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I have a CLIENT interview by tomorrow for a SQL DBA position.
Hi Friends, I have client interview by tomorrow for a SQL DBA position. I am new to this. Could you please explain what type of questions they might ask and how I should answer them?
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This might not be the ideal question for a forum like this. If you simply google "DBA interview questions" you'll get some great ideas. Your underlying issue is this: - You say you are applying for a DBA position **tomorrow** and you've left it to now to start preparations. That's not going to augur well for you. - A DBA position is a non-trivial role. You are the protector of the organisation's data. Muck that up and you could ruin an organisation. Can you live with that kind of responsibility resting on inexperienced shoulders? - If becoming a DBA is your passion, do some courses. Design some databases of your own. Volunteer to help charities. Find a DBA in your current organisation and see if they can mentor you. Get yourself some points in a SQL forum. All this is a body of evidence to show your prospective employer that you mean business. If you are serious about becoming a DBA: - You need to be 100% frank and honest in your interview tomorrow. If you give undertakings you can't follow through on, you could do your career long term damage. - Post back and let us know how you went. If you become a diligent contributor of questions here (as opposed to the lazy questions that get posted here sometimes) there are plenty of good people willing to help you along, and you'll be investing in a profile that might come in handy down the track.
Many times these interviews are not as technical as a job interview. They want to be confident your org can reliably serve and protect their data. So be ready for questions on what kind of reporting you can deliver, how do you secure the data, what disaster recovery plans do you have in place, what type of load/transactions can the server handle, response time and communication they can expect, how can you securely transfer data from/to their org etc
You're an experienced DBA? And this is a client interview rather than a job interview? What sort of company are you in, a consultancy or an outsourcing outfit? Whatever, I would say be prepared for a standard DBA-type interview, with emphasis on any problems that you know that they are experiencing. After all, they've approached you / your organisation because they have issues, so I would expect that your sales desk / pimp / tech sales bod has an idea of what those issues are...
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