SQL Server Assessment Focuses on Key Pillars

SQL developers contribute to the success of database and server security by creating a series of procedures and queries. SQL developers are the backbone of the data industry and are becoming increasingly necessary. That is why it’s important to hire a qualified SQL developer to secure your company's information. With an SQL server assessment, your recruitment team can compile a group of highly qualified SQL developers to protect your company’s investments. 

Finding a Qualified SQL Developer: Why is It Important?

Due to the growth of the data industry within the last decade, the need for protection against potential attacks and risks has become increasingly important. These attacks and risks can involve black-hat hackers, data loss, limitations, service continuity, and more. To tighten up vulnerabilities such as these, qualified SQL developers need to ensure that the SQL server is functioning properly and minimize the chance of disruption. 

Testing Skills With SQL Server Assessment 

Testing for a qualified SQL developer can be difficult because there are so many skill sets that SQL developers need to perform the job requirements successfully. Potential employees will need to be tested on their soft and hard skills. 

Due to the possibility of intense situations as an SQL developer, potential candidates need to possess these soft skills:

  • Communication
  • Patience
  • Stress-Management
  • Problem-Solving Skills
  • Critical Thinking
  • Time-Management 
  • Quick Learning
  • Adaptability

The SQL server assessment should also focus on several key pillars to test other hard skills that the candidate possesses. These pillars include:

  • SQL Server Configuration
  • Database design
  • Security
  • Performance
  • Always On
  • Cluster
  • Upgrade readiness
  • Error log analysis
  • Operational Excellence

Resume Screening

The best way to analyze these key pillars in a candidate's skills is by first looking at their resume. Resumes have much more to offer than just presenting a candidate’s employment history. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to look at every candidate's resume in a time-sensitive situation such as hiring employees. Implementing artificial intelligence resume screening is the best way to accommodate time while assessing candidate resumes. Artificial intelligence (AI) can read through resumes as candidates submit them and present the hiring manager with the candidate's skills. Knowing these skills helps interviewers plan questions for the SQL server assessment if the candidate seems qualified enough to move on to the next steps. 

Take-Home Test

Utilizing a take-home test that incorporates many questions can give a generalized basis of where each candidate lies in understanding SQL development. Throughout the SQL server assessment take-home test, use various questions, including:

  • Multiple-Choice questions
    - “Of the answers below, which one best describes a primary key?”
  • Multiple-Answer questions
    “Select all that apply. Which of the following are SQL constraints?”
  • Short Response Written Questions
    - “What is the difference between a clustered and non-clustered index?”
  • Long Response Recorded Questions
    - “What is DBMS? What is RDBMS? What are the differences? Explain thoroughly.”
  • Short Coding-Based Questions
    - “Given the following table in the Teachers_All database, please select all Teachers with their subject as history and copy the information as a new table to the database named History_Teachers.” 

It’s important to assess skills with varying questions because each form gives different insights. For example, long-response recorded questions allow candidates to expand their answers and showcase their thought processes, whereas a short coding-based question showcases the candidate's ability to apply knowledge and work out a problem. Recorded answers give recruiting teams another level of proctoring insurance that the candidate being assessed is actually answering the questions. 

Candidates are not the only ones competing for a position. Companies are competing to hire the best candidate. Therefore, while it’s important to hire a qualified candidate, it’s equally important to outflank the competition. At the start of the SQL server assessment with a large group of candidates, testing these skills in every individual can take up resources. Automatic grading for take-home tests speeds up the process of the SQL server assessment and eliminates unqualified candidates faster by providing instant results to hiring teams. 

Live-Coding Assessment

After pruning the unqualified candidates with the SQL server assessment take-home test, you should give the remaining candidates a live-coding assessment. 

The live-coding assessment should include a few of the following tips:

  1. Provide the same integrated development environment (IDE) to all the candidates for a fair assessment.
  2. Provide a virtual whiteboard environment for all the candidates to plan out and explain their code.
  3. Select a coding scenario that provides the candidates with an impression of scenarios they will encounter if given the position. 
  4. Use a virtual conferencing room specifically built for engineers that supports screen sharing and pair coding.
  5. Create candidate profiles that save the candidate’s code for later review.

These tips will create a more realistic assessment that can truthfully determine whether a candidate is fit for your open position.

Filtered AI: Ensuring a Successful Hire

Creating an SQL server assessment involves numerous steps. However, it’s important to consider the time your recruiting team has available for the creation and execution of the assessment. Utilizing artificial intelligence for resume screening, automatic grading, and candidate profile creation can help cut down on the time it takes to perform all the tasks necessary to find the perfect candidate. It’s also necessary to provide a fair assessment to each candidate by utilizing recorded answers in take-home tests, providing specially built IDEs for virtual conference rooms that support screen-sharing, and giving candidates the opportunity to explain and plan their code with virtual whiteboards. 

To create a successful SQL server assessment, you need to implement data-driven recruiting technology capable of supporting all these features. Luckily, Filtered has all the tools, features, and more for successfully hiring the perfect candidate! 

Filtered is a leader in skills-based hiring. Our end-to-end technical hiring platform enables you to spend time reviewing only the most qualified candidates, putting skills and aptitude at the forefront of your decisions. We’ll help you automate hiring while applying objective, data-driven techniques to consistently and confidently select the right candidates. To get started, contact our team today or register for a FREE demo.