Dba interview

[mane]

I have a face to face interview tomorrow for my first Oracle job. I need to know what to say if i'm asked to detail what i did in specific situations during my stay in the Company where i interned. We did not do much. Check alert.log, rollback segs, run scripts. Pls help.

[wjramsey]

I would say that the best thing you can do is be very open and honest about your background and experience. Hopefully they realize that you are inexperienced and are prepared to hire you and give you adequate time and realistic tasks to develop your skills. There is absolutely nothing worse than going into a job where you are ill prepared to meet the demands that are placed upon you. Make sure that the job is a good fit not only for you but for the employer as well. Make sure that you emphasize the knowledge that you have - letting them know you have a good foundation upon which to build.

That being said, I would be excited about the things you have done so far. Emphasize the positive points. Put yourself forward as someone who is anxious to work with Oracle and excited about getting the chance to work on some good projects! Being a self-starter and someone who is thirsty for more knowledge is always a big plus. Also, even if you don't have a lot of direct Oracle experience, you can still emphasize other experience and skills that would lend themselves to the job and to learning Oracle such as any programming experience, experience with other databases, etc.. etc...

You know, I've been a DBA for a few years now and I don't know what other's experiences have been but I've rarely been asked about really specific Oracle skills (except for one interview which was really neat and the company was having some current issues and wanted to discuss possible solutions). Most technical questions were along the lines of what hardware platforms you worked with, databases and database versions, and any programming experience you might have. Other than that, employers seem to be concerned with your ability to learn, how you interact with others, your ability to fit into the corporate culture, how excited you are about what you do. I always try to emphasize the fact that I am a problem solver and that even where I may not have a specific skill yet, I can pick things up quickly through reading techical journals, books, great web sites like this, etc. I am also proud of the fact that everywhere I've worked I've had a very positive relationship with my peers and end-users and that I love working with them to reach common goals and that's always a good point to make. I guess finally I would make sure to be upbeat and try to stay as loose as possible. You want to be professional and confident. If they ask you a question you can't answer then just be honest and say you don't have a lot of experience in that area. There is nothing worse than trying to blindly blunder through a question which you really can't answer - I think you earn more respect when you are just up front and don't waste the interviewers time.

After that, all I can say is good luck tomorrow!!! Be positive and sell your skills :)

[mane]

Hi Mr Ramsey,
I can not begin to thank you for the invaluable advice you gave to me yesterday. Even though i did not get the job, your suggestions were my only guide through this exercise. What a great site this is with people like you. I can not thank you enough for being a mentor and a guardian. It means a lot to me and i will forever remain indebted.
mane

[wjramsey]

Your more than welcome :)

Sorry that you didn't get the job but don't be discouraged! There are plenty of opportunities out there for people who are interested in working w/ Oracle and have the apptitude for it. The best thing you can do is keep working on developing your skills. I would highly encourage you to read all you can on Oracle, and on operating systems like Unix and NT(*shiver*)
Make sure that you keep working w/ Oracle itself, even if it's on your home pc. Keep participating on this board, reading the questions and giving input where you can.

In the meantime are you still interning? Are there any other opportunities in your area for junior dba's?

Sincerely,

Joe

btw... feel free to call me Joe *laugh*

[mercedes]

Hi Joe,
I saw the advice you gave to Mane. I passed OCP(dba) last December. I have been looking for a job since then. Problem is lack of experience. Now I decided to volunteer. Can you tell me, how I can get internship and whom to approach in the company. I live in Medina not too far from Mason. Are there any opportunities around, hire or internship. Meanwhile I am thinking of upgrading to 8i.

[wjramsey]

Send me your resume: ramseyj@cintas.com

We might be hiring a junior dba soon. I also know some other places which might be looking for interns or junior dba's.

Joe

[mane]

I need to install Solaris 8 for the very first time. I'm a novice to the Unix environment and need help with a few questions.
1) Can i install Solaris on a PC with only 32MB of memory?
2)Can i install it on a PC that already has NT server 4.0?
3)What are semaphores and how do i configure.
Any tip/tips will be appreciated.

[pwoneill]

I wish I had seen this post before your interview. As Joe said don't get discouraged, just continue plugging along at home and learning.

Keep this link in mind for future interviews

[url]http://www4.netease.com/~jonsonhuo/oracle_doc/DBA_questions.htm[/url]

As per your questions

1) Yes, but ONLY for a personal testing copy. Don't expect great performance as your SGA will have to be small, in addition to lots of virtual memory usage.

2) Sure, assuming you have permissions to do so. I've never done an NT install but again, if you're using a personal copy for development you should be ok.

3) Semaphores are a software or hardware flag which are used to hold locks on files, shared memory, or other resources, so that they are only being accessed once at a time. Configuration depends on the operating system or application.

[sambavan]

I wish I had seen this posting earlier. Mane, don't be discouraged as you did not get an offer from the the company that you interviewed with. As Wjramsey and Pwoneill said, try installing oracle on your home system and keep comming to this site and post answers to the questions that you know, or post your questions even if you think silly to ask. We are there to render our knowledge. If you are wrong, then there are people who would correct them.

Hit the oracle magazine site and also view the past archives and they are some of the valuable sources for your future.

Think positive and take this golden saying "Failures are the steps of success"

Good luck with your future job searches.

Sam

[Edited by sambavan on 11-20-2000 at 03:12 AM]