Hi All,
I have been asked to evaluate Datastage candidates for the development project. I'd like to know what are all the criteria's that i have to look upon from the technical perspective for a 5 years experience candidate?
This stroke me because I have not been convinced with the candidates who could not be able to come up with the design to split unique and duplicate records from the source file. But however they have strong basic knowledge on partitions, performance, stage level.
So, Please advice me what are technical aspects to look at to the candidates?
Thanks
I couldn't find similar post and please divert me if there is any.
Datastage Job Interview - Interviewer Queries
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patelamit009
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Datastage Job Interview - Interviewer Queries
Last edited by patelamit009 on Wed Mar 11, 2015 3:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
Regards,
Patel
Patel
I'm sure others will reply with technical questions to ask, I like to look at the non technical as well. I tend to ask questions to determin the candidates ability to think on their feet. Can this person solve a problem. What approach do they take to determine root cause.
You can teach coding to folks, but it's harder to teach problem solving skills. If a candidate has really good answers for HOW they tackle something, I weigh that into their final assesment.
Hearing the words "I don't know... but here's how I would find out...." goes a long way.
You can teach coding to folks, but it's harder to teach problem solving skills. If a candidate has really good answers for HOW they tackle something, I weigh that into their final assesment.
Hearing the words "I don't know... but here's how I would find out...." goes a long way.
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stuartjvnorton
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Something like DS can be tricky in this respect.
They could be a gun who's never worked with Teradata or Complex Flat Files, so they probably won't have answers to specific questions in those areas.
That said, I would think that something like splitting out dupes shouldn't be a hard thing to do for most people with 5 years experience.
That said, Paul is on the money.
Ask process and problem solving questions as well. Better a problem solver with a bit less tool knowledge than the person who can cram well for an exam.
Also listen to the questions they come back with, to see how quickly they get to the heart of the problem.
They could be a gun who's never worked with Teradata or Complex Flat Files, so they probably won't have answers to specific questions in those areas.
That said, I would think that something like splitting out dupes shouldn't be a hard thing to do for most people with 5 years experience.
That said, Paul is on the money.
Ask process and problem solving questions as well. Better a problem solver with a bit less tool knowledge than the person who can cram well for an exam.
Also listen to the questions they come back with, to see how quickly they get to the heart of the problem.
This is one reason I do not like certification tests. They ask questions like Which stages require a sort before the stage?
a. Merge
b. Join
c. Remove dupes
d. Change data capture
e. all of above
f. a,b and c
Who cares. You can look this stuff up. You need to decide what is important to you on your team.
a. DataStage knowledge and skills
b. Oracle skills
c. Data warehouse skills
d. etc.
What is a question that separates knowledge from skills? What are the skills that make a developer a good team member?
Skills:
1. Problem solving
2. Applying theory. (What is a star schema? How would you load it? Dimensions load before facts? Why?)
3. Does this person cause strife? Are they critical? Do they blame others?
4. Does this person mentor? Only if they are forced to?
5. Define team player.
6. Do they have skills we are lacking? (we need an Oracle expert)
7. Can they learn the skills we have and teach the skills they have?
8. What makes a person difficult?
9. Confidence versus arrogance
Wisdom is the proper application of knowledge to solve a problem. This comes not only from experience but from listening. Is this person listening to me or answering questions before I finish asking the question. Remember the more they want this job the more nervous they may be which means they might not wait long enough. Interview process is like a date, both people want to impress the other. They may not act this way normally after they get the job. Ask them to give examples of each skill that is important to you.
Other conditions may be important like work from home requires less mentoring and more self motivation. What things on your project stress you out. Make sure they can handle that stress. If you are asking about skills like mentoring and nobody on this team can mentor or does mentor then you just hired someone that might get frustrated. Otherwise you need to state that up front. We need better documentation because the current team does not document well. We need examples of good documentation so the rest of us can emulate it.
Nobody but Ray does all these well. Rank these by importance and make sure the ones they are lacking you can live without or improve on. Always ask what is their weakest skill and what is their least favorite task. I have been an admin many times but I do not like doing it. I have many scripts to automate admin tasks because I do not like doing it. I do not mind teaching admins and setting up best practices because I think most companies do it poorly. Once the admins have good best practices then I want to move on to an architect role. My strength and what makes me happy is problem solving, applying theory to practical solutions. I like it when things run smooth. Theory should show you what a good solution looks like. Most people that can talk theory cannot build it. Two different skills. Practical implementation of theory is much harder than reading some book. If they say in an interview that all this is easy then ask more questions because they probably have not done it in real life.
a. Merge
b. Join
c. Remove dupes
d. Change data capture
e. all of above
f. a,b and c
Who cares. You can look this stuff up. You need to decide what is important to you on your team.
a. DataStage knowledge and skills
b. Oracle skills
c. Data warehouse skills
d. etc.
What is a question that separates knowledge from skills? What are the skills that make a developer a good team member?
Skills:
1. Problem solving
2. Applying theory. (What is a star schema? How would you load it? Dimensions load before facts? Why?)
3. Does this person cause strife? Are they critical? Do they blame others?
4. Does this person mentor? Only if they are forced to?
5. Define team player.
6. Do they have skills we are lacking? (we need an Oracle expert)
7. Can they learn the skills we have and teach the skills they have?
8. What makes a person difficult?
9. Confidence versus arrogance
Wisdom is the proper application of knowledge to solve a problem. This comes not only from experience but from listening. Is this person listening to me or answering questions before I finish asking the question. Remember the more they want this job the more nervous they may be which means they might not wait long enough. Interview process is like a date, both people want to impress the other. They may not act this way normally after they get the job. Ask them to give examples of each skill that is important to you.
Other conditions may be important like work from home requires less mentoring and more self motivation. What things on your project stress you out. Make sure they can handle that stress. If you are asking about skills like mentoring and nobody on this team can mentor or does mentor then you just hired someone that might get frustrated. Otherwise you need to state that up front. We need better documentation because the current team does not document well. We need examples of good documentation so the rest of us can emulate it.
Nobody but Ray does all these well. Rank these by importance and make sure the ones they are lacking you can live without or improve on. Always ask what is their weakest skill and what is their least favorite task. I have been an admin many times but I do not like doing it. I have many scripts to automate admin tasks because I do not like doing it. I do not mind teaching admins and setting up best practices because I think most companies do it poorly. Once the admins have good best practices then I want to move on to an architect role. My strength and what makes me happy is problem solving, applying theory to practical solutions. I like it when things run smooth. Theory should show you what a good solution looks like. Most people that can talk theory cannot build it. Two different skills. Practical implementation of theory is much harder than reading some book. If they say in an interview that all this is easy then ask more questions because they probably have not done it in real life.
Mamu Kim
I love asking "If you could change one thing in this application, what would it be and why?"
That gives me a better sense of their mindset. Anyone who answers "Nothing" lacks independent thought. There is ALWAYS something that can be improved, there will ALWAYS be something that frustrates you because of XYZ reason. Does the person think as a developer, admin or project manager. His/her answer will show me that.
That gives me a better sense of their mindset. Anyone who answers "Nothing" lacks independent thought. There is ALWAYS something that can be improved, there will ALWAYS be something that frustrates you because of XYZ reason. Does the person think as a developer, admin or project manager. His/her answer will show me that.