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Michael Hillenbrand EXPERT RESPONSE FROM: Michael Hillenbrand

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QUESTION POSED ON: 27 May 2008
I have two years of experience in J2EE and PL/SQL technologies. I recently completed my Oracle 10g (OCA) and (OCP) database administration certifications. I have an interview next week for the role of DBA. What are the possible questions I can expect?


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Unless this is an entry-level DBA position, you can probably expect a lot of questions about your lack of experience as a DBA. Having the certifications will certainly help you combat this with the fact that you are well-educated and well-versed in database administration. However, you may encounter a lot of real-world type questions designed to trip you up. For example, "Explain how you would go about escalating an iTAR with Oracle" or "Describe a time when you had to recover a database." You might be able to combat the latter with your knowledge and describe a scenario when you would need to recover and how you would go about it.

On the non-technical skills end, you may encounter questions like:

  • Describe your strengths.
  • Describe your weaknesses (often the hardest to talk about).
  • Talk about a time when you went above and beyond to succeed.
  • Talk about a time when you failed. What did you learn?
  • Why did you / are you leaving your current job?

For more advice, you can read my series on becoming an Oracle DBA here at SearchOracle.

I hope this helps and good luck!




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