Advice on where to focus on this job interview!

Sorry many of you have been my career coach and psychologist lol.

I am having some trouble on focusing on what parts of SQL I am going to need to do this job. Or at least do well in the interview.

It's an application analyst tier 3. (Description)

Knowledge and Experience
·At least 3 years experience in a Tier II Service Delivery role supporting business applications in a corporate environment.
·Proven experience with troubleshooting principles, methodologies, and issue resolution techniques.
·Working knowledge of a range of diagnostic utilities, like SQL Developer. ( What's this exactly mean)?
·Experience with building and maintaining defined action plans for given issues/conducting trend analysis.
·Experience working in a team-oriented, collaborative environment.
·Application development and programming skills and experience is a plus, specifically with SQL, PL/SQL, Oracle Forms, COBOL, VB/UNIX/Windows scripting, .NET. (I feel I am so far removed from this bullet point it's not funny). I am actually taking a VB class starting this weds. Too little to late maybe! I have googled as much as I can and I will continue.
·Banking or financial industry experience is a plus.

I've spent a great deal of time researching the company. I've been asked that question before and if you can't come up with something intelligent you are a goner. So this has been my primary focus, but with SQL I am not sure what parts to focus on? I've been writing single query selects on single tables, getting familiar with the operators and built in functions. I am basically looking for guidance on what I will really need to know. I mean I can run a query and save it in a CSV format and produce a report from that. I can also run inner and outer joins, albeit it might take me 2-3 tries to get it right. I just don't want to freak myself out, but I don't want to be under prepared. Then of course I have to grab enough knowledgeable information about the other languages, so I have a lot of experience with (support not development), and others not so much. Saving my queries on a linuxs/unix system while utilizing an Oracle RDBMS is a whole new game. I am in a Windows environment.

I guess I am looking for a coaching plan here. I really hate to ask this but I am very desperate. I really want a position like this. Application Support is my calling it always has been.

Any suggestions would be greatly and I mean greatly appreciated!

So far my game plan has been this.
1. Learn the company I mean learn it good. Learn all their different financial plans and what they pride themselves on. What regions they are affiliated with and if any announce expansion is in the works.
2. Really drive home SQL. I know an insider who really said that would be a huge selling point, and I have only 6 months of SQL experience mostly from a programmed editor, plus some community training and home labbing on SQL 2008 so I am no "stud" like my friends ERPADMIN etc.
3. Grabbing the basic concepts of some of those programming languages.

I do have a lot of their requirements, they like my customer service certifications and experience and my A+ and N+. I have a bachelors which is a must from a regionally accredited school. So I have some pluses in my corner I just don't know if it's going to be enough.

Thanks for any response to this schizophrenic babble!

One last thing I am used to T-SQL not Oracles version, although I did read through a 10G manual about a 2 years back so I do have the basic concepts of dropping tables, deletion, truncating, creation etc. This position sounds more like DML not DDL. I have focused solely on the DML part of SQL.

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Comments

erpadmin

Stud, huh? LOL.....

I'm a MS SQL guy, not Oracle. SQL Developer sounds like what Management Studio is for SQL Server 2005/2008 (Or Enterprise Manager/Query Analyzer combined for SQL Server 2000). The "stud" you want to query is cablegod; he's the Oracle guy 'round here.

From reading this though, this position seems more of a developer's position, as opposed to administration. Rather than troubleshooting the database (what I do), you are troubleshooting the programs that query that database and ideally optimizing them (in other words, not DBA work, but Programmer, Developer, Programmer Analyst work). Also, you'd be developing new programs that run off the database (hence the programming skills they want you to have).

General advice; be very honest with your skillset and show a genuine willingness to learn. You do NOT want to try to sound like an expert in something you're not...(see Forsaken_GA's thread on that....real good stuff there). What I will add though is never, ever say "I don't know", "I'm not sure", or anything along those lines. There are ways to convey that with saying those three words. For example, "While I have never personally worked on SQL Developer for Oracle, I have done research on it and I believer my familiarity with SQL will allow me to easily work with another flavor of SQL, based on my understanding of how relational databases work." Something along those lines. You want to sell your soft skills at this point and you can be trained to use Oracle if you need to.

Anything else let me know.

N2IT

erpadmin wrote: »

Stud, huh? LOL.....

I'm a MS SQL guy, not Oracle. SQL Developer sounds like what Management Studio is for SQL Server 2005/2008 (Or Enterprise Manager/Query Analyzer combined for SQL Server 2000). The "stud" you want to query is cablegod; he's the Oracle guy 'round here.

From reading this though, this position seems more of a developer's position, as opposed to administration. Rather than troubleshooting the database (what I do), you are troubleshooting the programs that query that database and ideally optimizing them (in other words, not DBA work, but Programmer, Developer, Programmer Analyst work). Also, you'd be developing new programs that run off the database (hence the programming skills they want you to have).

General advice; be very honest with your skillset and show a genuine willingness to learn. You do NOT want to try to sound like an expert in something you're not...(see Forsaken_GA's thread on that....real good stuff there). What I will add though is never, ever say "I don't know", "I'm not sure", or anything along those lines. There are ways to convey that with saying those three words. For example, "While I have never personally worked on SQL Developer for Oracle, I have done research on it and I believer my familiarity with SQL will allow me to easily work with another flavor of SQL, based on my understanding of how relational databases work." Something along those lines. You want to sell your soft skills at this point and you can be trained to use Oracle if you need to.

Anything else let me know.

I was afraid of this. My worst fears come true

I mean come on if they are looking for an developer, someone who runs stored procedures then I am probably not their guy. Or someone who can go in and rewrite code, not me not at least yet. I hate to sound like an idiot, but I don't want to be the guy Forsaken talked about. And believe me I have been very honest on my resume, VERY. So if they call me in for an interview then I am going in with my chest out and head up. Not literally

I appreciate your expert opinion on this desciption. From the sounds of everything I will be given a chance to inteview I just hope to God I can land something like this eventually.

erpadmin

N2, let me you ask you something?

Do you want to program? Or do you want to program to land you a job? If programming (or whatever) is what you want to do, then do it. But if you are only doing it because it is what's out there, then you may want to rethink your priorities....this why your plans are "constantly changing."

You should focus on something you want to do, and pursue that. But pursue it because it's what you want to do.

I was coldcalled about several months ago by a recruiter that had a small shop (it was higher ed) that wanted a DBA with programming skills. This position was not only what I currently do, but also was expected to write my own programs and migrate them into production. On top of that, it was a lateral move, and barely at that. I told him flatly that I pass. I'm satisified that I can read enough of the code to find an issue, but I don't want to be an application developer. In this market, I don't need to be...DBA work is fine and enough for me. However, if I'm in a small shop, that wouldn't be the case, but I don't need to work for those.

Find your niche and focus on pursuing that. Once you do, you will get the job you want, whether it's at a junior level/regular level. Don't take a job that you may not like or enjoy just because you get an offer. That's the difference between working in a job and working towards a career.

eMeS

There's not much difference between T-SQL, PL/SQL and SQL PL (that's IBM's version); at least not that will matter to you at the moment. I wouldn't worry about all of the variants as much as I would focus on developing a clear understanding of the basics of SQL.

I wouldn't worry too much then about whether you know one or the other....what they're most likely to be looking for is that you have a solid grasp of basic SQL. Given that you said it was financial industry related, I would expect this to mean SQL:2003 or SQL:2006, which deals heavily with how SQL and XML work together. At a minimum what you need to be familiar with is SQL3.

Although what you've listed says nothing about XML, I would expect that given that you've told us it's in the financial services industry, that heavy use of XML is happening there.

That application bullet sounds all over the place to me. They're probably not too likely to find someone with all of those skills, so I wouldn't worry too much about not having that specific experience. What you need to communicate is how you are able to logically approach and solve problems.

Also, I have a basic PL/SQL course that I wrote several years ago and occasionally deliver. I'm happy to send it to you electronically, if you promise not to sell it, post it anywhere else, or otherwise give it away for free.

MS

N2IT

eMeS wrote: »

There's not much difference between T-SQL, PL/SQL and SQL PL (that's IBM's version); at least not that will matter to you at the moment. I wouldn't worry about all of the variants as much as I would focus on developing a clear understanding of the basics of SQL.

I wouldn't worry too much then about whether you know one or the other....what they're most likely to be looking for is that you have a solid grasp of basic SQL. Given that you said it was financial industry related, I would expect this to mean SQL:2003 or SQL:2006, which deals heavily with how SQL and XML work together. At a minimum what you need to be familiar with is SQL3.

Although what you've listed says nothing about XML, I would expect that given that you've told us it's in the financial services industry, that heavy use of XML is happening there.

That application bullet sounds all over the place to me. They're probably not too likely to find someone with all of those skills, so I wouldn't worry too much about not having that specific experience. What you need to communicate is how you are able to logically approach and solve problems.

Also, I have a basic PL/SQL course that I wrote several years ago and occasionally deliver. I'm happy to send it to you electronically, if you promise not to sell it, post it anywhere else, or otherwise give it away for free.

MS

I promise

N2IT

erpadmin wrote: »

N2, let me you ask you something?

Do you want to program? Or do you want to program to land you a job? If programming (or whatever) is what you want to do, then do it. But if you are only doing it because it is what's out there, then you may want to rethink your priorities....this why your plans are "constantly changing."

You should focus on something you want to do, and pursue that. But pursue it because it's what you want to do.

I was coldcalled about several months ago by a recruiter that had a small shop (it was higher ed) that wanted a DBA with programming skills. This position was not only what I currently do, but also was expected to write my own programs and migrate them into production. On top of that, it was a lateral move, and barely at that. I told him flatly that I pass. I'm satisified that I can read enough of the code to find an issue, but I don't want to be an application developer. In this market, I don't need to be...DBA work is fine and enough for me. However, if I'm in a small shop, that wouldn't be the case, but I don't need to work for those.

Find your niche and focus on pursuing that. Once you do, you will get the job you want, whether it's at a junior level/regular level. Don't take a job that you may not like or enjoy just because you get an offer. That's the difference between working in a job and working towards a career.

No I do want to support applications and/or be an analyst. Do I want to be a guy who codes 100% of the time? NO! I want to work with end users and help support the application or applications that are assigned to me. I want to know them on a functional level and be able to understand the error messages. Exceptions, Arguements whatever. So I do want an developers understanding of these languages to help better assist me in my job. But I would like to end up a BA eventually, but I feel I need more experience in one particular job field so I can understand the business and technology. One of these positions is what I feel will jump start my career.

Honestly I haven't taken programming class formally, not until this Wednesday

. But I will say after taking 2 database management courses I really enjoy writing queries and pulling data. I like pulling it into Excel and then making business sense of the data via, Pivot Table, Report, Form, Table, ETC. I like writing queries that manipulate data. If this is in the capacity of support that's fine to. If they want me to manually query a table and verify the code is pulling the exact data great!

So in short I would rather do that type of work over system admin or network admin.

erpadmin

N2IT wrote: »

No I do want to support applications and/or be an analyst. Do I want to be a guy who codes 100% of the time? NO! I want to work with end users and help support the application or applications that are assigned to me. I want to know them on a functional level and be able to understand the error messages. Exceptions, Arguements whatever. So I do want an developers understanding of these languages to help better assist me in my job. But I would like to end up a BA eventually, but I feel I need more experience in one particular job field so I can understand the business and technology. One of these positions is what I feel will jump start my career.

Business Analysts don't need to be technical at all. (Though the obnoxious ones will swear they are...please don't ever be that guy if you do end up a BA....lol.) All you're gonna do as a BA is write specs and then a technical manager/resource will translate that spec. You're not even required to state any technical recommendations...that will be out of a BA's hands....what matters is the business spec and need. If you want to be a bit more technical, but still speak user-speak, the next step up from that is Project Management. Your focus should really be looking at BA jobs. It will help that you know tech-speak....but it really isn't required.

A bit of warning though...our BAs were recently absorbed into my IT department (ie [at least in my shop] we won!!). The longterm goal is to have our developers speak that BA speak...which they already do. My boss has always felt that BAs were useless positions and that the only reason they exist is because IT folks did not (for a time) understand that the "business" drives IT. We understand it now, and do not need a "translator" to transform a business need into a technical process. It didn't help BAs that they were very highly paid power users....very highly paid (for what they do).

Just food for thought.