION: Important Information may be displayed on any slide at any time! ! Without Warning !

Why I am talking about this Since 2004 I work for large corporations All the time I was looking for DBA’s, Database Developers, BI experts and ETL specialist I always had more demand than supply I read over a 1000 resumes I did over 300 phone screens I did over 100 in person interview Found less than 10 great candidates

The 3 stages of grief Resume Phone Screen In Person Interview

Resume First impression No SQL 2017, No SQL 2016, No SQL 2014, No SQL 2012? Taking backups really is most important task you did in your carier? Why are you listing me every command you ever used. You can do this at the end but give me a great summary at the beginning of what you can do If you claim to be an expert on a topic expect a tuff question on it in the phone screen

Phone Screen Take it serious Be at a quiet place This is the first personal impression you make Don’t be late Be at a quiet place Have good reception (a landline if possible) Don’t be in the car a bar at work In a public place outside

Pay attention to the question You have no idea how many times I asked: How much is 1+1 and the answer was blue

In every interview my first question is like Developer Version SQL Server offers a lot of different indexes DBA Version SQL Server offers a lot of different high availability options pick any two and compare them …

The most common answers are DBA: Clustering Always On Database Mirroring Log Shipping Replication Backup/Restore … Developer: Clustered Index Non Clustered Index XML Index Filtered Indexed Full Text Index Column Store Index Hash Index … The question was pick any two and compare them … and not list them all …

If a question is unclear or ambiguous Ask for clarification or the missing information

Which of the below statements is true/false 1 + 1 = 2 1 + 1 = 10 1 + 1 = 11 9 + 9 = 12 6 x 9 = 42 true decimal true binary true string true hex true base13

Why is more important than How How is explained in the online help The why is what you need to know It’s great that you take full backups every day, but why? It’s great that you choose this index, but why?

When you give an answer be prepared to explain why If you tell me that you rebuild indexes if fragmentation is > 30% I am going to ask you why 30% This answers will get you the job After experimenting with multiple values I could measure that at about 40% the IO overhead during the week starts degrading the performance so I start rebuilding at 30% to avoid that situation. Multiple blogs from accredited SQL Server experts recommends 30% and I had good experience with the recommendation This answers will not That what we do Because that’s the default in the script I found

What would you do if money was not an issue? Don’t tell me what you did at your current place, because money most likely was an issue. Don’t hold back on a open question

It is OK to not know stuff Explain how you would find the answer Google Vendor Support Case … Do NOT make up an answer A wrong answer is way worse than a I don’t know Bing

Which is a valid SQL Server command DBCC Autopilot DBCC CloneDatabase DBCC Hekaton DBCC Rearange Index DBCC SQLPerf DBCC SHOW_FILE_STATS

This is your interview not your current team’s Tell what you did not what your team did Take credit for things you did. When I constantly hear answers like We used xyz backup tool We rebuild indexes if fragmentation is above 30% We made the primary key clustered all the time

Show interest in the job/company Ask about the team, your role within the team, company culture, … Adjust to the culture Neither being the only one in a suit or the only one in a T-Shirt is a good impression

Summary Listen to the question Narrow down the answer by asking a clarifying question It’s not just the how (e.g. syntax) the procedures around it are as important. Open Questions Stick to the important facts first and then go into details Seeing a lot of people going down on a detail and then not answering the question

THANK YOU! and may the force be with you… Questions? thomas.grohser@nttdata.com (9 to 5 5 days a week :-) tg@grohser.com (24x7) Please fill out the evaluations.