How Do I Hire A SQL Developer?
With such essential tasks as data security and database creation, it’s vital that you hire the right SQL developer for your company who can juggle tasks like these effectively and calmly. However, it’s difficult to tell who is and isn’t a viable candidate when you don’t understand what makes a good developer. How would you hire one?
A hiring manager can hire an SQL developer by creating the profile of their ideal candidate, creating a clear job description that details what is expected, and by assessing their candidates with interviews and skills tests.
If you would like to know what you’re looking for in a SQL developer and who the idea candidate would look like, keep reading to find out!
Build Your Ideal Candidate Profile
This is a crucial step because it lets you envision your ideal candidate, making the next steps virtually a breeze. There are three questions to ask yourself:
- What is the role of a SQL developer?
- What level of skill am I in need of?
- What are the signs of a poor developer?
Understand The Role Of A SQL Developer
An SQL developer is responsible for constructing and writing the interfaces of Structured Query Language databases. How they develop the database depends on the needs of your company.
Determine What Skill Level You Need
The skill of the candidate is a huge factor, but are you in need of an advanced developer or do you really only need someone with moderate skills who can grow to an expert while in your hire?
Novice
You may only be able to afford the skillset of a novice, but if this is the case, even the novice should have the knowledge of different data types namely,
- Array
- Boolean
- Character
- Decimal
- Varchar
They should also be fairly comfortable with the basic functions “group by,” “distinct,” “count,” “select,” “sum,” and “maximum and minimum.”
Intermediate
You may require a more developed skillset but not quite that of an expert. Developers with intermediate skill need to understand all SQL data types and be fairly familiar with at least some complex functions, especially joins, exists, and null handling.
Expert
Finally, you would need the help of an expert SQL developer when all other developers in your hire are intermediate at best. You must have at least one expert on hand for scenarios that require a deep understanding of database maintenance and manipulation. An expert requires an understanding of all functions, triggers, errors, data types, and data pivots.
Understand What You Want So Avoid
It would be helpful to know any telltale signs that a candidate isn’t the developer you’re looking for. One sure sign of a candidate to avoid is when they show that although they have used joins occasionally, they can’t tell you what happens with the different join types or even how or why what they’ve done worked. This isn’t necessarily a deal breaker with new SQL developers, so long as they are willing to learn more. However, in the long run, if they don’t try to improve, you can expect big schema issues, excessive load times, and software crashes.
Create the Job Description
With your understanding of what being a SQL developer requires, outline the job description based on the hard and soft skills they need to have. It isn’t necessary for a candidate to have all of these qualities, but because technology can be unpredictable, don’t forget to add in the job description that there may be additional duties.
Popular Hard Skills:
- QL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
- Server Reporting Services (SSRS)
- Transact-SQL (T-SQL)
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Load (ETL)
- Extract
- Transform
- Data Warehousing
- Database management
- PHP
- Joins
- Indexing
Soft skills:
- Team player
- Verbal communication Written communication
- Creativity
- Patience
- Adaptibility
Common Daily Tasks:
- Data security
- Database creation
- Data integrity maintenance
- Keeping databases operational
- Writing SQL statements for data retrieval
- Analyze existing SQL queries for performance improvements
Keep in mind that the daily tasks will have to fit according to the skill level you require.
Assess The Skills Of Your Applicants
Now that you understand who you’re looking for, it’s time to assess your candidates to see if they fit the ideal, or at least come close.
One thing you can do is send all of your applicants a SQL skills assessment such as the one from Vervoe. Some companies will allow you to customize your tests to suit the needs of your organization and avoid wasting time.
After the initial tests, it’s time for the interviews. During the interview, look for developers who are familiar with the terminology of the industry. A skilled SQL developer that proves their value will talk about critical key and join terms such as:
- Super key
- Primary key
- Compound key
- Foreign key
- Inner join
- Left outer join
- Right outer join
- Full outer join
- Cross join
- Self Join
If you have a technical recruiter or senior SQL dev who can help you with the interviews, ask them to compile essential questions related to joins and keys.
While they are with you in person, this is also the time to have a second SQL test by preparing a spec beforehand from which the candidate builds a sturdy schema, tests their knowledge of key referential integrity. Can they normalize data? Are they orderly programmers?
You’ll need to let them take the test home so they can do it, but give them a list of aspects you will look into when they’re done.
Don’t Focus Only On Experience
Sometimes, experience is less valuable when the candidate isn’t motivated to work and continue learning.
If you find a candidate who loves the challenges of SQL and being a SQL developer and are interested in growing in the industry so that they are continually on top of developments, they are worth hiring if you have a senior SQL developer they can train under.
Just keep in mind that you aren’t just looking at the number of years a candidate has been a SQL developer, but for evidence of their competency.
Conclusion
An SQL developer is an essential role for information technology so it’s important that you and your hiring team understand enough of the practice to hire someone who will help your company.