Writing a post after 2 long years. But not technical this time. Inspired by a couple of posts from MicroStrategy Guru of Gurus! Bryan Brandow and also coz of the interviews that I have been on both sides atleast for the past one year!
To me as far as an interview is concerned its just the first 5 minutes which is very important and how you actually set an interview in the direction which you want as an interviewee. Let me tell about an interview experience.. Basically it was an interview for 6 - 8 years of experience. Where the ask from the candidate was to be sharp in SQL skills, MicroStrategy Public Objects expertise and good Schema objects exposure. Most of the folks hardly answered a simple Employee and Manager name scenario..
List out the Employee Names and Manager Names from the table?
List the names of employees who gets maximum salary in each department?
List out the duplicate records in a table and its count?
List out the Employee Names and Manager Names from the table?
List the names of employees who gets maximum salary in each department?
List out the duplicate records in a table and its count?
Employee Table
| Emp ID | Emp Name | Manager ID | Dept ID | Salary |
| 1 | A | 2 | 1 | 6000 |
| 2 | B | 3 | 1 | 7000 |
| 3 | C | 4 | 1 | 9000 |
| 4 | D | 5 | 2 | 15000 |
| 5 | E | 6 | 2 | 36000 |
| 6 | F | 1 | 2 | 5000 |
The moment most of the folks find it difficult to answer simple SQL questions like above which are by standard popular interview questions in Datawarehousing and Business Intelligence industry. Many candidates barely fail to impress the technical capability of the interviewer. Yes though they might be very comfortable in MicroStrategy Schema objects or Public objects. The moment they fail to answer simple SQL questions its very hard for them to answer the questions in MicroStrategy!
Is SQL that important?
Yes SQL is very important as far as BI Development is concerned just assume lets say if there is a business requirement given and your table is not available in the form which doesn't support report requirement. If you are not good in visualizing your report SQL it becomes very hard for you to solve the reporting requirement.
Cant it be learnt on the job?
Yes it can be learnt on the job but, an experience over within 2 years its very important for developers to get good understanding on SQL and it becomes a bare minimum expectation to get your BI career forward. So if you ask me a question "Cant SQL be learnt on the job?" Yes it can be and it should be but make it a primary task within the first 2 years of your career. As it is very basic!
So folks make sure you get the SQL skills sharpened very early in your career. If not learn now. Right now!
Second awareness in Datawarehousing and Business Intelligence (DWBI) concepts. Its very important for any MicroStategy developer to be at least aware of the DWBI concepts. Lets talk about my favorite interview question.
Explain many to many relationship with an example and how would you solve it?
Many people find it very hard to explain even with a simple example.But what is actually expected in an interview is to explain this concept clearly with an example and say what would be the implications because of many to many relationships in reports and how to solve it.
https://www2.microstrategy.com/producthelp/10.7/ProjectDesignGuide/WebHelp/Lang_1033/Content/ProjectDesign/Supporting_many_to_many_and_joint_child_relationsh.htm
http://mybilabs.blogspot.com/2013/12/sql-for-various-solution-to-m-m-relation.html
http://mybilabs.blogspot.com/2013/12/sql-for-various-solution-to-m-m-relation.html
On the whole BI interviews are mainly about testing the understanding of the concepts and how you practically implement it. There could be several things you you might not have got opportunity to work with but whatever you say say it with good confidence and let the interviewer know that you have understood the stuff at least conceptually.
Hope you might be overwhelmed with lots of thoughts. Feel free to post your comments and I will make sure to update the post if required.
