do you think I'll get this job? [updated: On the job]

bighornsheep

Hi,

My school has an off-campus research center that works with DB2, in other words it's a data analyst job. And they regularly hire students to fill 3 spots.

My friend works as one of them right now, but because of the relationship with the school + other regulations, they must be a full-time student to keep the job. My friend graduated in June, and his student status will end by Aug.

He helped me submit my resume, and he told me that there hasnt been any other applications. He said that he already got one of his other friend the job, and he's already started. I applied about 3 weeks ago, and 2 weeks ago my friend told me that I would get a call that week.

So what should I do now? Should I wait? The center isnt exactly 'part' of the school, and I dont want to just call them up because I'm not 'suppose' to know about it, it's usually referrals.

At this point, should I continue looking for other jobs?

I dont really have experience with databases, but I have taken several courses, and I can fulfill the job responsibilities.
Nevertheless, my interest is with technical supoprt, and networks...should I wait and hope for the best? Or try keep looking?

Olajuwon

Dude, Rule of thumb is to never stop looking until you find a job.

panik

I think that you should always call.

1. It shows that you are interested.
2. It reminds them to look at your resume.

I usually call everyday, unless they say something like

...we'll call you on Thursday...

And then I'll call them back on Thursday, unless they manage to call me first.

Just give them a call, it can't hurt, and it might get you the job.

bighornsheep

the problem is I 'cant' really call them up....because of loose affilitation with the school.

Would it be too rude and desperate to visit them directly?

bighornsheep

So the story goes that 4 weeks after submitting my resume. I get a call. (This was last week) I went in for my first-interview this morning. And right away it didnt start off on the right foot, I had mis-heard his name on the phone when he called, and I asked for the wrong person at the reception. uh oh... I know...

that's also on top of the fact that I was 6 minutes late because of some problems with the subway. I'm thinking to myself, I am DEAD for this one.

The gentleman comes out like 15 minutes later and brings me to their boardroom, one-on-one interview, I'm thinking okay, alright... He starts asking his first question, "What are you doing here? Why are you in Computer Science working IT?" I'm like thinking to myself...how can I possibily answer that in a way so that he wouldnt think I'm making up BS, and that I am sincere...so I tell him the typical thing how I have been using computers for a long time, and that I wasnt good with physics and chemistry, so engineering didnt work out for me...Okay, not too bad so far...

Then pulls out 2 other guys' resume, lines them up with mine and starts scanning each section down. He sees that I have some Microsoft certs...and pretty much calls me 'bluff', asks me the exam codes, how much they were, how long did I take to get them, what did I use to study...etc...So I tell him...and then out of nowhere, I get like 4 technical questions in a row...what is the difference between a forrest and a root, what is DNS, what is Active Directory, I'm thinking to myself...I'M NOT MCSE/MCSA yet...oh btw, this is NOT a networking job, it's a part-time position as a database programmer. But anyway, I was able to answer most of his questions, but he corrected my defintion of a forrest, but he was pretty nice about it.

Down to the computer skills section....again first with the causal talks...then out of nowhere...how is a for loop used, what is the third parameter for, how is a do while and while loop different, what's malloc, how do you implement recursion....he must have asked me at least 12 programming questions in about 5 minutes on top of the other 5 or 6 he asked about my certifications.

Half way through the interview, his secretary comes in and tells him that the room booking is up...he then brings me to this other meeting room...and asks me about my past experiences with databases, my school projects...I was pretty sure at this point that he's trying to break down the competition...

Well anyway, after all of that, he asked if I was okay with the pay, and offered me the job on the spot. I told him I wasnt too picky about the salary, but I wanted flexible hours, which he was more than happy to give.

So after a month of applying, received no news whatsoever, I got an interview, and a job offer out of the blue.

I guess it's time to pull out my database book and start rollin'..

Thanks to those of you that gave comments and encouragements...

SRTMCSE

Congratulations!

sprkymrk

Wow !
He really tried to rattle your cage, didn't he?
Glad you made it through and kept your cool.
Congratulations on the job!

TheFORCE

must have been one of your toughest interviews. Congrats dude.

Ricka182

congrats!

Olajuwon

Congrats, Sounds like an easy one.

sharptech

Excellent- Congrats!

mikej412

Congratulations!

A few years back IBM was desperate to get people to certify on DB2, so they were offering some free training materials for DB2.... it might still be worth a look on the IBM certification & product pages to see what's available.

Also look for the Redbooks on DB2. Probably anything you might ever want to know about DB2 can be found there.

bighornsheep

mikej412 wrote:

Congratulations!

A few years back IBM was desperate to get people to certify on DB2, so they were offering some free training materials for DB2.... it might still be worth a look on the IBM certification & product pages to see what's available.

Also look for the Redbooks on DB2. Probably anything you might ever want to know about DB2 can be found there.

Thanks for the info, actually my good friend works at IBM, he's writing his DB2 exams for free, and he's also lending me some of the books.

However, my job will actually be working with Oracle, I believe it's 9i...but I am not quite sure...as far as I know though, my job will be to revise C scripts and making new queries on the oracle server.

Thanks again for all of your support~

garv221

I sat in a couple of interviews awhile back with our Sr. Network Engineer. He is a very nice guy, old soul. He brought in a cat5 cable, crimpers and rj45 connector and told the potential employee to make him a straight through cable. I was very suprised by how many people could not do it. One guy said he doesn't need to know how becasue he delegated that type of work. The Engineer said, yes but I am delegating this to you and we do not delegate work that you yourself cannot do. One guy pulled out his wallet and had the diagram in it. The Engineer asked all kinds of questions about the OSI model, pings, and what if's with Cisco switches. As the potential employee you are not expected to know everything but you should releax and give an answer on how you will resolve it by means of troubleshooting or documentation.

bighornsheep

garv221 wrote:

I sat in a couple of interviews awhile back with our Sr. Network Engineer. He is a very nice guy, old soul. He brought in a cat5 cable, crimpers and rj45 connector and told the potential employee to make him a straight through cable. I was very suprised by how many people could not do it. One guy said he doesn't need to know how becasue he delegated that type of work. The Engineer said, yes but I am delegating this to you and we do not delegate work that you yourself cannot do. One guy pulled out his wallet and had the diagram in it. The Engineer asked all kinds of questions about the OSI model, pings, and what if's with Cisco switches.

w/o, o, w/g, b, w/b, g, w/br, br.
phew....

you see, the difference was...I wasnt applying for a networking job....I dont remember answering any questions about SQL, although the job is for database programmer.

garv221

bighornsheep wrote:

w/o, o, w/g, b, w/b, g, w/br, br.
phew....

you see, the difference was...I wasnt applying for a networking job....I dont remember answering any questions about SQL, although the job is for database programmer.

I know, I was just sharing an interesting experience in an interview with questions.

I have participated in a programmer interview as well. No direct AD MS questions were asked. It was for SQL,Crystal. Questions about experience and some complteted projects were mentioned. We talked about our current database and projects we need to fix. We did demostrations as well. Explained the background of the system and why we need it. Pretty straight foward, either the programmer can program or can't. Nothing to much on the trouble shooting side.

bighornsheep

It's my first day on the job, it's kind of boring here. I'm in a team of 5 or 6. But 2 guys are on vacation, this other dude is coming back next week, so I've only met one person on the team.

He's really nice, studying in my program also, I think we get along pretty well.

I'm in the ops. team working on a testing production Oracle Server. They dont give us access to the real deal, so we have to test all of our scripts with the test server, and submit them to the team managers who then checks and runs on the the real production server.

It's pretty business-like here, working with lots of information from people that affiliate with the school. It's almost like a researching facility I guess.

This monitor that I have is just killing me though, old 17" CRT that just flickers like crazy...I like the work environment tho overall, the system admin dude is really close by, and he's real nice. Manager is kinda far away, so it's cool...

I'm sort of noob with these database scripts, they're not telling me to do anything, so I've just made a bunch of BS queries and put them into all these different tables...I guess it's nice cause I get paid to learn these things. I'm kinda the B*I*T*C*H here too, since I'm the student-worker...so almost anyone in the office and tell me to do crap for them...that's so far the only problem I have with the job....

But anyway, I'll keep you guys posted...
Thanks~

KAEW 1

Congreat!! .

Very happy for you.
Great Great Great

jacev1

KAEW 1 wrote:

Very happy for you.
Great Great Great

You're happy he's kinda their B*I*T*C*H ? .... (his words, not mine!)

Olajuwon

Doesn't sound too good!!! I hope things work out for you.

dubbs112

jacev1 wrote:

KAEW 1 wrote:

Very happy for you.
Great Great Great

You're happy he's kinda their B*I*T*C*H ? .... (his words, not mine!)

What would any company do with out B*I*T*C*H's we are the ones who actually get the work done. hehe

dan87951

Cool congrats! Hope things work out well for you! I actually have a few interviews this week, one tomorrow and one on friday.

Smallguy

congrats and good luck

nex time make sure you write down the name and confirm the spellnig (prevents a misunderstanding)

ask questions before the inter view like

will this be a technical interview?
how many people will be inviolved?

colud even go as far as to ask what type os technical questinos should u prepare for

I know if I went ot a networknig interview and as asked programnig questions I'd be screwed I haven't touch programmnig in 4 years except for a script.

it's just always nice to know what your getting into

justin42279

the last place i worked i had B*I*T*C*H*E*S but not where I work now.

man i miss my B*I*T*C*H*E*S.

excuse me. i have to go. i have to run a cat 5 cable.