by Kevin Loney.

This is part of a series of articles for new DBAs, as first presented on http://www.kevinloney.com

A DBA interview can be difficult both for the interviewer and the candidate. The role involves technical skills, process skills, and personal communications skills. Although those three skill sets are all critical, most "DBA interview questions" articles in the past have focused only on the questions you can use to judge a person’s technical qualifications. In this article, you will see questions an interviewer can pose to the DBA candidate to judge the other attributes of the job.

In addition, this article includes a set of questions DBAs should ask at some point during their interviews. If the interviewer stops and asks "Do you have any questions for me?" don’t sit there quietly. The emphasis of the DBA questions provided in this article is the organization’s process focus and its technical career path for DBAs. All of the questions provided here are intended as starting points; based on the answers to the questions, you should ask follow-ups to understand how the answer will affect your day to day activities and your long-term prospects. Of course, if you ask a question to the interviewer, you should be prepared to answer the same question concerning your present work environment.

What processes do you follow while implementing changes in production?

Beside the DBAs and system administrators, who has access to the "Oracle" operating system account?

How often is the oracle operating system account password changed?

Are the DBAs co-located with the teams they support?

How is capacity planning performed?

Is there adequate capacity already in place to support the expected growth over the next year?

Is there a formal job definition for the DBA role?

Is there a defined technical career path?

How is IT aligned with the business areas?

How many employees report to more than one manager?

How do you determine if a DBA has been successful?

How are the application DBAs and production control DBAs organized?

Please bring along a copy of the last status report you’ve submitted, as well as any articles. If you haven’t brought one along, please mail me one after the interview.

What errors did you hit during your most recent database recovery?

What was the most difficult technical obstacle you encountered during your last project?

What negative "group relationship" issues exist in your current working environment? How are you addressing them?

What is your most difficult set of users, and how do you manage that relationship?

What do you want to learn in the next 12 months?

What communications method do you usually use when dealing with users? Can you provide examples?

What communications method is most effective when customers need your help?

What database and overall architecture would you suggest for testing new middleware without impacting production?

How do you assess my database’s health?

How would you approach a performance problem with a three-tier application?

How do you test your backup/recovery procedures?

How would you support the upgrade process for multiple applications, with different application rollout cycles, in the same instance?

These are samples; use a question from each category to guide a discussion of the way the communications skills, process knowledge, and technical aspects of the job are interrelated in the role. If the interviewer and the candidate can agree on what a successful DBA looks like in the environment, there is a strong foundation for a future working relationship.

Coming in the next article: So you want to go independent