Customer Reviews

Conducting the Oracle Job Interview: IT Manager Guide for Oracle Job Interviews with Oracle Interview Questions (IT Job Interview series)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book contains 130 pages and if the font size were normal it would have been around 30 pages. I read this book in less than 15 Mins and I have not learned anything new.
The book has 5 chapters which basically can be classified in three parts
Part 1
Explains the Oracle Certification in which can be viewed on the Oracle Web site.
Part 2
Decorum - How you present yourself at an interview
Part 3
Basic questions on Oracle
Eg - what is the password for Scott user and System?
- Describe the difference between a procedure and a function
- How do you select the date from sqlplus?

[...]
These are not guys prone to asking hypotheticals, or encouraging thought experiments. They wear white shirts. They have answers. You'd better know these answers, and only these, because they've been written down in this little book.

No subtle distinctions, variations of experience, or questions of cognitive talent will clutter their decision processes at hiring time. These are not distractible people.

They cover a lot of ground here. Who makes a great Oracle person? Electrical Engineers are perfect candidates -- but watch out for Education majors (they're suspect). (FYI, this reviewer is an E.E. -- glad to know I'm okay.) What personality type is best? Try to get one with an "'Anal' personality,"

"after Sigmund Freud's theory of anal-retentive personalities" (page 34).

I bet these guys are great fun. Pleasant to work with (assuming you've memorized the entire content of your site's init.ora, and can recite it verbatim).

I must heartily disagree with one of the critics of this book. It is not wide and shallow. Rather it is narrow and subterranean. It expects encyclopedic knowledge of Oracle trivia -- the minor and/or once-in-a-career kind of stuff.

Most answers it asks for are the kind slovenly architects and developers refer to in the documentation, when, if ever, they are pertinent, or whenever they've been forgotten in the rush of ten dozen other tasks, or after the certification test is done with. You'll only be getting cream with this book, the kind of professionals who read and reread from Rampant's Oracle In-Focus series, especially to the kids before bed each and every night.

Heaven help you.

A long time ago I purchased a book by Mike Ault and inside there were the same questions he publised in this book - the problem is that a good portions of these questions are completely obsolete by now (like SQLnet v2 or utlbstat/ustat questions) while some answers are wrong (like myths about high hit ratios)!
This book should never be published (like almost all the rest of 'Rampant' books). Save your money and get Oracle Interview Questions from the net as these found in this book will not be asked on Oracle job iterviews.

Does Mr Ault realize that this book would help Oracle DBA candidates get jobs too ?

Picture this :

1 You have a hirer who knows next to nothing about Oracle and uses this book.
2 You have a candidate who also knows next to nothing about Oracle using the same book.
3 An interview
4 All questions answered correctly.
5 Bingo! You have a hiring!

Since there will always be more Oracle DBA candidates than hirers, I'll bet that Mr. Ault will make more money selling this book to Oracle DBA CANDIDATE customers than Oracle hirers.

I used this book as a guide when hiring a co-worker and it saved me considerable labour. I would disregard the other reviews that stuff this book because it mentions that Oracle programmers need college degrees and a sense of proper professional attire. If you work in a professional environment, this is the book that explains how-to find fellow professionals.

The technical questions are good but my favorite part is the personal accessment section. Too many Oracle people think that Oracle is just another job, and this short book sets the record straight.

This book is useful for an IT manager with limited Oracle experience. Looking forward to seeing an updated version!

I bought this book and went through it in less than 2 hours. I think the book is worth to read. It certainly gives you some ideas on how the DBA job interview is conducted. I did like it. I believe the book can help junior DBAs get prepared for a job interview.
For the reviewers who think the book can help hire the wrong person, I would say that is true. But if you are not a qualified DBA and you study this book to get a job, sooner or later your lies will catch up with you and you will be on the road again looking for another job.

This book is a great help to me as an IT manager that lacks knowledge of Oracle but routinely needs to hire Oracle DBAs. The questions and answers are particularly helpful in the interview process. Selecting technical professionals has always been difficult when I lack the familiarity with the technology to parse between the experienced applicants and those who simply throw around buzz words and catch phrases. Using this text I can grade the applicants and weed out the inexperienced ones.

I am not aware of any other book that addresses the needs of the Oracle hiring manager and applicant alike. This book is packed with interview questions that help separate the wheat from the chaff.

To find a good candidate and hire that person does take some homework for the person doing the hiring. You have to weed out the people who do not qualify immediately. This book gives you that help.

The book is a great guide in what to look for in and how to be a Oracle professional. Along with guidance on education, professional experience, personal appearance, the book provide sample questions that all Oracle DBAs should know. The candidate can use the questions as a review. The employer can use the questions as a guide to other questions or could use the questions straight from the book. Of course the employer should be aware that the candidate might have also read the book.

Any employer looking for a quality candidate should buy this book.