1. Why most Candidates fail the Interview in the first five Minutes
=tg= Thomas Grohser, NTT Data
SQL Server MVP
SQL Server Performance Engineering
Albany, NY 7/20/2019

2. select * from =tg= where topic =
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 & > STMT/sec
First Scale out > STMT/sec
First time 1.2+ trillion rows in a table
SQL 2012
> Transactions per second
> 1.3 Trillion Rows in a table
SQL 2014
> 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
=tg= Thomas Grohser,
NTT DATA
Senior Director Technical Solutions Architecture /
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
25 Years with SQL Server

3. 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

4. The 3 stages of grief
Resume
Phone Screen
In Person Interview

5. 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 carrier
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 question on it in the phone screen

6. 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

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

8. 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 …

9. 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 …

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

11. Which of the below statements is true/false
1 + 1 = = = = 12
true decimal
true binary
true string
true hex

12. 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?

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

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

17. This is your interview not your current team
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

18. 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

19. 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

20. THANK YOU! and may the force be with you…
Questions?
(9 to 5 5 days a week :-)
(24x7)